Google to retire Blogger & Picasa brands

Google to retire Blogger & Picasa brands -(Mashable) -- Say goodbye to the Picasa and Blogger names: Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products, Mashable has learned.

The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+, the search giant's social initiative.

Blogger and Picasa aren't going away, of course -- they're two of Google's most popular products. Instead, according to two sources familiar with the matter, Google intends to rename Picasa "Google Photos" and Blogger will become "Google Blogs."

Several other Google brands are likely to be affected, though our sources made it clear that YouTube would not be rebranded. The technology giant shut down Google Video, its failed web video service, in May.

The move isn't without precedent; Google acquired JotSpot in 2006 and rebranded it as Google Sites in 2008. In 2007, Google acquired VOIP platform GrandCentral and relaunched it as Google Voice in 2009.

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Picasa and Blogger were also Google acquisitions, although both companies have been part of the Google empire for far longer. Picasa was acquired in 2004 and Blogger (co-founded by Evan Williams of Twitter) was acquired in 2003 and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world.

Although the rebranding could upset some existing customers, it also gives Google the ability to completely integrate both services into Google+.

Rebranding coming in next six weeks

The transition from Picasa and Blogger to Google Photos and Google Blogs will occur "in a month to a month and a half," we've been told.

The date aligns with the likely public launch of Google+. Mashable has been told to expect the public debut of Google+ on or before July 31. The date is important because it's the day all private Google Profiles will be deleted.

We believe Google doesn't want to have private profiles after the public Google+ launch. Instead, the company is likely to encourage users who want more privacy to use Circles to curate their friend groups.

The brand unification effort will be the largest in company history -- it's never renamed a property as large as Blogger. The popular blog creation service has been receiving a lot of extra love recently. In March, Google announced that Blogger would receive a major overhaul. We doubt many people expected that the overhaul would include a rebranding, though.

Google+ makes perfect sense for Blogger and Picasa -- they are both social products that improve as more people use them.

It's important to note that Google+ already has a photos feature, a product that we believe utilizes Picasa technology. It's also important to note that Google+'s photo feature has no Picasa branding of any kind.

Google declined to comment on this story.

See the original article on Mashable.com

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Google+ Wikipedia

Google+ Wikipedia - Google+ is a social networking service operated by Google Inc.. The service launched on June 28, 2011, in an invite-only testing phase.The following day, existing users were allowed to invite friends, who are above 18 years of age, to the service to create their own accounts. However, this was quickly suspended in a day after there was "insane demand" for accounts.

Google+ will be built as a layer that not only integrates different Google social services, such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, but also introduces many new features including Circles, Hangouts, Sparks and Huddles. Google+ will also be available as a Desktop application and as an application on Android and iOS. It has been said that this is Google's biggest attempt to rival the social network Facebook, which had over half a billion users in 2010.

Features

"Circles" enables users to organize contacts into groups for sharing, across multiple of its products and services. A drag-and-drop interface allows users into groups of their choice.

"Huddle" is a feature available to Android, iPhone, and SMS devices for communicating with circles.

"Hangouts" are places used to facilitate group video chat (with a maximum of 10 people participating in a single Hangout at any point of time). However, anyone on the web could potentially join-in into the 'Hangout' if they happen to possess the unique url of the Hangout.

"Instant Upload" is specific to Android mobile devices; it stores photos or video in a private album for sharing later.

"Sparks" is a front-end to Google Search, enabling user to identify topics they might be interested in sharing with others; "featured interests" sparks are also available, based on topics others globally are finding interesting.

Through "Streams", users see updates from those in their circles, updates similar to Facebook's news feed. The input box allows users to enter a status update or use icons to upload and share photo and videos.

Wider impact

The introduction of Google+ had impacted the design of Google's web search service, due to the graphical redesign by Andy Hertzfeld. There have been refinements alongside speculation of a much wider impact once Google+ is fully rolled-out, including some redesign of Google Maps, Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Maybe the greatest changes will come to Picasa Web Albums

After tagging someone, they receive a notification and can see the photo and the related album.

For new albums, anyone an album is shared with can see who else it is shared with.

Albums someone shared can be tagged and re-shared by others.

Photos up to 2048×2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won’t count towards the 1 GB storage quota for Google+ users (it's 800×800 pixels for non-Google+ users), creating “virtually unlimited” storage for mobile users

Censorship

Within a day of the website's launch, various news agencies reported that Google+ was blocked by People's Republic of China, taking findings from the Great Firewall of China. This is similar to other attempts the Chinese government has used to quash free speech as posed by Western technology companies. Other tries included hacking into Gmail accounts of activists which led to activity by the White House and State Department.

References

1. ^ "Facebook's Newest Challenger: Google Plus". Retrieved June 29, 2011.
2. ^ Shaer, Matthew (June 30, 2011). "Looking for a Google+ invite? Either get comfortable - or get crafty.". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
3. ^ "Official Google+ Website". Retrieved June 30, 2011.
4. ^ "Another Try by Google to Take On Facebook". The New York Times. June 28, 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2011.
5. ^ "Facebook Statistics". June 28, 2011. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e} M.G. Siegler (June 28, 2011). "Google+ Project: It’s Social, It’s Bold, It’s Fun, And It Looks Good — Now For The Hard Part". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
7. ^ "Inside Google+ — How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social". Retrieved 2011-07-02.
8. ^ Boulton, Clint (1 July 2011). "Google Redesign Backs Social Effort". eWeek Europe. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
9. ^ Google Operating System: Preview Gmail's New Interface
10. ^ Google Operating System: How Google+ Transformed Picasa Web
11. ^ Techwhack: Changes on Google Picasa Web for Google Plus users
12. ^ Techie Buzz: Google Offers Virtually Unlimited Storage on Picasa Web Albums for Google+ Users
13. ^ Arthur, Charles (June 30, 2011). "Google+ 'blocked in China'". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved July 1, 2011.

External links

• Official website
• The Google+ Project

Sources : http://en.wikipedia.org

Google+ Invitation Google Plus Social Network

Google+ Invitation Google Plus Social Network - Google's new Social Networking, Google +, has finally made it debut. It's the compnay most ambitions social project to date, and it comes with alot of new features

Google's at last lauchned new Social Networking, Google + project finally made it dubut for special users yet, this project is Google's most ambitions social project to till date, and Google's brings new features.

In fact, Google's Pluse Project has so many features that it's easy to used without confused. In start Google's Officials launches 11 new videos to explaining the Google + Project.

Some Core Values of this Project as :

(Social Circles, Hangouts, Huddle, Instant Photos & Videos Upload). These videos clearly explain about the Google's Plus Project. you can say Google + to battle Facebook :)

Watch Some Core Features Videos of Google + Project :