What's in a Name, Google?

Google rolled out its new service called "Google Play" this week, replacing the Android Market with an all-in-one eStore that sells apps, e-books, games, movies and music. Google Play consolidates the over three-year-old Android Market with the company's other digital media selling services, such as Google Music.

Google Play logo. Image credit: Google

A more detailed account of Google's major shift in branding can be found in this CNET article. The point of this post is not to analyze Google's latest business move, although I do believe the change is a smart strategy for Google to take, considering its services have been fragmented (as the CNET article said) for a while. In fact, Google definitely has even more work to do when it comes to creating one cohesive brand. Although, for Google--a massive company that has its hand in everything these days--I imagine that would be a difficult endeavor. But that is a whole separate issue. The real focus is this post is the name Google chose for this new brand: "Google Play." In my opinion, Google could have picked a better name for its eStore. I actually don't see why they couldn't have just kept the original name. I'll admit "Android Market" doesn't sound as catchy as Apple's App Store, but it's been around for a while and everyone is used to it.

However, if Google executives felt they really had to change the name of their eStore, I feel like there must be better options than "Google Play." Unfortunately I can't offer up any suggestions since marketing/advertising isn't my specialty, but I'm sure Google has a team of marketing geniuses that are more than capable of coming up with something better. 

The main reason I don't like the name "Google Play" is because when I first heard it, I was reminded of Sony's Xperia Play (better known as the PlayStation phone), the smartphone/handheld game console released last year. Maybe it's just me but the word "Play" added to the title of any digital media service makes me think solely of video games and not of all the other media included in "Google Play." I guess people do "play" movies and music, but I don't generally make that word association. This name change is almost as bad as when Netflix tried to break off the DVD by mail part of its business into a separate service called “Qwikster.” (I won't even get into how ridiculous that was.) Again maybe it's just me but looking on my Android phone and seeing "Play Store"  rather than "Android Market" just won't be the same.