Froogle Chased Into Hills

Google sticks a fork in the Froogle brand name, rebranding their online comparison shopping site Google Product Search.

Google began the process today of trying to regain exposure for their online shopping site. The first major step in this is a name change from Froogle to Google Product Search.

Marissa Mayer, VP, Search & User Experience, and Jeff Bartelma, Product Manager, speaking on the official Google blog, got right to the point in talking about the name change by saying "Froogle offers a lot of great functionality and has helped many users find things to buy over the years, but the name caused confusion for some because it doesn’t clearly describe what the product does."

The name change is only the latest chapter in the Froogle saga, which took a bad turn last year when Google dumped Froogle from the front page. The blog Search Engine Land has a nice write up of new features on Google Product Search. A few examples of enhancements include a cleaner,  easier to use interface and better interaction with Google Checkout.

Google also slapped their infamous Beta label on Google Product Search so it will be interesting to see how long it stays in this mode.