Blogger and Picasa to take on the family name

Google is to retire its Picasa and Blogger brand names in an effort to streamline identification of the company’s social media offerings. Industry website Mashable cited “two sources familiar with the matter” to report that the networks would be relaunching as ‘Google photos’ and ‘Google blogs’ in the next four to six weeks.

The move comes in anticipation of the public debut of Google+, the search giant’s answer to the increasing popularity of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Both Photos and Blogs could ultimately be integrated in to that networking platform.

The rebranding and reunification effort is thought to be a specific plan of Google founder and new CEO Larry Page. It follows the successful rebranding of its Grand Central acquisition to become Google Voice.

Google+ launched in closed beta testing last week and is slated for a July 31 public release.

This article first appeared on Campaign Asia