Mountain View, California — Barely two weeks after introducing the new source for all its digital content stores under the name Google Play, the search engine behemoth has taken the next step in its quest to become one of the primary purveyors of downloadable media online, by integrating Google Play to its black navigation bar, prominently sandwiching it between Maps and YouTube.
Lately, Google has been consolidating and streamlining all of its services to align with one thing, social, which is to say, Google Plus. Google Play, the new store, is essentially a re-branded Android Market combined with Google Music and Google eBookstore, was unveiled earlier this month as it seeks to bolster credibility and trust in the market.
The market has been affected by low consumer confidence with users only being willing to download free stuff, something Google is hoping to reverse. Perhaps an implied admission that Google’s approach to digital content was fragmented, executives said at Google Play’s debut that the new store is designed to break down the walls separating the company’s disparate offerings.
And to make sure the new addition does not escape users’ attention, Google has highlighted the new tag on the top navigation section of Google properties with a very conspicuous red “New” label attached to it.
Amazingly, clicking it takes you to the Google Play store, where all the different forms of content Google sells can be bought. The link started to appear yesterday, but has yet to reach all regions, so don’t worry if it hasn’t shown up just yet.
The search engine company wants Google Play, the digital store, should gain plenty of new shoppers–even if they are just passersby doing a little window-shopping–thanks to new and improved visibility. Clicking on the link will transport you to Google Play, where users can shop for music, books, movies, and Android apps. The rebranded site debuted three weeks ago, with Google trumpeting the store’s online-oriented design.
“Google Play is entirely cloud-based so all your music, movies, books and apps are stored online, always available to you, and you never have to worry about losing them or moving them again,” wrote Jamie Rosenberg, Google’s director of digital content, in a March 6 blog post.
Google Play – Image via Google.com
As a matter of fact, this is prominently different from Apple, which has asserted its authority over what appears on the Apple App Store and as such, has made sure that the large corpus of applications are actually great quality applications.
Google Play on the other hand has a long way to go and Google may have come to this realization which triggered the name change.
With cloud services–most notably Apple’s iCloud and Microsoft’s SkyDrive–emerging in the consumer space, Google is making a play for that market as well and the success of this is yet to be seen as the demand for applications is not often an indication of demand for digital goods in general.