Google is giving Froogle a makeover – they’ve ditched “Froogle” for the more descriptive “Product Search”, streamlined the UI and integrated search with Google Checkout. From the Official Google Blog,

“Today, we’re making some changes to how we help users find things to buy. You may be familiar with our product Froogle (a pun on “frugal”). 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.

So we’re renaming Froogle as Google Product Search. We’re taking the opportunity to refocus the user experience on providing the most comprehensive, relevant results in a clean, simple, easy-to-use UI. We’re also excited about how Google Checkout can help searchers have a fast and secure purchase experience, so the new interface makes it easier to buy with Checkout.”

After Google took Froogle off the homepage in 2006, the shopping search engine quickly became one of Google’s least-used services. Today’s rebrand is evidently an attempt to resurrect a lucrative vertical. Danny Sullivan has a good write-up at Search Engine Land about Froogle, and some suggestions for other brands that could use a little Google TLC.

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