As Google continues to push new products in front of users, whether they like it or not

Mar 27, 2012 09:01 GMT  ·  By

Google is starting to push Google Play in front of users more, in its usual steady pace. The entertainment hub is now prominently featured in the Google navbar, between Maps and YouTube. The Google Play link replaces the Music one.

Google Play debuted as a single brand and hub for all of Google's media and entertainment products.

Google Play encompasses Google Music, the music cloud locker and store, Movies, the movie rental service, eBooks, the ebook store, and the Android Market.

Play is now the fifth item in the top Google navbar, preceded only by Google+, which takes the first stop, Search, Image Search and Maps. The navbar used to link to Google's most popular and most often used services.

In recent months though, it's become a tool used to promote new services starting with Google+. Still, only Google+ and Play make to the default list of services in the toolbar, things like Wallet, Offers along with older products are tucked away under the More link.

Google hasn't had much success with its entertainment products and much of it is due to lack of promotion and a lack of a cohesive strategy. With Google Play, hopefully, the company will start treating all of its efforts as one and will start leveraging its huge Android user base better.

It shouldn't be that hard either, Amazon was able to do much better with just one Android device, the Kindle Fire. At the same time, Google needs to start to make better use of its huge online audience to steer them towards its products.

Ultimately though, Google will also have to start offering people real reasons to pick its products over more established ones from Apple or Amazon. It hasn't done that so far and it's increasingly starting to look like it's incapable of it.