I'm reading Al Ries and Jack Trout's classic marketing book "Positioning: The Battle for You Mind". In it they warn against "the line extension trap". Companies that have a product with a successful name try to extend this success by introducing new products under the same brand name. For example Bayer had a very successful aspirin product. Then, when Tylenol started getting popular introduced "Bayer non-aspirin pain reliever" and it flopped. This is because it dilutes the original brand in the mind of the consumer. "Bayer" is no longer synonymous with "aspirin" - it creates confusion. It is much better to introduce new products under a new name. They make a convincing argument for this. Many large web sites, however seem to ignore this advice. Yahoo has Y! Search, Y! Mail, Y! Answers, Y! Finance, etc, etc. Google has Google Search, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Groups, etc., etc. Do you think there is something fundamentally different in the web world vs. traditional products, or are Yahoo and Google making a mistake?
Well, it's different in that these modern products exist in cyberspace, rather than in physical terms. People might find it more difficult to 'visualize' what a company's products might be, so to them it all falls under the same umbrella anyway. Try talking to any of your family members about Google's various offerings and you may get a response along the lines of, "Aaahhhh, it's all that old internet stuff" - i.e., it's all the same in their minds anyway. Now, if Yahoo comes out with a brand of snack pudding, or Google starts marketing designer undergarments, then people might offer a bit of resistance.
That's exactly my point. The advice from the book is to NOT have Google in the names. They should create new products that do not have Google in the names.