Last week there was talk that Google would soon be retiring several non-Google name brands, such as Blogger and Picasa, sometime next month. The replacements would include Google Blogs and Google Photos, respectively. The search giant reportedly wants to keep the Blogger brand after all, a source familiar with Google's Blogger division told GigaOM.

If we had to pick between the two, Picasa makes more sense to rebrand. Blogger, which Google acquired in February 2003 and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world, is perhaps one of the strongest brands on the Internet. It's not clear if Google Blogs could match Blogger's level of recognition.

The search giant is supposedly planning to unify the company's brand in time for the public launch of Google+. In addition to Picasa, but excluding Blogger and YouTube, several other Google brands may also be likely affected by the move, but it's not yet clear which ones.

This rebranding effort from Google is hardly the first time we're seeing such a move. Google acquired JotSpot in October 2006 and rebranded it as Google Sites in February 2008. In July 2007, Google acquired VOIP platform GrandCentral and relaunched it as Google Voice in March 2009.

The rebranding will likely upset some existing customers, but Google wants to do it anyway so that it can completely integrate both services into Google+. The company launched the social network as a field trial last month, with an obvious attempt to take on Facebook and Twitter.