> Since when has Google been good at branding?

Google's Mid-2000s marketing and product-nomenclature was on-point though:

* Google Mail

* Google Maps

* Google Image Search

That's because it was hardly a product name - they just slapped their corporate name of top of the respective noun...

Sometimes the best decisions are the simplest.

Well they've named it Google Assistant. I think I'd prefer "ok/hey assistant".

I'd prefer it be treated like passwords - upon installation, you should change the default immediately.

I refuse to use a service that requires me to say its globally recognized name so often I will probably become brainwashed to it. And then there's the older hacks with TV commercials that took advantage of those defaults, and the (cooler) hypersonic transmitted voice command attacks, or the ones delivered by vibrating the device's microphone with a laser, etc.

None of these attacks would have worked if the product trigger wasn't so predictable from the get-go.

Eventually even Raspberry Pi stopped using the default pi/raspberry default combination. How we invoke our voice-activated programs should be treated with equal care.

I assume this lets the wakeword listening model be simpler.

Call me childish but I think "OK <profane insult>" would take a long time to wear thin.

This reminds me of the great Sci-fi book series "Old Man's War", where the soldiers get a thought-controlled computer called "Brain Pal™" installed in their head. After installation they first have to choose a name and almost everyone uses a swear word for that. The main protagonist then keeps activating it with the phrase "Hey Asshole". I'm pretty sure that this book came out way before Google Assistant.

> I'm pretty sure that this book came out way before Google Assistant.

Or maybe not.

/s /h

Fuckface, play Beethoven's 5th.

"Hey fuckface"

"Hey Larry"

"Hey Sergey" is more catchy

Exactly

Google Maps and Google Image Search were called that and are still around, but "Google Mail" was never called that and isn't now.

I'd also add their insistence on using the same branding approach for experimental apps as their core offerings. A new app named `Google $RandomNoun` has a really high chance of being killed a few years from now, while `Google Search` and `Google Maps` don't. I'm sure the company wants to use the same structure to give new products an initial boost, but they seem weirdly indifferent to the long term damage it's doing to the overall brand.

They’re not weirdly indifferent, they’re busy shovelling cash into their vaults from their advertising oriented businesses

The used to call things Google Labs Foo.

That idea was canned...