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Last Friday, Google announced they are dropping the Google Hotpot name and folding it into Google Places.
Google said, "rolling Hotpot into Google Places helps simplify the connection between the places that are rated and reviewed and the more than 50 million places that already have an online presence through Google Places - places that millions of people search for and find every day on Google."
Google launched Hotpot in November of last year and has continued to expand its presence in Google properties. Google said they have "released an iPhone and Android app, integrated Hotpot recommendations into Google.com and Google Maps, expanded to more than 47 languages and enabled people to share their ratings and reviews to Twitter."
That being said, the rebranding doesn't come as a surprise. Heck, even Google Places has been rebranded a bunch of times. Most recently, Google Places was known as Google Local Business Center, prior to that, Google Maps, Google Local, and so on. So the name changes, especially at Google, is not a surprise.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
