Google unveils 'Google Play'

Google ramped up its game plans today, with the announcement of Google Play. The cloud-based service serves as a single log-in hub for entertainment across devices, including music, eBooks, movies, and of course, Android apps and games. The new initiative is kicking off today and drawing together the Android Market, Google Music, and Google eBookstore.

The Google blog announced the new initiative. The free storage space provides for up to 20,000 songs among its media offerings, with a library of millions to purchase. The US is the only area to include all four media types, and other regions differ slightly. The blog claims its goal is to roll out new content types moving forward.

The launch is being kicked off with a sale for the next week, which will feature a different album, book, video rental, and Android app each day. Today's titles include Now That's What I Call Music 41, the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the film Puncture, and the app Where's My Water for 25 cents each. Other games are on sale for 49 cents this week as well.

It's an ambitious project, aimed at making life easier for the consumer. As the music industry showed us not long ago, removing barriers results in sales. Android's major competition has been the Apple iOS market. Using the Google log-in as a backbone to challenge iOS markets will heat up the mobile race, and may put even more pressure on dedicated devices like the Nintendo 3DS and recently launched PlayStation Vita.

You can start using the service now, as Google has opened its own dedicated page.