Google is out and Alphabet is in. With anti-trust issues in Europe and so many unique branches making up the current Google (AdWords, YouTube, Gmail, Docs, Maps, Cars, etc, etc, etc), it’s no longer your grandmother’s search engine. Instead of operating all of those subsidiary companies under the Google name, they’ll now all be under a conglomerate called Alphabet. At least that’s the plan after the Lawyers do their magic.
In case you were worried you’d have to head over to ABC.com or alphabet.com to do a Google search, don’t fret. Google isn’t changing any of its core product or their names. You’ll still be using Gmail and Google Docs while trying to find where you’re going with Google Maps. There’s also the other glaring reason for the split – failures reflect less on Google and more on the child company. Remember Google Glass? Yes, the failure of a product that Google still insists isn’t a failure? Or what about G+? Imagine products like this in the future (aka Nest), being released without the Google name. It will have to become successful or not based on its own merit – and if it’s not, Google’s good name won’t take a hit. This is also good news for some of the companies Google has created that aren’t synonymous with searches. By breaking up into separate companies, they can each have their own unique CEO and can operate as their own entity and even purchase companies themselves. They can even become publicly traded if they become large enough.
Some have likened Alphabet to the fictional Umbrella Corporation, a large conglomerate from Resident Evil that had secret, and obviously evil subsidiaries that operated in the genetic engineering and biological weaponry spaces. Umbrella Corp also had a friendly public face that made cosmetics, food and other consumer goods. Does this mean that Googles secretly looking into taking over the world while remaining undetected? Possibly. A company with the world’s most intuitive search (sorry Bing, Yahoo and AskJeeves) that knows anything and everything about each person on this planet? They know your likes, dislikes and most critically, your search history. They easily could begin top-secret operations if they wanted. But according to Larry Page, the reason for the change is much less nefarious.
Larry Page and his Co-Founder Sergey Brin are going to keep doing what they do best – starting new things. It’s the reason that Google has become more than just a search engine – it’s incorporated in our daily lives from navigation to email to (ahem) “social networking”. In the blog, Larry says that he and Sergey will be focusing on innovation, including their “X Lab” (the inspiration for Silicon’s Valley XYZ division of fictional Google counterpart Hooli).
“As Sergey and I wrote in the original founders letter 11 years ago, “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.” As part of that, we also said that you could expect us to make “smaller bets in areas that might seem very speculative or even strange when compared to our current businesses.” From the start, we’ve always strived to do more, and to do important and meaningful things with the resources we have.”
Larry Page also verified part of the switch will involve keeping Sundar Pichai on board. He was offered the top role at Twitter, but with the announcement will be the CEO of the Google search platform. “This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google. A key part of this is Sundar Pichai. Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together. He has really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our Internet businesses. Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress and dedication to the company. And it is clear to us and our board that it is time for Sundar to be CEO of Google. I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that. Google itself is also making all sorts of new products, and I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation — continuing to stretch boundaries. I know he deeply cares that we can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organize the world’s information. Recent launches like Google Photos and Google Now using machine learning are amazing progress.”
