Google is now a subsidiary of the new company, Alphabet.
6Big changes coming to the GOOG...
https://abc.xyz
Alphabet will be the umbrella company (not in the sense that it protects from rain - which it might, but that it will be the overarching company that has many subsidiaries).
G is for Google (a new, slimmed down Google that no longer contains non-search-related parts of the company)
Y is for Youtube
C is for Calico
X is for Project X
etc.
And now the fun part... What other letter company names do you think they will come up with?
- 17 comments, 21 replies
- Comment
Wat.
@hollboll And what will Wat do?
@curtise retail electricity provider
Huh.
Their 2016 April Fool's joke is really getting started early.
@Starblind Indeed! It seems so counterintuitive, when they have such incredible brand recognition as Google. After all, it's become a bloody verb that many people use daily!
Z is for Zaphod
A project to add additional heads and limbs to people.
I'm lost in admiration of their foresight in naming the company. How many copyrights did they have to quietly buy up? Don't forget, they're going to stop death, too. I have a little tiny bit of GOOG and GOOGL, so it's all good.
@OldCatLady I saw that! I hadn't heard of Calico before today.
But what will happen when they eventually have more than 26 subsidiaries??
(also, good on ya - both stocks shot up after hours tonight)
S for Sockit. A national registry for matching missing socks with their owners.
(Am I playing right?)
@KDemo DAMN STRAIGHT YOU ARE!
ps. I totally needed this a few weeks ago when my Mediocre socks became a Mediocre sock.
But then a week or so later, my dryer stopped working, and when I pulled it back from the wall to check the plug, there lay the missing sock!
This anecdote may be mediocre, but then again, so are the socks.
H
@Thumperchick If I could give this multiple stars, I totally would.
@curtise
@KDemo yassssssss!
I'm surprised they didn't misspell alphabet in homage to misspelling googol.
Pornvat like Pornhub but just all tossed into a vat with no rhyme or reason.
@connorbush safesearch=off
I wonder if this is to prevent some sort of legal thing and if so what are they trying to avoid?
Alphabet already acquired Android.
@OldCatLady Ah, alliteration.
If you really want to see the list of companies involved, http://www.businessinsider.com/google-new-operating-structure-2015-8
@OldCatLady One of their companies is devoted to, according to them, curing death. LOL I wonder if that will be before or after the "event".
@Kidsandliz
@Kidsandliz Brin is highly motivated to push for research in genetic medicine. He has a mutation which increases his chance of developing Parkinson's. Calico will certainly have all the money it needs to do anything it wants, with no need to make a profit. Of all the changes, I think this one is most important.
@OldCatLady My aunt has parkinson's but no one has been tested for a mutation. Be nice if he can figure out how to fix that. I figure cancer will get me before anything else (on my 3rd, #3 is one of the lymphomas with no cure, the other two were breast cancers) so no worries there LOL. Seriously though nice they can throw money at this without an ulterior motive that would influence the direction the research takes.
@Kidsandliz Well, hell.
Dat URL tho, so damn clever!
Also, we had this idea first...
@JonT You know that if I'm going to do business with a mega-conglomerate-umbrella-corporation I'd take Mediocre over Alphabet in a heart beat!
Or maybe I'd go with Veridian Dynamics:
@curtise I miss that show, so underrated.
Makes sense, now only Google is bound by the "do no evil" pledge so this frees up the other parts of the business to be as evil as they want to be.
@wisenekt well come on, they gotta compete with apple and microsoft now don't they :)
I also thought it was cute with the Hooli link in the announcement. At least they could make fun of themselves a little.
@metageist
Otherwise known as a good old fashioned "conglomerate".
With shiny new Google paint on it.
@RedOak I fully welcome our new Alphabet overlords. As far as world-ruling corporations go, we could do a whole lot worse.
Imagine if Time Warner Cable had the talent and vision to attempt their version of what Google/Alphabet has been working on?
Gives me nightmares.
@JonT I wasn't making a political statement about conglomerates being 'good' or 'bad'. Simply that the practical result of this is wallpaper. Yawn. Go ahead and buy Alphabet soup...er...stock.