Google announced late last night that they would be rebranding under the umbrella name of Alphabet. The news came from Google founder Larry Page’s blog where he claimed that the restructuring would “allow us to keep focus on the extraordinary opportunities that we have inside Google.” Since Google launched in September 1998 it has grown to encompass a whole range of different products and highly praised services including Google Maps, Android, YouTube, Ad Sense and Google Play. These will all continue under the name of Google, however other products and areas of research will become separate. Outside of the likes of YouTube and Android, Google has started to carry out research into some other ground breaking areas of technology. The X lab for example has played a significant role in researching delivery drones and self-driving cars, Fiber focuses on delivering high-speed Internet services, Nest develops innovative smart-home products and the mysterious Calico project conducts research into slowing down the human ageing process. The formation of Alphabet will mean that these distinctly different areas can be run separately from each other under the name of Alphabet. Page also announced that Sundar Pichai will be taking over as CEO of Google, whilst he becomes Chief Executive of Alphabet. Here are some of the best reactions from Twitter:
Well, that was an interesting way to end a Monday…— Chris Andrikanich (@alphabet)
August 10, 2015
Google finally figured out how to get ahead of Amazon in the Internet Services section of Yellow Pages.— John Graham-Cumming (@jgrahamc) August 11, 2015
The only problem with “Alphabet” is that w Larry’s ambition, 26 letters won’t be enough.— Steven Levy (@StevenLevy) August 10, 2015