Once, I debated the future of Microsoft with my father. He pointed out they had a lot of great ideas, but they were so big any changes were like turning around a battleship in a bathtub. I can’t help but think that was on Google’s mind when they announced their new restructuring, though nothing explains why they renamed themselves “Alphabet”.
Instead of Google being one big company that encompasses search, media, Android software, Android hardware, GMail, Google Docs, Nest thermostats, self driving cars, maps, and (probably) a few partridges in pear trees, they’re going to reshuffle and reorganize under a new company named Alphabet. Thankfully, you won’t need to start Alphabeting instead of Googling, since the search company will still be called Google. But Google the search and ads company won’t also be responsible for, say, Nest Thermostats. Instead, they’ll be sibling companies under the auspices of Alphabet. This way Alphabet/Google can individually evaluate, support, and justify each individual business.
Honestly, about 80% of this change is internal and matters mostly to Google employees and stockholders of Google. This is a way for everyone to better grasp what’s making money and what’s draining resources, and to better allocate money and time. If Google had announced this as “Google, Inc” is the new main brand, with “Google Search” being one subsidiary, I think it would be slightly less confusing. The name change just throws a whole new curveball into the mix. Also, as multiple sites have pointed out, Google failed to register/acquire Alphabet.com prior to this conversion, which is just embarrassing.
I have hope that Google is making the right decisions here; they have a lot of businesses, and if this can make each one run more efficiently then that’s fantastic. They couldn’t continue as a behemoth without making changes, and it will be interesting to see if these were the right moves!