After being the big dog of
search engines for more than a decade, Google has decided to change its
corporate moniker to Alphabet. After 17 years of building a $400 billion business
that controls everything from the world's most popular search engine (Google)
to the world's most popular video portal (YouTube), to life extension research
firm (Calico), to self-driving car developer and a host of other acquisitions,
Larry Page and Sergey Brin have decided to rename their enterprise. Add
to that the fact that CEO Page has turned the reins of Google over to Sundar
Pinchai, and many people both in the Internet and on the stock market are
wondering what's going to happen next. Even before the soup has cooled,
rumors are swirling that Google is interested in acquiring yet more companies,
including everything from Twitter to a company that makes pocket toy
satellites. So if you are wondering if Google intends to make Alphabet
Soup of their company, let’s give the pot a stir.
The Best Soup Starts with the Best Ingredients
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Courtesy of wikimedia.org |
A is for Artificial Intelligence
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Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org |
B is for Boston Dynamics
Snap Quiz: What looks like an
extra from Star Wars, sounds like a chainsaw, and walks like a Great Dane? The answer is BigDog, the quadrupedal robot
being built by Boston Robotics for DARPA.
Designed to carry more than 300
pounds of gear over rubble, up mountains and through snow and mud, this robot
is intended to tote gear for soldiers in the field. Of course, until the company comes up with a
quieter source of locomotion other than what sounds like a 2-stroke engine,
this is one doggie that won’t be sneaking up on anybody. Still, when you consider the technology in
BigDog, including stereo vision, LIDAR, gyroscopic stabilization and the
ability to climb 35 degree slopes fully laden, maybe if the technology doesn’t
work out for the DoD, it can be retrofitted for the US Post Office.
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Courtesy of wikimedia.org |
BigDog is only one of nine robots on the Boston Dynamics website.
Others include a bipedal humanoid robot named Atlas that competed in the DARPA
Robotic Challenge. Designed for rescue,
as well as to enter danger zones where humans fear to tread, Atlas can walk,
climb stairs, turn valves, move debris, and even drive a rescue vehicle. While his utility can’t be beat, what he
gains in mobility he more than gives back in the looks department. Let me put it this way, if you saw him coming
to your rescue, you’d probably die of fright.
Speaking of death, this brings us to the next letter in the Google
Alphabet.
Can Calico Cure Death?
Can you a blame billionaires
for trying to live forever? Historically
speaking, this isn’t a new concept.
Everyone from the first sovereign emperor of China to Conquistador Ponce
De Leon have sought immortality. The
difference is that with today’s state-of-the-art biomedical research, it just
might be possible. Consider if you will
that only a few years ago, transplantation was considered the creation of Dr.
Frankenstein. Now it is
commonplace. With advances in everything
from prosthetics to genetic technology, making life extension a reality isn’t
such a stretch. Still, some people think
Larry Page and Sergey Brin have gone off the deep end on this one. But
with a war chest of $45 billion at the ready, if anyone can take a crack at the
Grim Reaper, it's Google. Only time and a few billion dollars will tell. (If
that doesn’t work, maybe they can figure out a way to transport their mind to a
robot like Atlas.)
Google Gizmos Galore
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A Lexus RX450h retrofitted by Google for its driverless car fleet |
With enough created and
acquired companies under management to literally cover every letter in the
alphabet, is it any wonder that Google decided to take the name Alphabet for
its corporate umbrella? Ever since
returning to the CEO spot at Google in 2011, Larry Page has wrestled with the
best way to control his sprawling business empire. The problem for this dyed-in-the-wool
entrepreneur is that his priorities were becoming divided. A quote from Mashable sums it up best:
"Larry was always more
excited about big vision projects than the day-to-day grind of running the
company," says Bruno Bowden, who helped build Google Earth. "This
structure makes those projects and his role far more visible. Wall Street will
only care about Google proper and how Sundar is doing. For Larry, this gives
him the chance to focus on a broader mandate as he always wanted."
Y is for Why Now?
Although restructuring the
growing Google empire is something that many see as inevitable, the question of
timing is something that has many scratching their head. As for whether the name change will hurt or
help is something that only time will tell.
From an institutional perspective the announcement of the new name
actually caused company stock to jump by 4% the very next week. As Alphabet
(nee Google) continues to grow through acquisition, the question is whether
changing the name of the parent company will prove a boon to the brand or
whether Google will ultimately wind up making alphabet soup out of its
conglomerate.
In this article I have discussed how and
possibly why Google has decided to changed its corporate name to alphabet and how this well effect Googles empire as a
whole. I go on to list many of Alphabets many corporate entities (alphabetically
of course) that they has swallowed over the years and shared many of the
interesting projects these divisions are bringing to fruition.
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share it with your friends, family and co-workers. If you would like to learn
more about this subject, visit the notes
page on this blog for the BlogTalkRadio show dated 9/1/15. I recommend
checking out "Can Google Cure Death, Disease and Aging?",
"Are Google Glasses the Great Game Changer or a Passing
Fad?", or "How to Make Google Your Best Friend".
You can also search for other related articles by typing in “Google” in the
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