Google is now known as Alphabet

Google is changing its structure. A new umbrella company, Alphabet, has been set up, which will contain a number of smaller companies, including Google.

Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have set up a new company called Alphabet, which Google itself is now housed under. As part of a restructuring, Alphabet acts as an umbrella company with a collection of companies beneath it, the largest being Google.

The new Google, according to Page, is “slimmed down.” This essentially means that Google will run Internet products like Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and Android.

Other projects that are further afield, like its health efforts and its X Lab among other things, will be contained in Alphabet.

This move, according to the founders, will let them try new things, things that “other people think are crazy but we are super excited about.”

Page will act as the CEO of Alphabet with Brin serving as President. Page is to be replaced by Senior Vice-President, Sundar Pichai.

Page explained that “our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed.”

With regards to the name, Page’s blog post says, “We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity's most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search!”

“We also like that it means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for,” he added.

Alphabet Inc. will replace Google Inc. as the publicly-traded entity. Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet. But the two classes of shares will continue to trade on Nasdaq as GOOGL and GOOG.