Google restructures under new company called Alphabet

Credit:  Google

Eleven years ago, the original founders of Google wrote, "Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.”  So far, the founders seem to be living up to their word, and they proved it more so on Monday in an announcement.  The parent company will now be known as Alphabet.

The Internet giant that has brought you products such as Android, Chrome, YouTube, and Google Maps is taking on a new identity -- sort of.  In effect, the move marks major restructuring and rebranding.

Chief Executive Officer Larry Page wrote, "Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable. So we are creating a new company, called Alphabet (http://abc.xyz). I am really excited to be running Alphabet as CEO with help from my capable partner, Sergey [Brin], as President."

(Note:  Pay attention to the web address for Alphabet because typing alphabet.com in a search engine will not get you to the site of Google's parent company.  Learn why.)

By rebranding, Google seems to be positioning itself far beyond its humble beginnings as a first-class search engine. Alphabet will act as the tech giant's holding company.  In his blog post, Page wrote, "We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represents language, one of humanity's most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search."

Google will become a subsidiary of Alphabet with a new CEO: top Google executive Sundar Pichai.

So what exactly is Alphabet?  Page explained.

Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead. What do we mean by far afield? Good examples are our health efforts: Life Sciences (that works on the glucose-sensing contact lens), and Calico (focused on longevity). Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related. Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence. In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed. We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well. We'll also make sure we have a great CEO for each business, and we’ll determine their compensation. In addition, with this new structure we plan to implement segment reporting for our Q4 results, where Google financials will be provided separately than those for the rest of Alphabet businesses as a whole.

If you find the announcement a bit confusing, you're not alone.  On the positive side, analysts believe Monday's move will allow investors to better track how the company's money is being spent. 

Google observes Veterans Day

Google Doodle took on a new look today.  The graphic commemorated Veterans Day.  The colorful Google logo illustrated a Veterans Day parade.  If you have some leisure time, you might want to check out the past array of doodles.

Cool view of the day

 
                                                             Photo:  Google Maps

Google innovators have done it again.  The Internet giant has added the first underwater panoramic view to Google Maps.  You don't have to be a deep sea diver (or even a swimmer) to see the stunning images.  Check out the vibrant images from the comfort of your home or office.  Now's your chance to dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii. You can even watch an amazing sunset.  Make sure you also check out Google Map's complete underwater collection, which features colorful images from the Great Barrier Reef.

Is the end near for Google+?

What's going on with Google+?  It seems to have lost momentum big-time. 

A new report by Chitika, the data analytics company, suggests that Google+ traffic has dropped dramatically.  Amid a huge amount of publicity last month, Google+ entered public beta with a striking interface, the rapid release of new features, and strong focus on user interaction.  Yet, according to Chitika, traffic on Google's new social network fell 60%.

Google+ started strong.  An Internet marketing research company, comScore, reported in July that Google's new social product attracted some 20 million visitors during its first month.  Unofficial reports now estimate the number of Google+ users at 43 million.  However, the growth spurt went kaput.  Google+ users seem to have lost interest.  Even on my stream, there's not much happening, incoming or outgoing.

Granted, the once-blazing program is only a few months old.  Was there too much hype too early?  Should we stamp "FAIL" on Google+ or simply give it more time?

Under the weather? Google wants to know.

Are you stuffy, sneezy, or in pain? Do you go online to figure out what ails you? If so, Google wants to know.

The Internet giant has a new post on its blog -- Understanding health-related searches. The new post reads, in part:

Today we've started a temporary experiment that some people might find interesting: we're researching how Google users search the Internet when they or someone they know is feeling sick.

Understanding how people search when they're feeling sick is an important problem to solve, as it can help improve projects like Google Flu Trends, which uses aggregated search data to detect influenza epidemics. Statistics gathered in this experiment may also help Google deliver more relevant search results in the future.

Google recently announced several new efforts to enhance its search features. To read the health post in its entirety, click here.

Tags: Google, Internet, Health, Media by Sistrunk

Google, Universal Music consider partnership

Universal, the world's largest music label, and Google's YouTube, the No. 1 U.S. video website, reportedly are in preliminary talks to create a stand-alone site to showcase music videos by Universal artists. Under the partnership, Universal would use YouTube technology and ad sales to distribute content around the Web.

The deal might be broadened out to include videos by artists at the other major music labels -- Sony Music, EMI Group and Warner Music Group -- in a concept similar to the TV shows available on NBC Universal and Hulu.com.

Many of the details, such as financial terms and whether the service would be run as a joint venture, are still being worked out.


Tags: Google, YouTube, Universal Music, Music Videos, Technology, Internet, Music by Sistrunk

Gmail crash results in worldwide outage

Google's Internet mail service, Gmail, stopped working in the wee hours of the morning, leaving users unable to access their email accounts.

The service interruption caused problems worldwide. The U.S. was less affected by the outage, unless you're nocturnal and work at odd hours, as this writer does. I was in the middle of correspondence with someone in Southeast Asia when my service went down.

Over 113 million people use this email service provided by Google worldwide, according to industry analysts.

Professional Gmail users are covered by a service agreement promising to be 99.9% operational in any calendar month.

The Gmail help page carried the following statement:

A number of users have had difficulty accessing Gmail today. The majority are now able to access their email accounts again and we're hoping to have service restored for the remainder very soon. We know how important Gmail is to our users, so we take issues like this very seriously, and we apologise for the inconvenience.

There was also a post on the Google blog.

Those who thrive on communicating in real time sent thousands of Twitter messages carrying the words "gmail" or "gfail". Vnunet.com in the UK reported that users panicked when the Google mail service crashed. Some Gmail users took the service interruption in stride, but many did not, as is evidenced by this message:














Tags: Google, Google Mail, Gmail, Technology, Media by Sistrunk

Google adds print magazine rack to its search engine

Internet giant archives old publications

As part of its quest to corral more content published on paper, Google Inc. has made digital copies of more than 1 million articles from magazines that hit the newsstands decades ago.

For now, the old magazine articles can be found only through Google's search service for finding digital copies of books. But the company plans to eventually include magazine articles in its general search results.

Users who want to restrict the scope of their inquiries to magazines can choose that option through the book search's "advanced" function.

Dozens of magazine publishers have agreed to let Google index their archives. The incentive: Google will link to the Web site of a participating magazine publisher and share some of the revenue that is expected to be generated from ads shown alongside the old articles.

The list of old magazines already available through Google include past issues of New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science and Ebony.

More info: Google Blog

Tags: Google, Media by Sistrunk