Whither Google?
Today (Sept. 29), Google relaunched its enterprise software services as “G Suite” (presumably a play on the fact that the top-level of management at companies is referred to as the C-suite). It also announced that many of its products, including its Docs word processor, its Sheets spreadsheet program, and Google Calendar, would now be infused with “machine intelligence” derived from the same research that was used by Google to beat the best human player in the world at Go and translate text into any language in real time.
But the rebrand also reflects a growing trend within Alphabet entities to remove “Google” from their names. While G Suite is still very much part of Google, it used to be called “Google for Work,” and there has been a move within the company to seemingly separate out the company’s efforts beyond its core products in advertising and search.
Here are a few other examples that have popped up in the year since Google reorganized itself into Alphabet:
[google] X ➡️ X
Google’s “moonshot” lab gets its name from the algebraic command of “solve for X.” Since the Alphabet restructure, the lab dropped Google from its name, presumably in an effort to differentiate its research from the work done by Google on its core products.
Google Life Sciences ➡️ Verily
Like X, Verily dropped the “Google” and went a bit more cryptic with its new name. This is the Alphabet division concerning itself with research into disease.
Google Ventures ➡️ GV
Google’s venture capital arm slimmed down its name to just its initials, again suggesting a distance from Google’s core business, but hinting that the two are still linked.
Google Ideas ➡️ Jigsaw
The think-tank set up by Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt and former US State Department staffer Jared Cohen to research technology and geopolitics went in an entirely new direction with its name. (Jigsaw is also the name of a British clothing company, but it’s unlikely the two entities will have much overlap.)
And then there are other ventures that never had Google in their name in the first place, including:
Calico
Alphabet’s division that wants to figure out if we can live forever.
Sidewalk Labs
A company set up to turn cities into smart cities. Think filling your home with Internet of Thing devices, but at a city level.
Nest
Google’s smart-home device company that it purchased in 2014 for $3 billion.
Android
The company’s mobile operating system that it acquired in 2005 for $50 million.