Google and its parent and siblings? Yes. Quite surprising, right? This was me when I read about it for the first time. We are comparing Google in a family setting here.
In this part of the world,bGoogle seems to be the extroverted sibling. Google is so popular that the name has become a regular word and according to The English Dictionary, it means to search for something on the internet. The same “Google” doubles as a verb and a noun in usage.
Is this write-up about Google? How about its parent? The siblings? These questions and many more running through your mind bring us to the next subtopic. What is this whole thing about?
A bit of history
Before anything like Alphabet Inc. came into existence, Google has long been in existence, providing internet products and services. In 2015, Alphabet came.
Alphabet is a collection of companies of which the largest is Google. Each business has its CEO and they can focus solely on their end-products
Before Alphabet, Google was the leading company with subsidiaries to cater to. The entire initiative behind the introduction of Alphabet was to reduce the workload of Google and help it stay on the path of providing quality internet experience to consumers. Google was becoming too big to be managed by Google alone.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin are solid names on this block. These two men came together in 1995 and created a search engine that used links to show the importance of individual pages on the World Wide Web (www). This search engine was named Backrub. It was later renamed Google which was a play on a mathematical expression of 1×10¹⁰⁰. In 1998, Google caught the attention of investors and Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote Larry Page and Sergey Brin a cheque of $100,000 which birthed Google Inc. It has been forward from there.
Google grew and the subsidiaries came into view but Google needed to focus on providing internet products and services. For this reason, Alphabet Inc. became the parent company and the subsidiaries, its siblings, not before the founders named Sundar Pichai the CEO of Google.
The core part of Google includes Android, Search, Gmail e.t.c. while the others are part of Alphabet.
Subsidiaries of Alphabet Inc.
YouTube: This is a popular online video-sharing platform. For students, this platform doubles as an online university. For business owners, this is a platform to showcase their products. For content creators, this platform helps put their content on a global scale.
Google X: This is like the research arm of Google. This is where the initiative of a new project is taken up.
Calico: The focus here is on the health sector. The aim is to use technology to increase the longevity of human lives. This includes understanding the biology that controls aging and the diseases associated with it.
Nest Labs: This arm is responsible for the production of smart home appliances. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the focused technology here. The goal is to create a comfortable home for end-users.
Fiber: Fiber is focused on delivering high-speed broadband and television services at affordable rates in cities across the world.
Sidewalks Labs: This is where Google’s urban planning projects take place. They aim at improving the quality of living in cities across the world.
Verily: Just like Calico, Verily is invested in the health sector. Unlike Calico which is focused on increasing the human lifespan, Verily is more focused on fighting diseases.
Waymo: This is an arm that is focused on self-driving technology. It incorporates Artificial Intelligence that recognizes obstacles, pedestrians, etc.
Wing: This part is focused on developing drone-based freight delivery technology. The delivery of goods using drones.
Chronicle: This is the cybersecurity part of Alphabet. It is focused on providing affordable means for companies to secure their data.
Jigsaw: This arm is in charge of looking for solutions to global concerns which include security, corruption, terrorism, etc.
Fitbit: This aspect is in charge of producing wearable devices
Google ventures and Google capital: These two are the investment arms of Google.
Now that you have an idea what Google, its parent(Alphabet), and siblings (subsidiaries) are about, you are welcome.
