Recently, Google became a subsidiary of a new holding company called Alphabet Inc. as stated in an article on abcnews.go.com, by Alyssa Newcomb. Newcomb said, “The decision to slim down Google and make it a subsidiary of the newly created Alphabet was announced in August and is intended to allow each company to focus on what it does best.” She discussed how Google has many projects that don’t necessarily relate to its original work as “a search engine and advertising business." Therefore, as the CEO of Alphabet, Larry page said, “‘companies that are pretty far afield of our main internet products’ will be separated from Google and become a part of Alphabet.'”
Newcomb said Alphabet will control the companies Calico, Nest, Fiber, Venture and Capital, and Google X. Google will control Search, Advertising, Maps, YouTube, and Android. Google X, which is fascinating but strays from Google’s typical work, is a “semi-secret incubator that has spawned projects such as self-driving cars and Wing, a drone delivery service.”
In an interesting move, Google made an acquisition very fitting for Alphabet. The company has bought the domain abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.com, Arjun Kharpal said in an article on cnbc.com. Kharpal said, “The purpose of the new domain is unclear given that the page did not load on Thursday morning.” Kharpal added some acquisitions may be defensive. For example, Google owns GoogleSucks.com. It also owns Googl.com and Gogle.com, for redirection to Google, among its 18,095 domains besides abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.com. Business Insider's Alexei Oreskovic, said, “Recode's Mark Bergen speculates that the purchase may have been defensive, to prevent the likes of Apple or Facebook getting their hands on it.”
Most times when people think of or use Google, they simply see it as a convenient search engine. However, over time, it has become so much more than that. It is one of many companies and one of several a few company giants that owns several other companies and projects. Such convergence has led to complicated business relationships that are more prominent than some may realize. For example, Disney owns ABC. This connection, while it is not hidden, is still subtly displayed. The companies will advertise on each other’s channels. ABC often shows Disney films. Such media convergence has pros and cons. Yet in many ways a complicated system of audience manipulation is at play. This manipulation draws the audience deeper into the viewing of television, other media, and technology in general.
People are often angry at this convergence, especially at some of its more obvious forms. For example, Google has made many changes to YouTube that make its use just a little more irritating to use. Accounts are linked to Google+. They can be unlinked, at least partially, but this process seems to be a bit confusing.
The linking of Google to other companies can provide for interesting opportunities, but it can also mean complicated connections. We'll see if Apple's latest connection is really as easy as A, B, C.
