G is for Google

YouTube, for instance, drives Google's advertising service. Android has the largest market share in the Mobile OS industry and Nexus phones have earned a name for themselves by keeping up the performance bar at a standard. Over the past few years Google has rolled out a plethora of features surrounding their search platform. Google Now is integrated within Android and so far it's been improving at a steady rate and personally I think that with the right focus it could be turned into an individual platform.

But behind all these successful ventures, lies Google's "moonshots". Some of which have failed simply because it was ahead of their time or because they haven't given enough time behind it (pun intended) and some are still in early prototype stage – ideas that sound exciting and futuristic, but are far from market distribution.

Thing is, with all these deviations from the original track, there's been talk among investors regarding stock prices and how dedicated Google is towards securing their future. It's not unheard of that companies have grown or moved away from what they initially started as. But that comes with its pros and cons. Pros being: you get to try out new things and keep your customers and everyone else satisfied with new products and become more than just another company. Cons being: you try out new things and venture into the murky waters of uncertainty, losing focus and valuable capital doing something you never had plans for when you started out. Best case scenario is you make a revolutionary product. Worst case scenario is you gradually lose market share because your original product(s) is/are lagging behind and after a few painful years, you go bankrupt.

Google's structure is way too strong for the latter to happen. And recently they underwent a massive change that hints to a company model similar to that of Wall Street giant Warren Buffet's. Google is no longer a mother company for all those side ventures.

They all exist as individual companies under a giant new company named "Alphabet". Each letter from A-Z stands for a project name.

Larry Page mentioned this in a blog post a couple of weeks ago. He and Sergey Brin will serve as the heads of Alphabet while Sundar Pichai will take the position of CEO at Google Inc. Google X, Sidewalk Labs, Calico, Nest, Fiber and other "moonshots" will remain separate from Google Inc, Android and YouTube.

This lets Google, or to be correct, Alphabet, aim for new adventures without having to answer to investors regarding the financial aspects. And mostly, to stay focused. Warren Buffett's model keeps that part in check by putting different CEOs in charge of different ventures. Which in Google's case is perfect.

They've been introducing giant balloons that'll provide internet in remote areas, contact lenses that can keep count of your glucose level and even life-extension biotech research (Calico). Oh and drones. Google always has a huge fascination for anything that flies. Their drone projects aren't half bad though. If they can keep it up, it's going places.

As a tech enthusiast, I'm more excited about Sundar Pichai becoming CEO. He's played a major role at Google for a long time and he, more than anyone, knows what Google Inc requires to become better. I don't know if Alphabet is a potential world domination of some sort, but I wouldn't exactly mind living in Google's dream world.

Speaking of dreams, check out the weird images Google's AI has been throwing out at the internet. That'll give you a few nightmares for sure.