Late Monday afternoon, Google announced a major reorganization, and the establishment of a new parent company called Alphabet.
For a more in-depth look at that, check here. Long story short, Larry Page is now the CEO of Alphabet, which now controls Google, Nest, Calico, Fiber, and all the other companies that used to be under “Google”. Sundar Pichai has been named the new CEO of Google, which still operates the core businesses like Android, YouTube, Maps, search, and ads.
It was an interesting day for sure.
The URL for Alphabet is abc.xyz. Yes, it’s a strange URL and yes, it’s a little godlike. It’s the alpha and the omega. Google (er…Alphabet) is your overlord.
But Alphabet doesn’t really have control over any of the other domains and social media accounts that it would probably like to have. Not yet, at least.
Of course, Alphabet doesn’t have abc.com. It also doesn’t have alphabet.com. That domain is owned by car company BMW. The site is down right now.
Also owned by BMW – the verified Alphabet Facebook page:
According to the page, Alphabet “is a leading provider of Business Mobility in Europe and has gathered extensive knowledge of international fleet management and leasing.”
Over on Twitter, the situation is much the same.
Well, that was an interesting way to end a Monday…
— Chris Andrikanich (@alphabet) August 10, 2015
@Alphabet is manned by a guy named Chris Andrikanich from Cleveland, who describes himself as “Dad, Husband, Self-proclaimed geek who fires off regular gibberish, gobblety-gook about sports, tech, CLE, and whatever…”
Mr. Andrikanich might find himself the recipient of a few calls pretty soon – and maybe a few hundred thousand dollars. It’s technically against Twitter rules to buy and sell handles – but it happens.
Alphabet doesn’t own @AlphabetINC either.
Today has definitely been an interesting day for us.
— alphabet, INC. (@AlphabetINC) August 11, 2015
And just for good measure, someone’s already trolling Page and company with abc.wtf – which redirects to Bing.
