On Monday evening, after spending a bit of time on social media as well as searching the internet (on Google no less), I came upon an article that announced a major shake-up of Google’s operating structure, creating a new holding company which will contain subsidiaries to separate its core internet businesses from ventures including driver-less cars and life extension.

And in the article I saw this tweet:

Of course I had to click on the strange link, and when clicked on you’re brought to a new website. Once you arrive at the page you see the following quote by (former Google CEO) Larry Page:

As Sergey and I wrote in the original founders letter 11 years ago, “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.” (there is a more link to click on after this to see more text on the page)

Now for anyone to accuse Google of being anything resembling conventional would be utterly misguided, as the following uncovered paragraph lays claim to:

We did a lot of things that seemed crazy at the time. Many of those crazy things now have over a billion users, like Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and Android. And we haven’t stopped there. We are still trying to do things other people think are crazy but we are super excited about.

Which leads me to some of those ABC’s…

Alphabet: Alphabet is the new company – Google co-founder Larry Page is CEO and Sergey Brin, Google’s other co-founder, is the president of the new company. In short it is a holding company which houses a collection of companies within it, the largest of which is Google. As described on the website: This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main internet products contained in Alphabet instead. What do we mean by far afield? Good examples are our health efforts: Life Sciences (that works on the glucose-sensing contact lens), and Calico (focused on longevity). Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related.

Buffet’s influence: Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet has long been a hero of Larry Page, and Page in restructuring and creating the new entity has formally put Buffett’s influence into practice. Alphabet’s structure resembles Buffet’s in that it is a holding company for diverse businesses as is Berkshire Hathaway, ranging from insurance and railroads to running shoes and ice cream.

Curing death?: In September 2013, Google launched a new company with the ambitious objective of extending our lives. Named “Calico,” it is an independent research and development biotech company established with the goal of combating aging and associated diseases. Google gave exclusive access to Time magazine upon Calico’s launch for a story on the new venture in an article titled “Google vs. Death.” Here is the Time cover with the question appearing in bold which, in a nutshell, appears to be the goal of the medical research and development company.

Calico‘s mantra – We’re tackling aging, one of life’s greatest mysteries.

Drone delivery: In mid-August 2014, Google introduced the first phase of “Project Wing” a secret drone program that had been running for two years at Google X labs. During the initial phase of development, Google went with an unusual design called a tail sitter, a hybrid of a plane and a helicopter that takes off vertically, then rotates to a horizontal position for flying around. In March of this year though, it was revealed by the lab’s director that the company had gone back to the drawing board with its drone initiative, at one point seen as a potential rival to Amazon’s Prime Air project which has yet to get off the ground as well. Here are the latest developments.

Fiber: Google’s fiber-optic internet and cable service starts with a connection that’s up to 1,000 megabits per second promising the fastest internet available and crystal clear HDTV. Fiber is currently available only in Austin, Kansas City (MO) and Provo, however expansion plans have it going to Nashville, Atlanta and several other cities in the near future.

Google: the new CEO is Sundar Pichai, who has been running the company from behind the scenes since October of 2014, when he took on full product and engineering responsibility for their internet businesses. He joined the company in 2004 and though he has a low-key style, his ability to create strong products, including Google’s Chrome browser and later Chrome OS, as well as “his ability to see what’s ahead and mobilize teams around the super important stuff” according to Larry Page are the reasons he is in the top spot.

Internet balloons: Labeled as Balloon Powered Internet for Everyone, Project Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and more. The project began with a pilot test in June 2013, when thirty balloons were launched from New Zealand’s South Island and beamed Internet to a small group of testers. The balloons float in the stratosphere, twice as high as airplanes, and go where they’re needed by rising or descending into a layer of wind blowing in the desired direction of travel.

In partnership with telecommunications companies, Google has enabled people to connect to the balloon network directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices. The signal then passes across the balloon network and back down to the global Internet on Earth. You can see more about Project Loon here.

Nest: While we’re of course very familiar with the connected home devices company that Google acquired in 2014, the restructuring will allow companies like Nest to operate with more agility and gain more freedom to spend money, acquire other companies and more without having to try to explain how such costs are benefiting the core business.

Self-Driving Cars: the Driverless Car Project was the first to be undertaken by Google X and is still one of its most ambitious projects. With the tag line Imagine if everyone could get around easily and safely, regardless of their ability to drive, Google claims that aging or visually impaired loved ones wouldn’t have to give up their independence, as well as that time spent commuting for the average driver could be time spent doing what they want to do.

In May 2015, Chris Urmson, the director of Google’s self-driving car program, wrote The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car outlining what he and his colleagues had learned from their work – the report detailed how after 1.7 million miles, they not only learned a lot about their own system – but how humans drive as well.

On Twitter: @alphabet is owned by Chris Andrikanich, a “self-proclaimed geek who fires off regular gibberish, gobblety-gook about sports, tech, etc.” who has received a LOT more attention than he’s normally used to. His tweet on Monday after news of the restructuring broke big-time:

Well, that was an interesting way to end a Monday…

Yes, after Google’s big announcement earlier in the day loads of people assumed Google would want to move in, and Chris spent the whole day watching his iPhone blow up with messages as many felt he was coming into some big money – which to date he has not as the company hasn’t made the call. As for Alphabet, while @alphabetINC is taken, there was a report that they took @aIphabetinc for a handle (with a capital i for the l), however it leads to a suspended account. At least for now.

Ventures: Google has provided venture capital funding to what they consider bold new companies that have the potential of changing the world – more than 300 companies, including Uber, Nest, Cloudera and Slack, have been backed by Google Ventures to go along with what’s considered to be unparalleled support in design, engineering, recruiting and marketing. GV has a unique focus on machine learning and life science investing and their team includes MDs, PhDs, and some of the world’s top computer scientists.

X labs: Since 2010, beginning with the development of the self-driving car project, it has existed as Google’s semi-secretive incubator for varied projects such as Wing and Loon. All work at the lab is overseen by Sergey Brin, and (scientist and entrepreneur Eric) Astro Teller (AKA Captain of Moonshots) directs the day-to-day activities. Google X lab projects are often referred to as “moonshots” within the company; thus Teller being the captain guiding those day to day developments. One other thing – Teller holds a PhD in artificial intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University.

More to come as (the) Alphabet develops.

Chris Urmson’s The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car