Google's new Alphabet umbrella oversees a huge number of different technologies, with Google having acquired dozens and dozens of companies over the years.
The holding company of Alphabet Inc. will be headed by Google co-founder Larry Page as CEO, co-founder Sergey Brin as president, and Google chairman Eric Schmidt as chairman. Google will become a subsidiary of Alphabet, with current vice president of products Sundar Pichai as its new CEO.
Here is the tech behind Alphabet from A to Z.
A - Alphabet
Alphabet is Google's new parent company that will be the center for all of Google's noncore or Internet-based products. This will give companies such as Nest their own CEOs and a lot more independence, which might allow them to come up with new and interesting things more quickly.
B - Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics is a robotics company known for its videos of robots such as BigDog, built for the U.S. military. These robots look and act like animals and are able to run and jump in a way that could help soldiers navigate terrain that would be too rough for other vehicles.
C - Calico
Calico Labs is a biotechnology firm created by Google in 2013, with the goals of the firm being to combat aging and disease. Calico is one of the main units of Alphabet, with the other being Google.
D - Drive
Google Drive is Google's online cloud storage offering, allowing users to easily store their files online. Drive also has desktop tools in which a folder is installed to the user's computer, after which any activity in that folder will be reflected in a user's Drive.
E - eBook Technologies
eBook Technologies was acquired by Google in 2011 and was used to deliver a better eBook experience on Android smartphones and tablets.
F - Flutter
Flutter was acquired by Google in 2013 and is essentially a gesture-recognition company. The company introduced a number of apps allowing users to control their computer through gestures, before being bought by Google.
G - Glass
Google Glass is Google's attempt at augmented reality. The device was shortly released to the public for $1,500 for each headset, after which Google took it off the market to continue development.
H - Hangouts
Google's messaging service, Hangouts, is available to users on desktop and on mobile devices. The app is Android's default messaging app, which is able to run video calls as well as voice calls and messaging.
I - Images
Google Images is the go-to source of images for high schoolers around the world, although its use extends beyond finding images for your Slides presentation. Users can also upload an image to the service, after which Google will find whether or not that image exists anywhere online.
J - Jetpac
Jetpac was created as an app that analyzes photos and groups them together to find out things like what the happiest city is. The service was bought by Google last year and could possibly be used in things like Google Glass.
K - Knowledge Graph
Knowledge Graph is used by Google to provide better search results and is essentially a service that can link together facts about people, places and things to offer information related to different search topics. When you search Google for an answer to a question and Google tells you the answer rather than linking you to a page, that's Knowledge Graph at work.
L - Life Sciences
Google's Life Sciences division is run by Google X and is aimed at conducting scientific research in areas of science not covered by Calico. An example of something that Life Sciences came up with is a contact lens that is able to measure glucose levels.
M - Maps
Google Maps is largely hailed as the best and most comprehensive mapping service, at least on a consumer level. Maps has been helping people get to where they need to go since it was first created in 2005. It also allows people to take a look at what their neighborhood looks like from a satellite.
N - Nest
Nest is a home automation company that was bought by Google at the beginning of 2014. The company is known for the Nest smart thermostat that can connect to the user's smartphone and is able to learn about the user's daily routine in order to regulate temperature based on when it thinks the user might be at home.
O - Odysee
Odysee was bought earlier this year to beef up Google's Google+ Photos offering, which was eventually spun off as simply Google Photos. The service was focused on adding offline and private photo sharing features, as well as automatic backup.
P - Project Loon
Project Loon is run by Google X as an Internet access initiative in areas where there might not be easy access to the Internet. Weather balloons are basically flown that are able to beam connectivity to those below.
Q - Quest Visual
Quest Visual is an augmented reality company that ran Word Lens, an automatic augmented reality translation site. Google bought it in 2014, presumably to be integrated into Google Glass, although the tech also seems to be making its way into Google Translate apps.
R - Redwood Robotics
Redwood Robotics is a robotics company that specializes in robotic arms that are easy to use and program. The company was created as a joint venture between Meka Robotics, Willow Garage and SRI International. Google X acquired the firm in 2013.
S - Self-Driving Cars
Google is very public about its research and development in autonomous cars, and it is currently testing its cars and tech on public roads. The technology is very promising, and while it has been in a few accidents, none of those accidents were the fault of the Google Car, based on review of traffic reports.
T - Titan Aerospace
Titan Aerospace was bought by Google last year and is known for creating solar-powered drones. These drones are expected to play a role in Google Maps and could even be used in a similar way as the Project Loon weather balloons.
U - URL Shortener
Google's URL Shortener is a tool to help people, well, shorten their links. This can be very handy for things like tweets, in which the number of characters being used is important.
V - Vision Factory
Vision Factory is another artificial intelligence startup purchased by Google to beef up DeepMind. Vision Factory itself specialized in visual recognition and deep learning, another thing that could be implemented into Google Glass.
W - Project Wing
Amazon isn't the only company working on a drone delivery service. Project Wing is the Google equivalent, and the drones are able to drop and reel back in small packages. Google has been testing the tech in rural areas to deliver things like medicine.
X - Google X
Google X is the old way that Google organized many of its acquisitions, with many of the companies under Google X to now be organized under Alphabet. Google X is run by Astro Teller and will continue to work on "moonshots."
Y - YouTube
We all know what YouTube is, but what you might not know is that it was founded by three ex-PayPal employees in 2005 before being purchased by Google at the end of 2006. YouTube continues to be a focus of Google, with the company recently launching YouTube Gaming.
Z - Zetawire
Zetawire is a mobile payment firm that focused on helping people make transactions using NFC on their phone. The firm was bought by Google in 2010 and eventually became the basis for Google Wallet.
