In a blog post at the start of last week, Google made an announcement that sent waves reverberating through the tech world: it will become a “slimmed down” subsidiary under a completely new holding company called Alphabet. Whether this change bodes well for Google has ignited much talk, but Alphabet could have prevented at least one notable Google blunder…
We refer specifically to the social network Google+, which has struggled to capture the public imagination – and, more to the point, the intended level of popularity and activity – since launching in 2011. Despite Google’s insistence to the contrary, the company showed signs of winding down Google+ when, last month, it announced that many popular Google services will soon no longer require a Google+ account.
This climb-down might never have happened, however, had Alphabet been formed shortly before 2011 – as that company’s structure could have encouraged Google to stick to a more conservative business strategy into which Google+ would have less clearly fitted. Why do we say “conservative”? You will soon see why if you read our major feature article about Alphabet, and its potential implications for Google’s long term future, in the next issue of AppleMagazine arriving this Friday.
