Google Doesn't Own .com for New Name

Google is now one of several subsidiaries of a new parent company called Alphabet, but while its founders presumably Googled the name, they didn't buy Alphabet.com. That belongs to BMW, which uses it for a subsidiary that focuses on fleet management and financing—and, since it has been using the name since 1997, is unlikely to give it up, TechCrunch reports. The Washington Post did a little more digging and found that @alphabet belongs to "some poor dude in Cleveland" who says yesterday was "interesting," while the now-suspended @Alphabetinc account, which at first appeared to be connected to Google, was the work of a hoaxster who used an uppercase "I" instead of a lowercase "L."

The real Alphabet website is at abc.xyz, where Larry Page says the name Alphabet was chosen "because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity's most important innovations" and also "means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for!" The New York Times spotted a hidden joke on the same page: The period after "drone delivery effort" in the eighth paragraph leads to the website of Hooli, the fictional tech giant from Silicon Valley, which spoofs Google by promising such wonders as self-flying cars. (More Google stories.)