????誰說8月是新聞淡季？美國時間周一（8月10日）下午，谷歌意外宣布了讓人匪夷所思的公司重組。這家經營搜索引擎起家的科技巨頭將更名為Alphabet，中文直譯為“字母表”。

????作為重組的一部分，谷歌的廣告業務會成為母公司“字母表”旗下擁有并運營的眾多公司之一其他“字母表”經營的業務包括谷歌的寬帶服務Fiber、谷歌收購的智能家居公司Nest、谷歌的神秘實驗室Google X、兩年前谷歌成立的健康研究公司Calico、谷歌的兩家投資機構Google Ventures與Google Capital。

????谷歌這么做是在昭告世人，它已經成長壯大，再不是當初那款同名的搜索引擎產品，也不只是后來搜索引擎孕育的那個廣告帝國。Alphabet集眾多業務于一身，會給予原來谷歌名下各類最新奇、瘋狂的項目——無人駕駛汽車、有助于防治糖尿病的隱形眼鏡、智能調溫器、無人機快遞服務、機器人——同等的重視。谷歌絕不僅是搜索引擎?，F在，新公司的名字體現了這點。

????不過還有個問題。與谷歌發家業務一脈相承的廣告業務還要為上述所有商業探索買單。

????搜索引擎廣告是谷歌最初躋身《財富》美國500強前50名的功臣（排名第40位）。實質上，廣告業務堪比谷歌的印鈔機。谷歌去年89%的營業收入來自廣告，其中包括展示性廣告和移動端廣告。因此，即使為鐘愛的新奇探索豪擲千金，谷歌的利潤率也高達24%。

????谷歌的聯合創始人兼首席執行官拉里·佩奇在公開發表的博客中介紹，在Alphabet內部，“瘦身”的新谷歌會保留所有廣告支持的產品，旗下業務有搜索、廣告、地圖、應用、安卓操作系統及相關的技術基礎設施。視頻網站YouTube的業務與橫幅廣告或者搜索引擎廣告截然不同，但它還隸屬谷歌。

????然而，廣告可不是很酷的生意。廣告不會讓工程師感到興奮，那些由程序化的算法驅動的廣告尤其如此。有一位年輕的工程師曾經這樣揶揄谷歌的核心業務：我這代人中最優秀的人才考慮的都是如何吸引用戶點擊廣告，真遜斃了。這段話廣為流傳。對于那些奇思妙想的項目，谷歌鄭重其事投入，令人欽佩。但許多人猜測，這些也不過是谷歌吸引天真的年輕工程師的招募工具。

????在佩奇和Alphabet的總裁、谷歌另一位創始人謝爾蓋·布林的眼中，這家公司可能不僅僅是龐大的廣告機器。他們也許希望谷歌新的企業形象體現這點。很遺憾，財務數據沒有讓他們得償所愿。（財富中文網）

????譯者：Pessy

????校對：詹妮

????Who says news is slow in August? On Monday afternoon Google GOOG 4.05% announced a bizarre and surprising reorganization, in which the search engine company has renamed itself “Alphabet.”

????As part of the reorganization, Google, the advertising business, will be one among many businesses owned and operated by Alphabet. The other businesses include Google’s broadband business, Fiber, Nest, Google X, Calico and Google’s investment arms, Google Ventures and Google Capital.

????It’s Google’s way of telling the world that it has outgrown its initial, namesake product, the Google search engine, which in turn begat an advertising behemoth. Alphabet, with its portfolio of activities, lends equal weight to all of the company formerly known as Google’s most out-there moonshot activities. The self-driving cars, the diabetes contact lenses, the smart thermostats, the drone delivery, the robots. Google is more than just a search engine. Now, its name reflects that.

????There’s just one problem with that. Advertising, Google’s original line of business is still paying for it all.

????Search advertising is why Google is a Fortune 50 powerhouse to begin with. (It is number 40 on Fortune’s recently published list.) Google’s ad business practically prints money. Advertising, including display ads and mobile ads, made up 89% of Google’s $66 billion in revenue last year. Even while spending gobs of money on its beloved moonshots, the company enjoyed 24% profit margins.

????Within Alphabet, the new “slimmed-down” (CEO Larry Page’s phrasing in a public blog post) Google will still retain all of its ad-supported products, including search, ads, maps, apps, Android, and the related technical infrastructure. Even video network YouTube, which is a very different business from banner ads or search ads, will stay under the Google segment.

????But advertising is not very cool. Advertising, especially programmatic, algorithm-driven advertising, doesn’t exactly get engineers excited. There’s even a famous quote from a young engineer, deriding Google’s core business: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.” Plenty of people have speculated that Google’s moonshots, while sincere and admirable, are also a cynical recruiting device for wide-eyed young engineers.

????It’s likely that Page and Sergey Brin, his Google co-founder and Alphabet president, see their company as more than a massive advertising machine. They probably wanted Google’s corporate identity to reflect that. Too bad the numbers don’t.