Google operates the Google search engine and was created as Alphabet’s main subsidiary. Alphabet reorganized Google’s corporate structure in 2015, placing Google’s internet products inside a new parent company called Alphabet Inc.
Google’s core businesses include search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, and cloud services. The company began as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University and was incorporated in 1998.
Google and Alphabet are related but not identical names. Alphabet is the publicly traded parent company, while Google is its largest operating company. This distinction matters in market-cap questions because Alphabet’s stock-market value represents the parent company and its collection of businesses.