Alphabet is the parent company of Google, which owns the world’s largest general web search engine. Alphabet became the corporate structure above Google in 2015, separating Google’s core internet products from a collection of other businesses and projects.
Google remains Alphabet’s best-known business, with major products including Search, YouTube, Android, Google Maps, and Google Cloud. Advertising connected to Search and other online properties has historically supplied much of Alphabet’s revenue, while cloud computing and subscriptions provide additional sources of growth.
Alphabet is regularly included among the world’s largest companies by market capitalization, although its exact position changes as share prices move. Market-cap rankings can also be affected by different share classes, because Alphabet has multiple classes of stock with different voting rights.
A common mix-up is calling the parent company “Google” in every context. Google is the principal subsidiary and brand, while Alphabet Inc. is the publicly traded holding company that investors buy shares in.