Alphabet was created in 2015 as the parent company for Google and several related businesses.
Google announced the restructuring in August 2015, and Alphabet became the publicly traded parent later that year. Under the new structure, Google retained its core businesses, including Search, advertising, YouTube, and Android, while projects such as life sciences and research were organized as separate Alphabet businesses.
The reorganization allowed Google’s internet operations and newer ventures to be reported more distinctly. Alphabet’s market capitalization is therefore the market value of the entire corporate group, not only the Google search engine.
A common mix-up is calling Alphabet “Google” in financial comparisons. Google remains the name of the main operating company and its consumer products, while Alphabet is the legal parent whose shares trade publicly under the ticker symbols GOOGL and GOOG.