Google restructuring leaves plenty opportunity for humour

Googlesurprisedmost users of the search giant when the companyannounced it would become a subsidiary of a new entity,Alphabet. The online jokes started almost immediately.

Alphabet willreplace Google's publicly traded shares later this year, whileGoogle will be trimmed of products unrelated to advertising ina corporate restructuring, CEOLarry Pageannounced in a blog post.

The new name drew some sarcasticsuggestions that the change was to boost Google's search rankings on Google.

The blog post begins "G is for Google," and details the company's plan for the coming year, notingthatPagewill become Alphabet's firstCEO.Twitter users have suggested Sesame Street characters who know their ABCs for otherpotential executives.

Google has been amassing numerous and varied technology companies over the years, including robot designer Boston Dynamics and smart appliancebuilderNest. Ryan Block, AOL's vice-president of product, noted the rationale behindseparatingthose elementsfrom a company primarily known for its search engine.

Alphabet's web address is abc.xyz, but theURL may be more functional than esthetic. Fortune noted thatGoogle does not own Alphabet.com, whichbelongs to Alphabet International, a company that does fleet management as part of BMW Group.

Meanwhile, the owner of the @alphabet twitter handle, Chris Andrikanich, seems to have ended his day a little more perplexed than the rest of us.

Googleshowed it wasn`t above having a bit of fun, as ithid alink within Page's announcement. Clicking on the period following the phrase "our drone delivery effort," leads toHooli.xyz, a reference to the HBO TV seriesSilicon Valley.The characters in the show, a satirical take on Google, run a ramshackle startup calledHooli, and the site suggests thatHooliXYZis its experimental division.

"Self-driving cars? Flying cars? Self-flyingcars? A space elevator? A cure for the AIDS virus? A non-polluting engine thatrunson the AIDS virus? Are these things even possible?" the site asks.

Despite the goodwill, including a spike in Google'sstock price, the announcement did prompt some to ask whether Googlewill keepits old motto "Don't be evil."

Luckily Google's search enginewillholdonto itsname, meaning you will never have to "Alphabet it."