Alphabet Relies on its Roots Google's parent company announced better than expected results on Thursday, with the stock surging 9% after hours, and its real strength was its core business: its internet search engine. That continued to be a reliable money-maker, even as the company has remained vague on the profitability of some of its other units, including its cloud business, and hardware. WSJ
The most miserable company in tech:Google used to be the happiest company in tech. Not anymore. In recent years, Google has found itself in the same position over and over again: a nearly $800 billion planetary force seemingly powerless against groups of employees—on the left and the right alike—who are holding the company hostage to its own public image. Take a look inside Google’s internal strife.(Wired) “I went from ‘Oh my god, who leaked that?’ to ‘Oh my god, management did what?!’”
YouTube Settlement YouTube will pay $170 million to settle allegations of violating children's privacy by collecting their personal data without parental consent. The Federal Trade Commission's two Democrats voted against the deal, saying it let YouTube off too easily. Alphabet's shares jumped 1.1% on the news. Fortune
Google Victory Google has won a hugely significant ruling from the EU's top court: it doesn't have to delist links around the world just because someone in Europe wants to exercise their local "right to be forgotten." The company had argued that global delisting would have set a terrible precedent, allowing the likes to China to determine what everyone around the world could or could not see. Fortune
Google says it’s achieved quantum supremacy. Here’s what it means. In a paper published Wednesday, Google announced it’s building a computer that can solve a quantum math problem in about 3 minutes. For comparison, the company says it would take the world’s largest supercomputers 10k years to solve the same problem. The news isn’t exactly surprising -- the paper leaked on NASA’s website last month. But the announcement is theofficialrollout, with all of that classic Silicon Valley fanfare:a paper in the science journalNatureand a philosophical blog post from CEO Sundar Pichai. Ahhh, ‘Quantum of Solace’ -- my favorite 007 movie Spoiler: Daniel Craig’s not in this one. Quick physics refresher: Everything is made up of atoms. There’s a set of rules for how atoms typically behave. That’s physics. But when those atoms are in places that are either a) super small or b) super cold, all hell breaks loose. They behave in a completely different way. That’s quantum physics. How that applies to computers: traditional computers, like the one in your hand right now, process “bits” of information. Every “bit” is assigned a 1 or a 0. But in a quantum computer, where the environment is cold, small, or both, “bits” can behave like both a 1 and a 0 at the same time. A very cold war, literally To borrow one of Pichai’s talking points, this discovery is like the Wright Brothers’ first flight. A breakthrough… but not exactly applicable to much, and pretty much confined to the research lab. For now. Some people --cough, IBM-- don’t think Google’s actually nailed it yet. But if quantum computers can actually be built, experts say they’d work exponentially faster than today’s supercomputers, breaking unbreakable codes and solving unsolvable math problems. Which is why companies and countries all over the world are competing to bring them up to speed. The US and China are pouring money into quantum computing, since researchers think quantum computers could eventually do things like break codes. Easily.
Alphabet's Fitbid Google parent Alphabet reportedly made an offer to buy Fitbit, sending the fitness-tracking firm's stock soaring. It rose 18% before trading was halted; after a resumption in trading, it ended the day more than 30% up. Fitbit's market cap is now around $1.5 billion. It's not clear how much Alphabet bid. CNBC
Google Banking Google will from next year offer Google Pay-linked checking accounts, in partnership with Citigroup. Although their offerings aren't quite the same, Google's move will heat up the Android company's rivalry with Apple, which recently launched an iPhone-integrated credit card, in partnership with Goldman Sachs. CNBC
Loon is flying the internet to rural areas... via balloon This week Alphabet subsidiary Loon inked a deal with Internet para Todos (IpT) to bring solar-powered, balloon-based connectivity to remote parts of the Amazon rainforest. The deal will make the internet available to about 200k people in the Loreto Region of Peru, around 75% of whom currently don’t have access to connectivity of 3G quality or greater. Facebook and Telefónica-backed IpTaim to connect 6m people in rural Peru by 2021, and Loon’s working on expanding to regions of central Kenya. From disaster relief to permanent fixture In the past few years, Loon has used natural disasters to test its balloons’ ability. Loon connected tens of thousands of Peruvians impacted by floodingin 2017 and, that same year, parked balloons over Puerto Rico for months after Hurricane Maria. Most recently, Loon swooped in after an 8.0 earthquake damaged infrastructure in Peru. Loon’s aspirations square with Alphabet’s business model Loon’s mission is “to connect people everywhere,” but it’s hard to overlook that more people browsing the internet likely means more ad revenue for Loon’s sister company, Google. And that Loon will likely have a monopoly in the areas it provides access. Connecting people everywhere sounds like a big business opportunity, as about 3.4B people still don’t have access to the internet