Google does not want to be like Microsoft

With the launch of its new holding company, Alphabet, Google is trying its hardest not to be Microsoft. And Chief Executive Officer Larry Page is signaling that he does not want to be Bill Gates.

The software startup that Gates founded morphed into a tech giant and gradually took over nearly every computer desktop in the world. Its core products — Windows, still the dominant desktop operating system, and productivity software like Office, which made computers invaluable to office workers.

The concept behind the reorganization seems to be anointing several non-search divisions as equally important as the core Google business. That’s just optics, because the company will continue to make its money in the same way for the near future. The most important change is in Page’s role, which is shifting to a spot at the top, with Brin, of the new Alphabet entity.

Page is inviting the coolest and most innovative engineers to come work for him. He’s saying that he does not know, as no executive ever does, what his company’s next big product will be.

Google remains one of the coolest companies on earth, measured by the number of people clamoring for jobs there. For the last six years it’s ranked number one on Fortune’s list of the best companies to work for. But Google is not the only hot company, and it faces hiring competition from Facebook, Twitter, and a phalanx of newer startups