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Check Out the Easter Egg in Google's Alphabet Announcement

 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

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Turns out, Google is a fan of the HBO show Silicon Valley.

The Web giant on Monday surprised the tech world with one of the biggest changes in its history — the formation of a new parent company called Alphabet. But if you checked out Larry Page's blog post about the change, there's a good chance you missed something rather amusing. Turns out, Google hid a fun little Silicon Valley-themed Easter Egg in its announcement.

To check it out for yourself, head over to the official Alphabet announcement on Google's blog and scroll down to the seventh paragraph, which begins with the line "Sergey and I…"

On first glance, you probably won't even notice it, but there's a link hidden in plain sight at the end of the line that reads "Alphabet will also include our X lab, which incubates new efforts like Wing, our drone delivery effort." Click the period at the end of that sentence to see what we're talking about.

The link sends you to a fake website for Hooli XYZ, the "experimental" division of the fictional tech giant in Silicon Valley, aka "The dream kitchen. The moonshot factory. The laboratory of possibility. The midwife of magic. The womb of wonders," as the site reads. Google also references the show in its new URL for Alphabet: abc.xyz.

As Page explained in his post, Alphabet will now oversee Google and all the various side projects in which the search giant has invested. So companies like Life Sciences, which works on glucose-sensing contact lenses, and Calico, focused on longevity, will now be part of Alphabet, instead of Google.

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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