Google has gone through a number of big branding changes of late. The company itself saw a new holding company being formed and introduced, Alphabet, which Google now falls under the umbrella of. Not to mention, Google saw a logo change and a number of its departments going through their own changes as well. Changes, all with a view to establishing their position within the new Alphabet hierarchy. The most recent of which was Google’s more adventurous division, Google X, dropping its Google moniker and simply becoming X.
Alphabet’s Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, has now confirmed the next department to see an identity change and this time it is ‘Google Ideas’, which has now become ‘Jigsaw’. Google Ideas was the company’s think tank and as Schmidt notes, was created with the original intention to try and bring to the forefront ideas on how to “help the next five billion people coming online for the first time“. An ethos which quickly adapted to account for additional global issues and concerns. With the identity change, it seems this will not be an aspect that is changing anytime soon. Instead, Jigsaw is what the team views as the next and natural evolutionary stage in Google Ideas’ philosophy of using technology to help solve global issues. According to Schmidt, the goal of Jigsaw will be “to use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges, from countering violent extremism to thwarting online censorship to mitigating the threats associated with digital attacks“. Aspects which form the basis for the adoption of the ‘Jigsaw’ name with Schmidt noting how the world is a “complex puzzle” and one full of challenges.
While this might sound like negative reasoning to change the name, Schmidt does also point out another reason behind the name change is how communal problem solving is one of the ways in which world issues can be addressed. Adding, technology combined with research will be able to “put the puzzle together“. According to the announcement there will not be any immediate changes at the top with Jared Cohen, who was previously in charge of Google Ideas, adopting the position of President at Jigsaw. Those interested in finding out more about the change of Google Ideas to Jigsaw, head through the source link below to read the full blog posting.