Google Ideas has changed its name to Jigsaw and has been taken over by Alphabet.

The Google Ideas division should now resume its work under the new name Jigsaw and start investing in projects that solve geopolitical problems and prevent digital attacks. This change was announced by former CEO of Google and Alphabet Chairman of the Board of Directors Eric Schmidt in a publication on Medium.

“Why Jigsaw (puzzle, English, approx. Ed.)? On the one hand, the new name allows you to recognize that there are many puzzles in the world, both in the real and in the virtual world. On the other hand, it reflects our conviction that joint problem solving guarantees the best possible solution to the problem, ”said Eric Schmidt.

')
As a technology incubator, Jigsaw will invest in software and technology development to expand the coverage area to the network for all segments of the world's population. It is noteworthy that the division of Jigsaw will come under the control of Alphabet , while Google Ideas was supervised directly by the leaders of the search giant. Jared Cohen, who previously led Google Ideas for the past five years, will be responsible for the development of Jigsaw. Now Jared will be personally responsible for Eric Schmidt and will continue to work in Jigsaw. Before Google, Cohen worked under the guidance of Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

While working at the US State Department, Cohen actively supported freedom of speech in other countries. So, he was able to convince Twitter to remain connected to the network in Iran, when it was actively used by local protesters to provide relevant information to the media. As a result, it almost cost him a job, and a year later he joined Google Ideas.

During its existence, Google Ideas has repeatedly helped residents of various countries with rigid state censorship to stay online and gain access to various web services. Among the main projects of the unit are Project Shield to protect news sites from DDoS attacks, as well as the uProxy extension for connecting to the network through a proxy.

It is noteworthy that while Google actually reopens research directions, other companies, on the contrary, prefer to cut costs. As part of this, Yahoo recently announced the closure of its Yahoo Labs division - which has been working on new advanced technology projects. Yahoo Labs employees are integrated into the company's core teams, and the heads of the divisions, Ron Brahman and Ricardo Baeza-Yeats, leave Yahoo. This decision is quite logical for the development policy of Yahoo - for the last time the company's profit does not show impressive growth, and the company has reduced 15% of the staff and closed five offices.