Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
Google's Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Sergey Brin
In a blog post about the rebrand, Google executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt writes that the company decided that it was time for the name to "catch up with our ambition," since Google caters its products to all types of work environments.
"We never set out to create a traditional "enterprise" business," he writes, "We wanted to create a new way of doing work."
Google reports that more than 5 million businesses and 64% of Fortune 500 companies currently use its work products. The company makes about 91% of its revenues from advertising, but its work products make up much of the remaining 9%.
Here's the full blog post:
Work is where you spend a lot of your time. So we've always believed that it should be meaningful-not a daily grind, done in isolation on an old desktop in a sea of cubicles. Even more, we believe that technology should make work better. It should make it easy not just to get things done, but to get things done with people who inspire you, at the times and in the places where you work best, and in a way that lets you make an impact, no matter what your job is, or what industry you're in.
Ten years ago, we started bringing Google's consumer technology-along with the features, controls and services businesses need-to work. We first brought search and then Gmail to businesses. Today we also offer the scale and reliability of Google's infrastructure to developers with Google Maps and Google Cloud Platform, and have extended into hardware with Android and Chromebooks. Along the way we've invested in what matters to our customers and partners-security, transparency, compliance and customer support. And our team, the breadth of our offerings, and our commitment to business customers have all increased substantially.
Work today is very different from 10 years ago. Cloud computing, once a new idea, is abundantly available, and collaboration is possible across offices, cities, countries and continents. Ideas can go from prototype to development to launch in a matter of days. Working from a computer, tablet and/or phone is no longer just a trend-it's a reality. And millions of companies, large and small, have turned to Google's products to help them launch, build and transform their businesses, and help their employees work the way they live. In other words, work is already better than it used to be.
But technology for the workplace isn't just about a better way of doing business. It's about empowering anyone, whether they're a developer with an idea in their basement or a baker with a better cupcake or a company with thousands of employees, to have an impact. We never set out to create a traditional "enterprise" business-we wanted to create a new way of doing work. So the time has come for our name to catch up with our ambition. As of today, what was called Google Enterprise is now, simply, Google for Work. When we use the tools that make our lives easier-Google Apps, Maps, Search, Chrome, Android, Cloud Platform and more-work gets better. And that's what we're working on-the best of Google, now for work.