It's funny, they're named after the street that their office is on. Which is where their office was the whole time, but the new name is actually a better fit for what they do than the old one was.
I'm also curious about this. Isn't this exactly the kind of project Alphabet was created to wrap? i.e. something not related to Google's core business but still under the corporate umbrella?
Terra Bella is under Geo, which is where Maps resides. Seems like a pretty good fit to me, given that satellite imagery is presented in Maps. Why do you think Terra Bella should be in Alphabet?
That makes perfect sense actually. I was erroneously thinking of Terra Bella as a standalone project instead of as an extension to one of Google's core products.
Interestingly, Google acquired Terra Bella in 2014. Even though the domain says google.com, is this an Alphabet subsidiary or part of Google itself?