This book effectively combines a biography of sorts that focuses on Google as a company, and on its impact on media specifically and the world more generally. Throughout its pages, Auletta offers readers stories from inside the company, and these stories effectively illustrate the culture of Google. In addition, Mr. Auletta effectively captures the personalities of the founders and other leaders of this company, which provides valuable insight in how Google has come to be the corporate powerhouse that it is. Auletta's book is a critical look at Google's rise of power, its business practices, and its powerful ambitions. It is a must read for anyone who wants to experience a portrait of a truly "disruptive" company that is still making waves in the world of modern media.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 14, 2012
Is this the best book evef?
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 12, 2013
Lololololllololololololololllololololololololololoooololol
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Posted May 10, 2013
Yes is good!!!!!!
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Posted April 27, 2013
Im about to hurl chuncks! :0=
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Posted April 11, 2013
I found this book to test on but i found YOU GUYS! ~A cat in the zor
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Posted April 20, 2013
Good bye!
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Posted June 10, 2013
For the twenty-thousandth time, WHERE THE F<_>UCKING HELL ARE YOU?! If you read this, sorry for flipping on you.
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Posted February 4, 2013
Trending now
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Posted December 25, 2012
Good
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Posted November 18, 2012
Twilight was the worst book ever!!! Get it staight review #5!!
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 18, 2012
Good
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Posted May 12, 2012
A book on google? Why not just google all your questions? Easy right?
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 2, 2012
Once upon a time there was five little girl
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 7, 2012
This is the worst book ever
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 27, 2011
I didnt like it after i picked it up
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 26, 2011
I dont like the nook
0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I have read several books about Google over the years, and this one is certainly the best written of them all. This is not surprising - Ken Auletta is a writer, journalist and media critic for The New Yorker. His writing is of an exceptionally high quality and a pleasure to read. The book is also very well researched, with first-hand accounts from many of the key players at Google and other companies that prominently feature in this story. Many of the stories about Google's early years have been written about before in other books and articles, but there are also a substantial number of new, untold accounts. In particular, we get a better idea of who were the important early investors in Google and the order in which they supported the fledgling company. Several not-so-famous high-level operatives are profiled who had a substantial influence on Google's development. However, even though these profiles are not the typical puff-pieces that have come to dominate the popular business press, they are not all that critical and candid either. From the point of view of writing an interesting story this is somewhat to be expected. The triumvirate that runs Google despite their incredible business success is composed of three very geeky individuals that don't necessarily have the most exciting personalities. On the other hand certain other highly visible members of the Google hierarchy perform rather obscure functions in the company that are hard to get too excited about from the outsider's point of view. None of the books about Google that have come out so far provide us with the intriguing stories of what is really going on inside Google - clashing personalities, conflicting projects, dazzling new ideas, development dead ends, etc. This is particularly noticeable when comparing books about Google to books about some other prominent technology companies - Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. Apple in particular, even though infamous for the level of secrecy, has enjoyed a spate of recent books and articles that reveal much more about its product development and internal affairs than any one of the books about Google that are out there.
There are a couple more weaknesses of this book from the point of view of content. Google is a company that prides itself above all on its technology, and yet you will find very little in terms of technological details in this book. Even if you are not someone who is intrigued by technology, it would be important to read about some more prominent technological aspects of Google, at least in order to put Google's success in context. Most technology companies don't succeed, and this is particularly true of search engines, and it would be important to understand what are the technical advantages that Google has that keep it so well ahead of all of its competitors.
The other big problem that I had with this book is that it provides an inordinate amount of space to other companies and business developments in recent years. In particular, Auletta seems to be very fascinated with the media business and the rapid changes that have been happening to it in recent few years. For instance, the newspaper industry is going through what could be the greatest evolution in its history, and this book tries to give this change a perspective. Google and other internet companies are the key players in this transformation, and it is important to understand how newspapers and Google are influencing each other. However, Auletta doesn'
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 20, 2010
trdggyg ggvhjbhh
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 2, 2010
i really enjoyed reading this book, its very helpful for an economics class. It tells allot about how the company got started and some of the obstacles it had to face while getting to be at the point where it is now, the book contains allot of good information that not many people know, when i read the first chapter i was hooked and couldn't stop reading, it's absolutely amazingly well written.! :]
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More About This Textbook
Overview
-San Francisco Chronicle
Just eleven years old, Google has profoundly transformed the way we live and work-we've all been Googled. Esteemed media writer Ken Auletta uses the story of Google's rise to explore the future of media at large. This book is based on the most extensive cooperation ever granted a journalist, including access to closed-door meetings and interviews with industry legends, including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Marc Andreessen, and media guru "Coach" Bill Campbell. Auletta's unmatched analysis, vivid details, and rich anecdotes illuminate how the Google wave grew, how it threatens to drown media institutions, and where it's taking us next.
Editorial Reviews
Michiko Kakutani
Googled depicts the company as a brilliant, game-changing behemoth that can be socially inept, and both naive and arrogant in its dealings with the world. The book, more fair-minded reportage than a polemic, leaves us with a telling portrait of a paradigm-altering company, which in 11 years has utterly transformed the business and media landscape, but which also suffers at times from the sort of myopia that comes from determinedly left-brain thinking—that is, a scientific-engineering driven point of view that prizes data, efficiency and growth while often overlooking more human and political concerns like privacy and copyright.—The New York Times
Nicholson Baker
…absorbing, shaggy…I read the book in three huge gulps and learned a lot—about Google's "cold war" with Facebook, about Google's tussles with Viacom, about Google's role in the "Yahoo-Microsoft melee" and about Google's gradual estrangement from its former ally, Apple…what Auletta mainly does is talk shop with C.E.O.'s, and that is the great strength of the book. Auletta seems to have interviewed every media chief in North America, and most of them are unhappy, one way or another, with what Google has become.—The New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly
Auletta offers a comprehensive history of Google's meteoric rise, profiling its creators, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the initial team members, previous commentators on the organization, and Google's various competitors over the years. Jim Bond captures Auletta's tone admirably, tonally balancing fact and opinion within the book. Despite some vocal wavering, Bond commands our attention and sustains interest with pacing and emphasis that enable listeners to absorb the information effortlessly along with the significance of certain moments and individuals. A Penguin Press hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 24). (Nov.)Library Journal
A corporate upstart just over a decade old, Google has wormed its way into our lives, our vocabulary, and even the hallowed halls of academe, with Internet dominance and multibillion-dollar advertising revenues that make it one of the largest media entities of all time. New Yorker media critic Auletta (Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way), who spent several years researching Google and interviewing hundreds of company and industry players, delivers the real scoop on how this Internet giant fits into the larger media landscape. His fascinating examination illuminates Google's world from just about every conceivable angle: competitive, legal, regulatory, cultural, and ethical. He wraps up with an assessment of where the behemoth might be headed but provides enough insight to allow readers to draw their own conclusions about Google and whether its emergence really does spell the end of the world as we know it. VERDICT While the Google phenomenon has spawned dozens of books, Auletta's years of research and firsthand access to insiders, critics, competitors, and commentators give readers a well-rounded perspective on the company and how it fits into the wider milieu.[See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/09.]—Carol J. Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin Lib., WhitewaterKirkus Reviews
The New Yorker's "Annals of Communication" columnist Auletta (Media Man: Ted Turner's Improbably Empire, 2004, etc.) goes behind the digital revolution to detail the past decade of astonishing growth at Google. The greatest fear of Microsoft's Bill Gates-"someone in a garage who is devising something completely new"-was realized in Stanford graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who parlayed their breakthrough search engine into an all-purpose threat to newspapers, books, television, movies, phones, advertising and even Microsoft. Page and Brin believe that their enlightened business practice of putting end users first reflects the firm's motto, "Don't be evil." Their tendency as engineers-to dismiss what cannot be objectively measured-has helped them undercut traditional advertising firms incapable of pinpointing the effectiveness of campaigns. It has also left them sometimes so hilariously deficient in emotional intelligence that, Auletta writes, they "naively believe that most mysteries, including the mysteries of human behavior, are unlocked with data." CEO Eric Schmidt has balanced their desire to move nimbly against the larger world's fears about privacy, copyright and antitrust issues. In a high-tech, high-wire act, Google has combined in-house initiatives and daring acquisitions, producing one innovation after another and aiming to become a $100 billion media company (more than twice the size of Time Warner, the Walt Disney Co. or News Corp.)-and battling legal moves from alarmed old-media rivals. While praising its innovations, Auletta criticizes the company for not living up to its ideals in, for instance, China, where it agreed to censor sites to assure access in theauthoritarian-controlled nation. Though not a vivid stylist, Auletta uncovers some endlessly colorful material and assesses its prospects critically but fairly-Google will thrive, he thinks, but they'd better guard against naivete and complacency. New York launch event. Tie-in to author's lecture schedulePublishers Weekly
Auletta offers a comprehensive history of Google's meteoric rise, profiling its creators, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the initial team members, previous commentators on the organization, and Google's various competitors over the years. Jim Bond captures Auletta's tone admirably, tonally balancing fact and opinion within the book. Despite some vocal wavering, Bond commands our attention and sustains interest with pacing and emphasis that enable listeners to absorb the information effortlessly along with the significance of certain moments and individuals. A Penguin Press hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 24). (Nov.)Product Details
Related Subjects
Meet the Author
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Part 1 Different Planets
Chapter 1 Messing with the Magic 3
Part 2 The Google Story
Chapter 2 Starting in a Garage 27
Chapter 3 Buzz but Few Dollars (1999-2000) 46
Chapter 4 Prepping the Google Rocket (2001-2002) 66
Chapter 5 Innocence or Arrogance? (2002-2003) 94
Chapter 6 Google Goes Public (2004) 105
Chapter 7 The New Evil Empire? (2004-2005) 121
Part 3 Google Versus the Bears
Chapter 8 Chasing the Fox (2005-2006) 143
Chapter 9 War on Multiple Fronts (2007) 169
Chapter 10 Waking the Government Bear 186
Chapter 11 Google Enters Adolescence (2007-2008) 199
Chapter 12 Is "Old" Media Drowning? (2008) 228
Chapter 13 Compete or Collaborate? 242
Chapter 14 Happy Birthday (2008-2009) 262
Part 4 Googled
Chapter 15 Googled 281
Chapter 16 Where Is the Wave Taking Old Media? 296
Chapter 17 Where Is the Wave Taking Google? 322
Afterword 337
25 Business Maxims 345
Acknowledgments 371
Notes 373
Index 407