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Google story (re)told well......not much intrepretive/predictive analysis Oct 20, 2009 (23 of 26 found this helpful)
For a book that bills itself as something that will "offer insights into what we know, and don't know, about what the future holds for the imperiled industry", it does an excellent job with the first part, hard to say what was unique about the take of the author that was significantly different from other books such as What Would Google Do?and The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Timeand hardly does justice to the last portion (what future holds). The story of the beginnings and rise of Google, its famed work culture, unconventional approaches of its founder are all well told - in this book as well as previous ones. Auletta tries to cast the discussion from the viewpoint of the advertising industry - and while that in itself doesn't provide a significantly different perspective (Anyone who understands Google's revenue streams already knows it is in the advertising business....), it does provide for interesting reading. For an initiate in the Google story, this book will do full justice. If you are already familiar with the Google story and thought that the author will focus on the future of advertising media and related topics, you are likely to be disappointed. A recent book The Curse of the Mogul: What's Wrong with the World's Leading Media Companies actually does more justice in that regard.
Auletta does (re)raise significant issues - the discussion on Google Books and copyrights is a clear standout in the book. The "hubris" as portrayed by traditional media companies during Google's infancy is mind-boggling and amusing (of course, with the benefit of hindsight). Other than the framing of the discussion in the viewpoint of media/advertising, a Google-buff is not likely to realize significant benefit from this book. That focus also forces the author not to be able to discuss products such as Google Health - which has the potential for being a disruptive solution in itself. Overall, an excellent read for the Google-newbie, but an OK addition for a Google-phile.
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Why Google matters Oct 22, 2009 (14 of 16 found this helpful)
"Googled" by Ken Auletta chronicles the rise of Google from its auspicious origins within the labs of Stanford University to its becoming perhaps the most influential technology company in Silicon Valley today. Mr. Auletta, who has covered the media and technology industries for many years, has drawn on his many dozens of personal interviews with key players to tell this remarkable story as only he can. Full of interesting anecdotes, insight and analysis, this highly readable book explains why Google matters a lot to consumers, businesses and policy makers.
Mr. Auletta excels at writing Google's corporate history, dedicating individual chapters to each year of its development from 1999 through 2008. Like many Internet success stories, we become acquainted with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two (more or less) socially-awkward but undeniably brilliant persons who have remained true to their vision of making information accessible to end users via the Internet. Mr. Auletta explains that Google's focus on perfecting its proprietary search algorithms has proven to be widely disruptive to technology and media companies alike; while its control of information has garnered attention from governments and non-governmental organizations who are concerned about issues of corporate power and personal privacy.
Mr. Auletta discusses how Google's growth has posed challenges within to its management, corporate culture and strategy. While generally praising Page and Brin for their decisions, Mr. Auletta is concerned that Google's founders, who have yet to be confronted with the kind of adversity that afflicts most business owners, could be overlooking some of the external threats to the company's long-term viability; chief among these are what Mr. Auletta believes are legitimate public concerns about the use of private information for profit. Yet, it is clear from the author's thoughtful analysis that the technology and data Google collects has uniquely positioned the company to continue to take advantage of, if not define, the media/technology landscape for the foreseeable future.
I highly recommend this book to everyone.
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Title and Content Mismatch Oct 25, 2009 (17 of 21 found this helpful)
When I saw the title of this book, I thought that it would tell me about all the fantastic new projects Google is working on, and how they will change how we do everything. However the majority of the book is retrospective, telling us how Google got to where it is now. It is a well written corporate history, with a lot of detail and insider perspectives. It describes how Google came to be the dominant player in the online advertising market with AdWords. It describes how Google News is hastening the extinction of most of America's newspapers. It talks about Android, Google's alternative OS to the iPhone. It covers the exciting but mismanaged Google Books project. But when it comes to describing Google's latest initiatives, like the Google Chrome OS, or the latest exciting and slightly scary developments in the Google Maps/Google Earth platform,the book falls woefully short.
Perhaps the author could not expand on what exciting new initiatives Google has is because all the really exciting news lately has been from other companies. The most life-changing products to hit the market lately have been Facebook and Twitter, neither of which are Google products. It is also worth noting that while search will never go away, Twitter, and to a lesser extent Facebook, have gone a long way to changing the way we access data. Instead of simply searching for things, people can now share links quickly and easily with their network of friends. Android has yet to make a significant dent on the iPhone's market share. Perhaps if Google made a more concerted push to support and develop Augmented Reality technology for Android phones, because AR certainly seems to be where the next wave will come from, and their are no dominant players in that field yet.
In the end, I was misled by the subtitle of the book, "The End of the World as We Know It," into hoping it offered a view of the future. Given the fact that I read the book in paper format, I should have known that this was a long shot. Our view of the future is constantly changing, and it is an unrealistic expectation to hope that a book author can make predictions that will a) stand up to the delay between idea formulation and publication and b) avoid being leaked and widely distributed on the web prior to publication.
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Much more than I expected Sep 26, 2009 (10 of 14 found this helpful)
As I started reading this earlier today, I thought it would be a glossy recounting of Google's history with little substance. I deliberately ignore the author's name when I first pick up a new book so that I won't be influenced by my previous experiences - had I known that Ken Auletta was the author, I would have known better. But I did not, and indeed the first few chapters seemed to confirm my expectation of fluff.
Honestly, I was getting bored and was very close to tossing it aside. After all, I know the history of Google and have been involved with Adsense both as an advertiser and a website publisher for many years now. I was an early adopter of Gmail, have e-books in Google Books and of course have a Google Voice account. I bought Google stock early on. I don't care very much about the personalities of the founders; I wasn't finding much to interest me.
Fortunately, I held on a few more chapters and realized that this is a much deeper examination than I thought. The wide eyed awe and admiration that seemed to be the the theme of the first few chapters started to be replaced with a closer look at wrinkles and flaws. I don't mean that the author is attacking Google - it's just a fair and balanced honest look at the reality that is Google.
Later chapters examine the gestalt of Google even more deeply. What does Google mean to other companies? What does Google's growth mean to itself? Can it really "do no evil"? These are all questions I've asked and thought about as I've watched Google grow and change. Ken Auletta has dissected the impact of Google thoroughly. I don't always agree with his conclusions, but he does hit all the stops and digs in to every angle.
Excellent analysis, very, very well done. The business and societal changes that are developing are important to understand - this book will help.
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It doesn't deliver what the title promises, just another typical account of a successful internet company Nov 4, 2009 (3 of 5 found this helpful)
Though interesting, the author goes into too much detail about the origins and personal life of the founders and other the key players, with too many anecdotes and insider info that do not add real value to the story. As an example, the story of the development and key role played by AdWords and AdSense is quite interesting, and key to Google's financial viability that allow it to become a successful business, but this story gets clouded with so much detail and irrelevant anecdotes, to the border of despair. In contrast, the stories regarding the origins of digitalizing all books in the world and how the IPO was conducted, are presented fluidly, without unnecessary interruptions, distractions or repetitions. I wish the latter would have been the prevailing style rather ever branching anecdotes.
Furthermore, Mr. Auletta does not deliver what the title promises, as claiming that Google marks the end of the world as we know it is quite an exaggeration. The impact of Google in traditional media businesses is just discussed in pieces here and there, but the book fails to proof what the title claims. In summary, the book scope and content is similar to other books regarding innovative and successful computer/internet based companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Wikipedia and the other previous books about Google, but the writing style gets in the way of the main story.