Book - The Google Story

 

The Google Story.

Google is an interesting company. But this book only scratches the surface of what's really interesting about Google and it's executives.

It reads far more like a personal marketing piece for Google's founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page than a work of hard journalism.

The book contends frequently that Google is "different". It describes differences like  the free Google gourmet cafeteria menu and gaming dorm room feel of the work space, but provides little insight into the technical and operational differences that makes Google the exception that the author believes Google to be. Instead he attributes Google's success to the blinding genius its two founding partners.

The author predicts that Google will cure disease, irradiate poverty and hunger, and deliver free high speed internet access to every nook and cranny on the planet.

The reasoning is that Google eats lives and breaths a holier than everyone else philosophy, often pronounced in bumper-sticker fashion, "Do No Evil".

Don't get me wrong. Google is interesting and successful, and has changed the way we use the internet. It's also a publicly traded, for profit company that is as interested in making money as any other commercial entity.

They do what companies do. The recruit ruthlessly, they adjust their business model to meet the economic needs, and spend their share of time in court getting the rules redefined or reinterpreted when they can.

The book was OK. It does provide an anecdotal history of Google, which makes for some interesting trivia, but I would still love to read a lewss bias and more "in depth" book on the Google phenomenon.

As for the science of search changing the world. Check Out "SEARCH"