The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture - Hardcover

Battelle, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591840880 ISBN 13: 9781591840886

Publisher: Portfolio, 2005

Synopsis

The story of the popular Internet search engine draws on more than 350 interviews with executives at Google and other leading technology companies, explaining how it became one of the world's leading IPOs and revealing how Google and its competitors contributed to changes in information searching and viral marketing. 40,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

If you pick your books by their popularity--how many and which other people are reading them--then know this about The Search: it's probably on Bill Gates' reading list, and that of almost every venture capitalist and startup-hungry entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. In its sweeping survey of the history of Internet search technologies, its gossip about and analysis of Google, and its speculation on the larger cultural implications of a Web-connected world, it will likely receive attention from a variety of businesspeople, technology futurists, journalists, and interested observers of mid-2000s zeitgeist.

This ambitious book comes with a strong pedigree. Author John Battelle was a founder of The Industry Standard and then one of the original editors of Wired, two magazines which helped shape our early perceptions of the wild world of the Internet. Battelle clearly drew from his experience and contacts in writing The Search. In addition to the sure-handed historical perspective and easy familiarity with such dot-com stalwarts as AltaVista, Lycos, and Excite, he speckles his narrative with conversational asides from a cast of fascinating characters, such Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Yahoo's, Jerry Yang and David Filo; key executives at Microsoft and different VC firms on the famed Sandhill road; and numerous other insiders, particularly at the company which currently sits atop the search world, Google.

The Search is not exactly the corporate history of Google. At the book's outset, Battelle specifically indicates his desire to understand what he calls the cultural anthropology of search, and to analyze search engines' current role as the "database of our intentions"--the repository of humanity's curiosity, exploration, and expressed desires. Interesting though that beginning is, though, Battelle's story really picks up speed when he starts dishing inside scoop on the darling business story of the decade, Google. To Battelle's credit, though, he doesn't stop just with historical retrospective: the final part of his book focuses on the potential future directions of Google and its products' development. In what Battelle himself acknowledges might just be a "digital fantasy train", he describes the possibility that Google will become the centralizing platform for our entire lives and quotes one early employee on the weightiness of Google's potential impact: "Sometimes I feel like I am on a bridge, twenty thousand feet up in the air. If I look down I'm afraid I'll fall. I don't feel like I can think about all the implications."

Some will shrug at such words; after all, similar hype has accompanied other technologies and other companies before. Many others, though, will search Battelle's story for meaning--and fast. --Peter Han

Review:

"A must read for anyone endeavoring to understand one of the most important trends of this generation." -- Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Internet Analyst, Morgan Stanley

"A must read for anyone endeavouring to understand one of the most important trends of this generation," -- Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Internet Analyst, Morgan Stanley

"John Battelle coughs up a book that combines terrific reporting with rigorous analysis ... you need to read this book." -- John Heilemann, author of Pride Before the Fall

"John Battelle coughs up a book that combines terrific reporting with rigorous analysis." -- John Heilemann, author of Pride Before the Fall

"John Battelle delivers insightful, thought-provoking, and essential reading." -- Seth Godin, author of All Marketers Are Liars and Purple Cow

"John Battelle has written a brilliant book. All searchers should read it." -- Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute; former Editor of Time

"John Battelle has written a brilliant business book. All searchers should read it." -- Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute; former editor of Time

Salerno presents a carefully researched--and devastating--exposé on SHAM's predatory and fraudulent practices and its corrosive effects on society. -- Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Portfolio
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1591840880
• ISBN 13: 9781591840886
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 350