Customer Reviews

The Google Story : Inside the Hottest Business, Media and Technology Success of Our Time

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If you've been reading the newspaper, there's not much new here. Vise skims over issues but doesn't help you understand them.

He describes Google's library project, but doesn't explain how these millions of books are to be scanned. He says "click fraud" is jeopardizing Google's advertising model, but he doesn't explain how these bots are created or how they can be stopped. Several times he tells us Sergei Brin is a great deal-maker, but he cites no good examples -- except that Brin once redirected the private jet to London to pull an AOL Europe deal out of the fire ... by dramatically sweetening his offer to outbid Yahoo.

There are many other examples where you'd expect greater insight or behind-the-scenes reporting. The auther doesn't seem to have gotten any inside access to the founders, the CEO, the VCs or any other key protagonist.

You do get, however, a recipe for fried chicken.

I'm sorry, but I can't read this book without breaking out into incredulous laughter on just about every page. The author is so over-the-top in his adoring descriptions of Google and its founders that I sometimes have difficulty not believing that it's some kind of parody. For example, the first lines of Chapter One: "Sergey Brin and Larry Page cruised onto the stage to the kind of roars and excitement that teenagers normally reserve for rock stars.". Ok, so I think, maybe that's just an accurate description of the event. But how about these quotes from the introduction: "Googleware and the lucrative Google ad system are a reflection of their genius and foresight"... (um, I'm pretty sure Overture was doing the paid ads thing before google)... or how about this, from the very first lines of the intro: "Not since Gutenberg invented the modern printing press more than 500 years ago, making books and scientific tomes affordable and widely available to the masses, has any new invention empowered individuals, and transformed access to information, as profoundly as Google.". Um, ok. So I guess Tim Berners Lee inventing the Web itself was a relatively minor occurance in the Googleverse. And there's more - from page 11: "In the rich and storied history of American invention and capitalism, there had never been a meteoric rise comparable to theirs. It had taken Thomas Edison a quarter of a century to invent the lightbulb; Alexander Graham Bell had spent many years developing the telephone; Henry Ford created the modern assembly line and turned it into the mass production and consumption of automobiles only after decades of work...". Ok, so now they are inventors who outshine Thomas Edison. Wow. I'm thinking, get a grip. It's a search engine. It worked pretty well (but is now being overtaken by spammers and other people gaming the system). They built a huge parallel computer system, which is great. They grew at a fast rate, which is fantastic. But let's face it, making a search engine that worked better than the competition isn't anywhere on the same scale of achievement as inventing the lightbulb, telephone, or mondern mass production methods. They are smart guys, but they aren't God's gift to the world. I'm sorry, but the tone of this book just completely throws me off. I bought it because I'm honestly interested in how Google came to be. But I feel like I'm being bombarded on every page by so much adulation for Google and its founders, that it starts to feel more like a religious tract than the history of a company.

The byline of this book is "inside the hottest business, media and technology success of our time." The problem is that this book provides no "inside" look at all. The information provided by the authors might as well have been found through a Google search. There was nothing really new that has not been reported a thousand times in the media or obvious to anyone who follows Google. The work seemed a bit ambitious and proved in the end to be nothing more than a cheerleading rally for a company that doesn't need any help. I think there is still plenty of room for someone to write a real objective account of the rise and success of Google but it may be too soon. Wait another five years and either the stock will be trading at $500 a share or it will be another success story with a troubled ending. The real Google story is amazing but The Google Story was not.

The book is written in a breezy style that makes for easy reading by the lay person. To give the author his due, he does manage to convey a sense of what Google has accomplished in so short a time period. But if you're looking for any kind of in-depth analysis on what really makes Google tick, or what kind of business challenges lie ahead for the company, you may be disappointed. Other than some teasers about their management style, their custom hardware, etc., there is very little substance.

Overall, this book was disappointing because it reads as if Mr. Vise is stringing quotes together to get a story. There is no real conclusions or insights and many details and facts that are conspiculously missing.

However, it's addictive! I attribute this to the engaging story of Google more than the writing of the book, but nonetheless, I'm glad I read it so that I can compare it with the other Google book, Search.

Google is a search engine that millions of computer users have incorporated into their daily routine, so it's no surprise that someone decided to profile the two young mavericks -- Sergey Brin and Larry Page -- at the epicenter of such an amazing tale of success. In The Google Story $26.00 US, collaborators Vise & Malseed chronicle the company's meteoric launch, and the unique approach that has enabled its founders to stay one step ahead of the competition, while leaving few questions unanswered. I really enjoyed the team's breezy informational writing style, and I might have to read The Bureau and the Mole (also by David A. Vise) after finishing this.

Ostensibly, the book hinges around: advertising on Google, AOL, Ask Jeeves, details of the PageRank system, employees of Google, Eric Schmidt's role at Google, the events of September 11th, international aspects of Google, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Michigan Digitization Project, Microsoft, Overture Inc., Privacy issues, the SEC, Stanford University, the stock price of Google, Venture capital firms, Yahoo!, and the company's admirable motto -- `Don't Be Evil' -- among other things. It was especially interesting to read about key dates and turning points, how the venture faced critical challenges, and how Brin and Page turned fleeting circumstance to their advantage. Ignoring prevailing wisdom would prove lucrative for both young men.

Of course, no book is complete without photos, so you'll delight in the eight pages of black and white photography sandwiched between the pages of this non-fiction text. Some of these photos ran in Playboy, and USA Today, and it's nice that they were included, since you can eyeball the people profiled in the book. One photo shows Larry and Sergey in their first office, a garage in Menlo Park. Another shows the Googleplex campus in Mountain View, as seen from the Norden bombsight of a low-flying B-24 bomber. And one shows a polished Larry Page presiding over the opening of the NASDAQ stock exchange at the time of the Google IPO.

Got free time? Like to Google? Here's who mixed with Larry Page at the William Gates Computer Science building at Stanford: Sean Anderson (creative), Tamara Munzner (geek), Lucas Periera (bouncy), and Ben Zhu (quiet). Sergey Brin had a different office, but camped at Gates 360, with Page and his associates. Four of Brin and Page's advisors/professors were: Dennis Allison, Hector Garcia-Molina, Rajeev Motwani, and Terry Winograd. What evolved into Google emerged from separate projects: one (MIDAS=Mining Data at Stanford) helmed by Brin and Motwani, whom were extracting information from large amounts of data, and the second (DLP=Digital Libraries Project) in which Page participated. Google is a mash up of those two efforts.

Little details about Google fascinate. Did you know that Google was first known as `BackRub' in early 1997? Months later, Brin and Page decided they needed an improvement. After bouncing ideas off of each other, Sean offered up Googleplex, which Sergey shortened. After registration, Tamara told them they'd misspelled it. Another party had already registered the correct spelling, so Larry stuck with what they had. The simplicity of Google was dictated by circumstance, since the duo lacked the funds to hire a designer, or the artistic talent to implement anything better. I'd argue that the simplicity of their site is actually its `key selling point,' -- a fortunate accident if you will.

Even though Larry and Sergey took pride in Google they were eager to sell it. Designing the PageRank system took ample time from their degree pursuits, when both men simply wished to resume regular studies. In March of 1999, at Palo Alto's Mandarin Gourmet restaurant, the duo pitched their superior search technology to AltaVista but incredibly, Alta Vista passed on it. They approached Excite and other search engines, but all the companies they tried to unload it on were disinterested. Yahoo! cofounder David Filo (Stanford alum) advised the duo to take a leave from their Ph.D. program and begin a business, even though he too passed on integrating Google into Yahoo!'s website.

Stung by rejection the pair plodded along, improving Google for their university users, while delaying decisions. Five months later, angel investor Andy Bechtolsheim hands Larry Page a $100,000 check on David Cheriton's front porch and speeds off in his Porsche, to his next appointment. Bechtolsheim had reacted on gut instinct after a short presentation, and hadn't realized the gravity of what he'd done. David Cheriton, one of Larry and Sergey's graduate professors, served as the deal's matchmaker. Brin and Page hadn't even formally created a company when Bechtolsheim handed them that check. Larry had to lock it in a drawer for two weeks, until they were actually incorporated and had bank accounts.

The boomtown climate of Silicon Valley in 1999 allowed companies to raise money through stock offerings, but Brin and Page were leery of revealing trade secrets. Brin and Page weren't in it for the money either. Both sought to improve and refine Google while maintaining control. Bechtolsheim's check -- paired with $1 million scraped together from family and friends -- got them started, but they quickly burned through the cash. They could smell success after licensing technology to RedHat, but needed a large chunk of money to stay aloft. One of two local venture capital firms were likely to keep them alive, either Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, or Sequoia Capital.

On the slim chance you're uninformed; I'll give you capsule summaries. Sequoia Capital is the VC firm that reaped huge profits when Yahoo! went public in 1996. Because Google was viewed as a potential vendor, Yahoo! and Sequoia wanted to help them. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, led by Doerr, is a VC firm that made a fortune by backing Compaq, Sun Micro, and Amazon.com before people conceptually realized what each were trying to do. Both VC firms wanted exclusive access to Google, to the exclusion of the other. That Brin got both firms to cooperate with him, and take equal $12.5M stakes in the company, is a testament to his business acumen.

Readers will delight in the success of GoogleAds, whose profit-sharing revenue helped to lift the boat of Ask Jeeves, a previously bested rival (that once had a huge valuation) whom struggled with small sales before a three-year deal (valued at $100M) was forged with the Google Guys in 2001. After Steve Berkowitz took the helm at Ask Jeeves, he revamped a site that had was hard hit by a burst tech bubble. By acquiring Teoma, and partnering with Google's Eric Schmidt and Omid Kordestani, Berkowitz turned Ask Jeeves into one of Google's partners -- instead of allowing a bitter rivalry to fester. Without major audience overlaps, both firms benefited as a result.

You'll probably enjoy reading The Google Story. You'll likely be impressed by the writing. Vise & Malseed make Brin and Page come alive on the page, even though the subject matter of this book had great potential to be dry and boring. The genesis of Google News was also an exciting portion of the book. The depth of the research surrounding the writing of this book is notable. After reading this book, I'd have to agree with George Will (who was on `This Week with George Stephanopoulos' yesterday) that the Google Guys should be named Time magazine's 2005 Person of the Year. Do yourself a favor now, and buy a copy!

In less than ten years, Google has built a very successful business around its search engine solution - achieving the unusual combination of very high revenue growth and high net margins. There also is no doubt the company's vision for where it shall go in the future is unusually broad and far reaching. This makes Google a great candidate for the right author to write a great book about its rise to prominance. This unfortunately is not the book.

I attempted to read the book through, but resorted to scanning it instead. For anyone who knows how the internet works (and does not work) there is far too much hype and cheerleading in this book. The book lacks balance, it lacks critical examination, and it lacks objectivity. These are significant flaws, but it does deserve credit for delivering a reasonable chronology of how Google started and evolved to the point where it has captured the impressive market position it has today.

If you are new to the topic of understanding how a search business functions and are looking for a basic Google chronology, the book is probably fine - as long as you look past the cheerleading. If you are already up on what search related businesses most likely can (and can not) achieve, this book is worth skipping.

Reading this, as I did, will give a person a decent high-level idea of how google operates, but there is little or no "inside information". The entire book is the result of the authors' having read through interviews and articles, and simply summarizing them into a mostly-chronological account of Google.

The first two chapters are rife with such sycophantish gushing as to make me blush and were nearly unreadable. Although the book did get better, there is a lot of repetition from the authors. Somehow, one of them actually has one a pulitzer prize before; he probably should have it revoked.

The book comes across as a fairly well done high-school paper, if a teacher asked for an account of Google. There is nothing at all noteworthy, besides the lunacy of statements such as (loosly quoted): "Not since the printing press has there been an invention responsible for such great dissemination of information as Google [and, yes, they said Google, not the internet, which is a far easier argument to make]". The author refers to the two founders' genius and, although early on in the book is emphatic about their adhereance to scholarly goals and not monetary ones, finishes the book emphasizing their wealth, resistance to competition, and things like this. BTW, the two founders recently bought a massive jet full of niceties for their personal travel. I don't slight them for that (if I had that money, I'd do it, too), but pretending they are people not interested in vast wealth is quite untrue.

I thought this book is critical and worth first, based on the title; and second, the image on the book jacket. I presumed this book may be avoiding oft-repeated storytelling style so rampant in many cultures - that are fond of recycling gossip and funny tales. And, that it may be presenting stories using techniques of investigative journalism and competitive intelligence. Presuming, all this, by the cover of the book was my mistake. And so is true with many Amazon reviewers of Google's story, who feel let down by this 326 page book.

One thing I learned from this book appears in less than two lines. It refers to use of a tilde character (~). The idea is "a search for ~auto will also turn up Web pages that use the terms cars, trucks, automobiles, and more." (Vise, p. 296).

But, this idea of using tilde is an untested theory, and soon fails. Results with tilde or no tilde made no difference in many other instances. I found this occurrence of results as random as the other recent reports in the media, including the Ashley Cole story.

To be precise, I would summarize what any reader will feel; that is, this book fits in a 20 percent rule. Which type of 20 percent rule is a different story and will be described in a little while!

Twenty percent rule, in this book, refers to flexibility, in time management. That is, the author narrates how Google permits its staff to spend a part of the business hours as-you-like-it. It is a free time that is granted with a hope that there will be a creative visualization form these minds on how to move ahead in the volatile world. (Vise, pp. 131-133, 137-140, 212)

The type of 20 percent rule, I refer here, is about how much of this narrative is consuming bulk of the book. With already many books on Google in the market we don't need to read same narrative history in every book. Hence, the use of a 80/20 scale is relevant here. 80 percent of the content, in Google's story, is simply PR or an official voice of the inside story captured and, described in this book.

The book, nevertheless, has some bits and bytes of investigative journalism and competitive intelligence. And in this lies what is essential for being a good book on Google -- 20 percent of the ideas and information dealing with the critical content is all that matters. Such a brief, but thorough analytical book would have definitely resulted in saving 80 percent of reader's time, money, energy, etc.

With this thick bulky book in hand and less critical content to digest one thing is clear: viz., the world of publish or perish will continue to prosper.

If someone needs to trace the history of how Google started and landed as a top stake holder, this book is excellent, and by and large a very useful document. All advanced students and techies can go elsewhere or continue googling.

This book certainly provides the buzzwords behind Google's success = "Innovation", "Speed of Change", "Culture", "Less planning and more action" and a "willingness to fail". But for the most part it does not really provide detailed insight into the minds of Larry and Sergey.

The book however is a must read for anyone considering how to transform their busines in the "Customer Age". The fact that Google was, and remains focussed first on delivering a great customer experience and then secondarily captitalizing on this financially, is central to the theme.

The book contains many valuable lessons, but, also contains some interesting insight into the power of the "Stanford" old boys network. In fact in many ways it could be considered more of a recruiting book for Stanford than the inside story of Google.

I agree with other reviewers that the book lacks real inside commentary and fact and comes across as s series of of essays on Google.

However, given the remarkable success of the company, anyone in business should consider reading it to see what of the ideas used they could transalte into their own business.