"Both as a company and as a concept, Google has transformed the Internet and the entire cosmos of knowledge. John Battelle has written a brilliant business book, but he's also done something more: he's used the amazing saga of Google to explore what it means to search. All searchers should read it." Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute; former editor of Time "This book ought to be called 'The Answer.' As usual, John Battelle delivers insightful, thought-provoking, and essential reading. If you want to know why Google-think really does change everything, this is the book for you." Seth Godin, author of All Marketers Are Liars and Purple Cow "Nobody, and I mean nobody, has thought longer, harder, or smarter about Google and the search business than John Battelle. Now he coughs up a book that combines terrific reporting with rigorous analysis and joints-after-midnight ruminations on where this company and technology are taking us. If you want to understand the rise of the search economy and culture, you need to read this book." John Heilemann, author of Pride Before the Fall "Battelle has done two things with this book. He's figured out why 'search' is so damned important to the future of everything digital. Even more impressive, he's actually managed to turn the subject into a compelling analog story." John Huey, Editorial Director, Time Inc. "A must read for anyone endeavoring to understand one of the most important trends of this generation: organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible." Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Internet Analyst, Morgan Stanley "A terrific book. The Search makes clear that despite the many losers over the years and the few still-standing winners, the search industry remains at a very early stage of development. Searching is fine, but actually discovering answers will be even better." L. Gordon Crovitz, Dow Jones
--This text refers to an alternate
kindle_edition edition.
"
The Search is a superb story, well written and feverishly researched. Whether you are a student, techie, business executive, budding visionary or just enjoy pop culture, this is a book not to be missed."
—
USA Today "John Battelle is Silicon Valley’s Bob Woodward. One of the founders of
Wired magazine, he has hung around Google for so long that he has come to be as close as any outsider can to actually being an insider….The result is a highly readable account of Google’s astonishing rise."
—
The Economist "It’s a fascinating story, and Mr. Battelle… tells it well."
—
The Wall Street Journal "A surprisingly gripping story…
The Search yields impressive results, pairing a reportorial eye for detail with an evangelical zeal to help readers understand the import of the search revolution."
—
Wired News "Battelle…manages to keep things compelling, adding his own trenchant analysis about what Google’s rapid evolution and powerful technology might mean for the company and our society as whole."
—The Associated Press
"A compelling glimpse of the search industry’s early years."
—
BusinessWeek "Deeply researched and nimbly reported."
—
Publishers Weekly "Indispensable."
—
London Review of Books "John Battelle has written a brilliant business book, but he’s also done something more: he’s used the amazing saga of Google to explore what it means to search. All searchers should read it."
—Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute; former editor of
Time; former CEO of CNN
"Nobody, and I mean nobody, has thought longer, harder, or smarter about Google and the search business than John Battelle. If you want to understand the rise of the search economy and culture, you need to read this book."
—John Heilemann, author of
Pride Before the Fall
--This text refers to the
paperback edition.
Amazon.com 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
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A must-read for anyone endeavoring to understand one of the most important trends of this generation. -- Mary Meeker, managing director and Internet analyst, Morgan Stanley
A terrific book. -- L. Gordon Crovitz, Dow Jones
Battelle's figured out why search is so damned important... and managed to turn the subject into a compelling analog story. -- John Huey, editorial director, Time inc.
John Battelle has written a brilliant business book ... All searchers should read it. -- Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute; former editor of Time; CEO of CNN; author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made
Nobody, and I mean nobody, has thought longer, harder, or smarter about Google and the search business than John Battelle. -- John Heilemann, author of Pride Before the Fall: The Trials of Bill Gates and the End of the Microsoft Era
This book ought to be called 'The Answer.' As usual, John Battelle delivers insightful, thought-provoking, and essential reading. -- Seth Godin, author of All Marketers Are Liars and Purple Cow
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Battelle, entrepreneur, writer, and academic, explores the concept of search, one of the Internet's first useful services, which adopted an actual business model in banner advertising. This also is a book about the fabulous success of Google, which is at the core of Battelle's research, but the book is broader in scope than one company's story. We learn that the impact of search on our culture is extraordinary--it could bring together the convergence of television and personal computers and it could lead to the creation of artificial intelligence. The author opens up our perspective on the enormity of search and society's collective click stream, the product of our online lives as played out across Internet sites and private machines with e-mails recorded and preserved, and although losing some privacy, we seek convenience, service, and power. Battelle sees the search engines of the future as intelligent agents and reference librarians holding all of human knowledge. This is an excellent, thought-provoking book. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Rather than write a book strictly about the rise of Google as a business, technology journalist Battelle targets his research on the concept of Internet search, beginning the book with a discussion of an abstract idea he terms the "Database of Intentions," defined as the sum total of all queries that pour into search engines daily, revealing the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of our culture. Though most of the book is devoted to the search engine giant (which Battelle reports corners 51 percent of the search engine market), the author also includes chapters on "Search, Before Google" and the "Who, What, Where, Why, When. And How (much)" of search. Battelle is at his best when describing the creation of Google, especially through the yin-yang personalities of its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and in describing the company's culture. Though Battelle's descriptions of Internet search technology can get too technical for readers without a computer science background, the book is a deeply researched and nimbly reported look at how search has defined the Internet and how it will continue to be a tremendous reflection of culture.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
John Battelle is a cofounding editor of Wired and the founder of The Industry Standard, as well as TheStandard.com. He is currently program chair for the Web 2.0 conference, a columnist for Business 2.0, and the founder, chairman, and publisher of Federated Media Publishing, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
![The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by [John Battelle]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41UMLc+1DGL._SY346_.jpg)
