Name: Googled
ISBN: 9781594202353

Ken Auletta

Critically examines the influence of Google on today's dynamic media landscape, profiling company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin while offering insight into their lucrative business processes and assessing the internal and external threats that may inhibit the company's future prospects.

The End of the World as We Know it

Googled

Timeo Williams

Despite the fact that this is book is dated by about a decade, it still remains relevant. 

In Googled, Auletta goes into detail about the story behind Google, the idea, its early growth, and its post-adolescence stage. It was interesting getting a feel for how this company managed itself. After all, much talk of how cool the perks of working for a Silicon Valley company come from Google, with its free food and 20% project time philosophies. 

- I also enjoyed how the CEO role was somewhat split between Eric, Larry, and Sergey in a unique way, with Eric administering discipline to the workforce and Larry and Sergey bouncing against it, on occasion. 

The book goes on to detail some topics that are very important today. Something as innocuous as your searches. Have you ever considered that by searching the term lung cancer, your health insurance premiums may go up?

Or that the amount of time spent you spend looking at a photo, is being used in calculations to get a feel for your own quirks and interests -to how you're wired?

Tough questions. Especially because of how user intuitive and free much of Google's software is. However, as the book discusses, anytime too much trust is given to any organization, in this case, a for-profit business, we leave ourselves in a very bad negotiating position.

Googled The End of the World as We Know it

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