Googled: The End of the World As We Know It

The issues broached by Googled include trends in management structures, from hierarchies to networks. The book looks at how industries interact, from advertising to telecoms, corporate rivalries and legal battles, along with government pressure and moral ideals. It's an ambitious book. Will the author manage to keep it simple as well as hold our interest?

Googled is divided into four parts and 17 chapters, most of which are chronological. The first part is a fiery introduction, while the second tells the story of the company's development. The third continues with the story, but is more analytical and focuses on wider market issues. And the last part tries to gather all the material together, and predict what we can expect of the company's future.

So who should read this book? The answer is practically anyone in business, and certainly anyone involved in media, advertising or publishing. It will also be of interest to people who are concerned with leadership issues in times of pressure and change, as well as those who want to learn how to manage rapid growth.

Googled will arouse the curiosity of readers intrigued by the concept of flat management structures, and also by how radical ideas of fairness can actually be implemented.

So, keep listening to find out what test one of the founders gave to an attorney applying to work with Google, what led some of its key staff to start leaving, and how Google's search terms changed as the recession started to bite!

Part One is essentially an introduction to the revolution that's taken place in marketing and advertising, and is aptly called Different Planets. It sets the scene for the end of the old way of doing advertising – the old pizzazz, wining and dining, glamor and guess-work, are over. Sneakers, geek-speak and utopia have taken their place.

Here is the first portrait of Google's Brave New World. Staff, who are called Googlers, are encouraged to question everything. Engineers are the stars and receive twenty percent of their time off to pursue an intellectual passion that could lead to a new invention.

New mothers receive five months? leave and new dads seven weeks, on full pay. Meals are free, with a menu of one hundred different choices. Laundry can be done on the site, and carwash, barbers, dentists, dog care, and therapeutic massages also come with the territory.

Google keeps its home page clear of advertising, which is one way it gains the public's trust. Its aim is to serve the user, granting people a fast, free search with a high-quality result.

The company's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are both philanthropic and petulant. They like to attend the week-long "Burning Man" retreat in Nevada each year, and they believe in social environments free of commercial sponsorship, and in acts of giving. Al Gore advises them and thinks they're great.

Readers will be excited by the picture of camaraderie and vision the author paints and will want to know more.

Part Two tells the Google Story and is basically a gripping and pleasantly quirky business biography. The main players are fascinating and, as in a novel, their characters develop as the book goes along.

This section's initial chapter, called "Starting in a Garage," is hard to put down. The main players are clearly a pair of nerdy egotists, smart and ambitious, and readers will spend most of the book trying to work out whether they like them or not.

Their backgrounds and characters are very well-researched, down to their favorite books and scientists, sneakers, hair-cuts, and athletic or music ability. Page and Brin were both born in 1978 to academic parents, becoming a team nearly two decades later at Stanford University – although Brin's start was in Moscow, while Page came from Michigan.

This is where we learn about Page and Brin's early work on a search engine, initially called BackRub. They changed the name to Google, a mis-spelling of the word googol, g-o-o-g-o-l, which means ten to the power of 100. This massive number suited their aim: to build an extremely large-scale search engine.

This chapter and the two that follow, covering up until the year 2002, also chart the history and feel of "the Valley," as Silicon Valley is called. They introduce us to the Googleplex, which here is more often referred to as "campus," as it's modeled, to a large degree, on the campus at Stanford.

New characters are introduced, such as engineer Marissa Meyer, and the author takes every opportunity to highlight the difference between the protagonists? humble beginnings in 1999 and their millionaire status a decade later.

Eventually, the discussion moves to Google's attempts to make money. The company benefitted from the dotcom collapse in 2000, in that it was able to hire some top engineers. The next year was significant because iTunes and Wikipedia were launched. This was relevant to Google because it was a further shift to what some called a "new digital democracy."

This is also when the company started to draw in new people – Eric Schmidt and Bill Campbell among them – who would build a professional management structure and push Google towards its business goals. At the same time, early Googlers came up with the company's famous motto: "Don't be Evil."

It's here, in the story, that readers may start losing the thread of the narrative and find their interest begining to dwindle. Google starts growing, and the author has to introduce still more people as well as ideas. Nevertheless his writing style never tires; it's always fresh, creative and witty. And, while the story becomes increasingly complex, there are also numerous anecdotes about the way the founders worked, which are so memorable, you don't feel you're getting bogged down in detail.

One of these described how Brin dealt with a contracts lawyer he was interviewing for a vacancy. He gave her thirty minutes to email him a draft contract for him to sell his soul to the devil. The stunned candidate realized the challenge was to rise up to the unexpected, and she got the job.

On another occasion, the founders defied advice and bought a Boeing 767, followed by a 757. They invent Google Maps and launch Google News, and they ignore growing privacy fears. By the end of 2003, people were beginning to say "I'll Google it" instead of "I'll do a search."

Chapter Six is called "Google Goes Public," a major move in 2004. This comes with another endearing anecdote. On the day the company was floated on the stock exchange, Page and the three executives who were with him in New York watched as Google stock settled to trade at the dizzying heights of $100 per share. Their response? Well, it wasn't to call for champagne. No, instead, they rushed to get their mobile phones, yelling, "I'm going to call my mom!"

The last chapter of this section is called The Evil Empire. To many people, Microsoft used to be considered the "bad guy" relative to Google, but once it became clear how much money Google was making, a backlash started against the newcomer – even though it was still one of the world's most trusted brands.

Conflicts arose with the publishing industry over free downloads of books and related copyright issues. But most important was the China affair.

In 2006, Google struck a deal with China and launched Google.cn, a version of its search engine run by the company from within China. Because it was based in China, it had to comply with Chinese rules on self-censorship. Google blocked the material the Chinese government objected to, weakening the credibility of its motto.

Chapter Eight, which starts off Part Three, perks readers up with a close look at the other players in the industry, with some familiar names and companies. The first is Rupert Murdoch, who bought the social network and music site MySpace.com in 2005.

Amid sharp and savvy business moves by Internet visionaries, risks and gung-ho characters, the author introduces some new terminology and concepts. Instead of simply viewing, for example, consumers now "engage".

Then the author takes us back to Google and its acquisition of YouTube in 2006. This meant the company was now publishing content that others had produced but Google hadn't paid for. This led to arguments with various broadcast networks about copyright issues. Some started to accuse Google of theft and piracy. Google thought its opponents wanted to get in the way of progress, and wanted to make money from its own financial success.

The next chapter is called "War on Multiple Fronts" and covers the year 2007. It starts with Viacom suing Google for copyright infringement – one of Google's vulnerable areas. It also looks at Facebook, and charts how Google took on Microsoft in the software applications market.

Chapter ten, called "Waking the Government Bear," looks at another of Google's weak spots: the privacy issue raised by Google storing so much personal information. But new technologies tend to redefine privacy anyway, the author says. He also points out that if we cared that much about privacy, we would never entrust waiters with our credit cards or share personal information on Facebook.

He draws our attention to Google's perceived disdain for the concerns of others, but doesn't criticize the founders too much himself.

Chapter Eleven, on Google's "Adolescence," would be excellent for a course on the recent history of the technology industry. It describes the regular meetings between engineers and the two founders, and how the latter maintain their passion for technology and don't settle for easy solutions.

But, according to the author, despite these positive leadership practices, Google's rise and its commercial aims started to overshadow its more noble ambitions, in some people's eyes. Google executives? biggest fear was that the company was growing too big and losing focus. Meanwhile, the challenges of growth elsewhere in the technology industry meant people started to leave.

Former Googlers are quoted, nearly always anonymously, as saying the company has spread itself too thin. The company has passion, but can it make difficult decisions? Will it end up at war with itself? Like Microsoft, the author says, Google could be blinded by righteousness.

The next chapter asks Is "Old" Media Drowning? Covering the year 2008, it starts with how new technology poses both an opportunity and threat to long-established media organizations – such as Disney, CBS, News Corporation, and Sony.

Chapter Thirteen compares Google to Napoleon, as a superpower that could only be defeated by an alliance of its weaker rivals.

The next chapter is about Google's reaching the age of ten, in September 2008 – which in Internet years qualifies it for senior citizenship, the author jokes. Despite all the hostilities going on, it remains an innovator – as a pioneer of cloud computing, as an educational tool in Africa, and with the development of its Android mobile-phone operating system. Signs of the times as the recession kicked in were reflected in Google search. In 2009 there were fewer searches for the word "travel," while searches for the word "bankruptcy" had jumped 52%. Even Google contracted, reducing its menu of free meals and closing its Phoenix office, which employed two dozen employees.

But this isn't how the book ends. The final three chapters contain the most intense analysis and debate yet, with respectful reference to other books about Google and some of the author's fellow media critics.

Chapter Fifteen called "Googled" outlines some highlights: Google made history by going from zero to twenty-billion dollars in revenue in 400 weeks. It may be the most visible service invented by mankind, and also the biggest company in history built on giving something away.

In Chapter Sixteen, the author presents his view of what's happening to old media and offers an in-depth analysis of changes in journalism and the newspaper industry. Although he believes that good newspapers are necessary to provide the kind of information that creates "well-rounded citizens of a democracy," he also thinks that advertisers will continue to abandon traditional media. After all, free online content providers can attract many more readers.

Having said that, though, he notes that it's easier for readers in the online environment to complain about advertising. When internet users are looking at a website that offers commenting functionality, they're quick to say if they don't want to see an advert from a particular company.

As a result, some advertisers are increasingly nervous about advertising online. And some sites offer an advert-free version of their content if readers pay a subscription. In other words, people will pay not to see advertising.

So the online advertising space is still developing, but whatever shape it takes, it looks to be a key battleground in the future.

And what's going to happen to Google? The author's keen to stress that no one can predict the future. There are new search models on the horizon. Many teachers are steering students away from Google – and the internet in general. And there may be a backlash against the naïve belief that liberal values and freedom for the individual are universal. However, on the last page, he says that if the company maintains the public's trust, it will surely stay ahead.

The author ends by underlining the achievements of Google that he considers the most valuable, including making government, business and other institutions more transparent.

Googled is a dense and intelligent book that's worthy of its subject matter. It combines parable, inspiration and even warning. And it may also teach readers something about new technology, about business and advertising, and even management and diplomacy.

Googled: The End of the World As We Know It, by Ken Auletta, is published by Penguin.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights.