Liked it, as the book chronicled the evolution of Search on internet.

tho a bit dated, i enjoyed this book, especially the first half about the early days and evolution of search. anyone interested in google specifically would be better off reading steven levy's "in the plex". but this book gives a nice detailed overview of the pre-google days, which i enjoyed.

Still relevant today, for 2 very important reasons: it both documents the technical and social moment of that time as well as poses some really interesting ideas in the "perfect search" chapter, and it reminds us what the internet could be, writing in 2005 on the eve of Facebook (I knew someone with a Facebook in 2004 and I thought that was about the most hipster thing on earth), if we hadn't voluntarily let social media and Netflix ruin the internet and make it the fascist tool that it is today. Battelle's voice is responsible, journalistic and critical, which makes him stand out even more in the cesspool of Silicon Valley greed and mediocrity.

A few weeks ago, I saw a list of the best business books of all time. I was a bit proud of myself that I had read most of them--at had at least heard of the rest. For whatever reason, though, one book had escape me over the years: The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. I was more than five years late, but figured that I owed it to myself to give it a read.

I'm glad that I did.

I had seen Battelle on Bloomberg West and he was particularly smart and articulate. My one initial hesitation with The Search: I had already read many books about Google. (I count Ken Auletta's book among my very favorites.) Did I really need to read yet another book about Larry and Sergey's company?

But here's the rub: Battelle's book is hardly Google-specific. Rather, it's about the vast implications of being able to find an increasing amount of information within seconds, a trend that shows no signs of abating. Now, to be sure, you can't write a book about the history of search without delving into Google, but this is a book about so much more than one company. For instance, I learned a great deal about the role of Bill Gross and GoTo.com, a precursor to Google and the guy who cracked the nut on paid placements. I hadn't realized that Larry and Sergey modified Gross' central idea.

A Glimpse of What's Beyond

While I probably should have read this excellent text when it was released, in a way I'm happy that I stumbled upon it now. Sure, AOL and Yahoo! are not nearly as relevant today as they were when Battelle was hammering away on his Mac. But reading books like this years after their release allows you to assess the author's predictions ex post facto. Battelle's vision of then then-future in 2006 is, for the most part, panning out.

On a general level, my very favorite business books do the following:

* advance a big idea
* teach me something new (not that easy to do, since I read many non-fiction, business, and technology books)
* tell interesting stories
* leave me wanting more

Battelle does all of the above with considerable aplomb. The man is a gifted writer and I can't wait for his next opus.

Get. This. Book. Now.

I have to frown my head to read this book (perhaps because of the bad word choosing by the translator). But this is so far the best book that tells us the transformation of Google and how Google transform the world.

“Link by link, click by click, search is building the most lasting, ponderous, and significant cultural artifact in the history of humankind.”

Time for another glorious breakdown of a book that could be a great movie.

Okay, folks.

Let's go on this wild ride.

in 1998, a gigantic battle for power on the Internet broke out between two evenly matched opponents.

This battle is a fascinating story of search, the early days of Google and the future of humanity.

On one side is Bill Gross, a relatively unknown start-up genius with almost mythical abilities when it comes to creating new companies from scratch.

The father of Magellan, the first desktop search program, the father of Idealab, the first incubator company, and finally the father of paid search, the forerunner of Adwords.

Gross is a tragic figure. A giant of ideas with a frightening and massive dose of ADD.

A Mozart-like figure with a super-hyper brain bursting with ideas to the point of mania.

On the other corner are the guys from Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Two brilliant and immature high-flyers who stand up to the establishment.

And their poor CEO Eric Schmidt, who is desperately trying to scale-up Google from ZERO turnover into one of the fastest growing companies in the history of our species.

When the internet bubble full of spam and fraud burst in 2000, a secret battle broke out between Gross and Google for control of paid search.

A new business model for a new economy explosively merged search and profit.

Gross, who figured out the formula first while battling naysayers and taking on Google legally before going down in flames during the Internet crash, is the anti-hero of this story.

A flamboyant and flawed character who is still a billionaire today, but lacked the temperament to run a company the size of Google.

Gross may be richer than most of us, but the Google trio are among the richest people on planet Earth today.

As the saying goes, history is always written by the winners.

Too bad.

But what is the greatest legacy of this search struggle?

The clickstream of billions of people is creating a new global consciousness and an immortal memory that is keeping pace with its growing vastness.

This digital mega-stream of clicks is perhaps the story of the future of the human race.

There are huge profits at stake, but also control over human evolution itself.

One day Hollywood will have the guts to make this incredible mental action flick.

Briljant

Unfortunatly John have not published any more books abort Google. We have to read his blogg Instead. Enjoy the journey.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was well written and provided enough information to keep me glued to it. However, I was really hoping to find out more about Google than what would be possible from Google's own PR machine. The early search engine history and the development of that technology is probably the more fascinating part of the book. Which is ironic, since the book is supposed to be primarily about Google. My guess is that the author sacrificed the ability to write about more intriguing and behind the scenes happenings at Google for the almost unlimited access to the founders and the top managers.

Overall, this is a pretty good book, but a hard-nosed investigative reporter would probably have come up with more intriguing content.

Watak Utama:
Ini adalah buku 'non-fiction', maka tidak wujud watak-watak melainkan yang benar.

Tentang Apa Buku Ini:
Industri 'pencarian' @ 'search engine' pada masa kini. Sangat menarik, digarap daripada kisah sebenar tentang industri tersebut. Permulaan mengisahkan 'evolving trend' industri ini, kisah-kisah 'search engine' sebelum Google, kisah Google, kejayaan yang dikecapi Google, cabaran-cabaran lain yang dihadapi Google, terutamanya berkaitan dengan kemasukan syarikat gergasi itu ke Tanah Besar China.

Apa Yang Saya Suka:
Wow! Itu sahaja cukup menggambarkan perasaan saya membaca buku ini. Saya sendiri pada permulaannya teragak-agak untuk membeli buku tersebut, memandangkan buku perniagaan dikira seperti agak berat, tetapi saya membelinya setelah mendapati Kinokuniya mempromosi buku tersebut secara besar-besaran.

Buku ini berjaya menggarap dengan baik segala aspek industri 'pencarian' secara maya dan digarap dengan baik oleh penulis. Sebagai seorang pembaca yang tidak mempunyai ilmu tentang Internet pun, bakal menghargai buku ini sekiranya mereka berminat untuk mengetahui kisah kejayaan sebuah syarikat maya bernama 'Google'. Tidak dapat disangkal lagi, Google merupakan 'search engine' yang paling berjaya di masa kini.

Pasti ramai yang tidak mengetahui Google diwujudkan oleh dua orang pelajar PhD yang bosan dengan pemilihan tajuk tesis dan pembelajaran mereka. Atas dasar suka-suka, Google pada mulanya hampir menelan keseluruhan 'bandwidth' Stanford University akibat terlampau ramai yang menggunakan servis Google. Google turut menggunakan 'distributed computing approach' yang diperkenalkan di dalam sistem perkomputeran dunia kerana kemampuan sistem tersebut, menampung segala bentuk bebanan dan ditiru oleh syarikat lain.

Cabaran-cabaran lain yang timbul seperti bagaimana Google mencipta model perniagaannya, ingin mencipta nama sebagai syarikat yang tidak mengambil keuntungan melulu, kemasukan ke China (sebuah negara yang cukup menelan kebebasan penulis blog ataupun media), dan kebebasan pencarian maklumat oleh sesiapa sahaja yang memungkinkan kerajaan Amerika Syarikat mencipta satu akta untuk 'intercept privacy' seseorang, dan cabaran dengan Microsoft turut digarap dengan baik.

Pendek kata, buku ini banyak membuka minda kita dan mampu merumuskan 'search industry' dengan baik.

Apa Yang Saya Tidak Suka:
Pada awalnya, mungkin kerana saya benar-benar ingin 'terjun' ke cerita Google, maka permulaannya agak perlahan dan tidak menarik bagi saya. Tetapi kemudian, saya mendapati, permulaan itulah yang penting, sebagai rumusan peristiwa sebelum Google.

Secara ringkasnya, tiada apa yang tidak menarik bagi saya.

Jikalau anda berminat mengetahui kisah 'search industry', maka ini buku untuk anda. Mungkin mampu memotivasikan diri untuk berani melangkah ke alam perniagaan? ;)

Battelle 'sculpts' scenarios to make his point rather than 'sketch' them. The book felt like an anthology of essays on Google by a massively talented writer obsessed with his muse.

Very solid introduction of Google and its founders. Details how the company began, its philosophy and what makes it different. Explains how Google in a short time changed not just search results but how we obtain information and transformed advertising at the same time.

I purchased this book on a whim because I entered a bookshop and felt pressured (mostly by myself) to buy something. This was likely the cheapest book that they had. Given the significant changes in search that will come within the next five years (notably, generative AI), I thought this book would be somewhat relevant to the hottest field in Tech.

Some things that I liked: Battelle gives a good summary of the history of big players in the search market in the post-dot-com era. While he focuses on Google, he is able to capture some of the more 'minor' players, like Alta-Vista and GoTo.com. Additionally, he was right on many things: In particular, predicting Google Drive and the increased value of clickstreams.

Some things that I didn't like: Maybe this is just me, but when it comes to technology critiques, it is hard for me to be convinced unless the writer has built something. In the case of Battelle, he simply is just a journalist. If this novel focused on the history of search, I would have found this book to be a more enjoyable read. However, Battelle spends so much time musing over the future of search and guiding the viewer to what he sees is right and what he sees is wrong. It is hard to give his ideas credibility if he has never enacted his ideas into a product.