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    Googled: The End of the World as We Know It
    Unavailable
    Googled: The End of the World as We Know It
    Unavailable
    Googled: The End of the World as We Know It
    Audiobook13 hours

    Googled: The End of the World as We Know It

    Written by Ken Auletta

    Narrated by Jim Bond

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In Googled, esteemed media writer and critic Ken Auletta uses the story of Google's rise to explore the inner workings of the company and the future of the media at large. Although Google has often been secretive, this book is based on the most extensive cooperation ever granted a journalist, including access to closed-door meetings and interviews with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, CEO Eric Schmidt, and some 150 present and former employees.

    Inside the Google campus, Auletta finds a culture driven by brilliant engineers in which even the most basic ways of doing things are questioned. His reporting shines light on how Google has been so hugely successful-and why it could slip. On one hand, Auletta reveals how the company has innovated, from Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Earth to YouTube, search, and other seminal programs. On the other, he charts its conflicts: the tension between massive growth and its mandate of "Don't be evil"; the limitations of a belief that mathematical algorithms always provide correct answers; and the collisions of Google engineers who want more data with citizens worried about privacy.

    More than a comprehensive study of media's most powerful digital company, Googled is also a lesson in new media truths. Pairing Auletta's unmatched analysis with vivid details and rich anecdotes, it shows how the Google wave grew, how it threatens to drown media institutions once considered impregnable-and where it is now taking us all.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 3, 2009
    ISBN9781441821010
    Unavailable
    Googled: The End of the World as We Know It
    Author

    Ken Auletta

    Ken Auletta has written the "Annals of Communications" column and profiles for The New Yorker since 1992. He is the author of eleven books, including Three Blind Mice, Greed and Glory on Wall Street, World War 3.0, and Googled. In naming him America's premier media critic, the Columbia Journalism Review said, "No other reporter has covered the new communications revolution as thoroughly as has Auletta." He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.

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    Reviews for Googled

    3.5/5

    96 ratings11 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Surprisingly unsurprising history of Google. Smart, well-connected people had a big idea and were incredibly lucky. They ruffled feathers and made fortunes, almost in equal measure. Will they survive success? Too soon to tell. Auletta, for example, touts the as-of-this-writing (2009) shift of YouTube to more longform professional content, contending that it’s obvious that only such content could ultimately make YouTube profitable. While it’s clear that working with legacy content owners was vital to the continuation of the project, it now turns out that user-generated content makes more money for copyright owners than their own official productions. This isn’t to denigrate Auletta, it’s just that no one I’ve met or read has been able to predict the shape of the digital world 5 years from now. Some people are right about some predictions some of the time … but which ones? Thus, it’s hard to take any lessons from all of Auletta’s interviews and details.
    • 2/5
      Put this book down a couple of times and really should have left it. Surely all that time and research that went into the book must have unearthed something of interest? Just insider gossip really. Having been severely bludgeoned around the head not once but severally I cried out at each and every monotonous repeat, "I do get it". Google is different, it is designed by engineers, it just follows the data and yes it puts the user experience first. This book is just a sycophantic biography with a few occasional dissenting barbs as seen from a mostly print media perspective. What a shame. Google undoubtedly has been and possibly still is an important influence on how we all access the internet world. There should be challenges, misdirection's, counter proposals, failures galore to explore and roadtest Google against but sadly we don't to read any. Want to know why Google Earth? This book is a blank page. If Google engineers are so smart and have so much data on my online usage why oh why do they so routinely fail to provide meaningful answers to my search questions rather than drowning me in irrelevant no wanted advertising. Seems dedicated engineers and masses of data is not sufficient in itself. We need insightful inspiration. Inspiration that can give us search answers modelled like that wonderful 3D thesaurus where were can drift off in nuances of the search question or drift along emotive avenues prompted by that search. This book is not inspirational it is ploddingly pedestrian.
    • 5/5
      An interesting look at the history of Google that praises as much as it criticizes!
    • 3/5
      OK, what I'm about to do is pretty unfair to the author but...I'm going to do it anyway. I'm writing my review halfway through reading the book.

      This is an interesting book if you know next to nothing about Google. Much of the information about Google's primary founders and its beginning history is already known. Auletta has done a fine job of collecting all of the pertinent information on Google, it's founders, and the many important people that have joined Google to make it as it is today, but it can be confusing even so to track all of these people when reading.

      Being a little more than halfway through I'm not sure I'll finish this book. This is in large part because I'm not sure enough of what I devote the time to read will be new to me.

    • 2/5
      The Googlization of Everything by Siva Vaidhyanathan looks at Google history and it's growing reach of services across the internet. The thesis is that Google is striving to control the world's access to the internet to harvest as much marketable data as possible.Right off the bat, though, Vaidhyanathan approaches the different pieces of Google's services with a clear anti-Google agenda. With such negativity regardless of the evidence presented, it's hard to take any of his observations seriously.The book first outlines the different services Google offers and how it uses the data it collects both through its robots and through user interaction. These observations, though, are done as an outsider — as a user of Google — without an effort to get Google to respond to perceived abuses. I suppose I am spoiled by the Google articles written by Barbara Quint.The most interesting section is the examination of search usage by languages spoken. Google's saturation as a search index is highest in multi-lingual countries and amongst multi-language speakers. Google's flexibility of search in multiple and simultaneous languages makes it an invaluable tool.The take away messages of The Googlization of Everything is that Google isn't as all present as the title implies. It does have its adopters — namely in multi-lingual countries like India, but it's not the world dominant behemoth you might think.
    • 3/5
      A bit exhausting but a thorough review of Google up to 2009. A fascinating look at a tool used by me many times daily. I feel like I have a better understanding of this multi-billion dollar income company and its future direction.
    • 3/5
      Lots of good information about the founding and (current) operation of Google. Some genius, some serendipity, some luck, and lots of hard work. Computer geeks are not like other people, but they are more like their own generation than like past nerds.Exit question: is "Don't be evil" the same as "Don't do evil"?
    • 3/5
      I read this book because the story of Google fascinates and inspires me in many ways. I feel I learned a lot about what drives the company and what perils may lie ahead. However, the book is as much about media in the digital age as Google itself. Though it always brings it full circle to include how Google fits into the bigger picture, I felt some of the chapters were a little too involved in media and not enough in the actual story of Google. Overall, it was a decent book but it did take me a while to read it.
    • 4/5
      Great book! Google is huge and disruptive. After reading this book I have a better understanding of Google's history, culture, who they are affecting and the issues they face as they grow. It drives home the fact that Google is to the internet what Microsoft was to PC's. I like the detail he goes into on Google’s disruptive impact on old media. What amazes me is their original business strategy sounded a lot like having a suited Ace, King in Texas Hold'em and going all in before they got a Royal Flush on the flop. That is they had a great search engine but no idea how to make money until their advertising model made them rich. The book dragged at times especially in the beginning with all the names of people but it picks up later and the names help you understand how interconnected all the tech companies are.
    • 4/5
      Better than The Google Story.
    • 4/5
      "Google it." I remember the first time someone gave me this advice. Back in the "old days" (it had to be over a decade ago), I didn't have a clue what it meant. Who could have guessed back then that this company would trigger a digital revolution that has profoundly altered the media landscape. I found Auletta's book fascinating, accessible and quite enlightening. Granted, there aren't too many sections where informed readers will shout "wow, I didn't know that." Instead, they'll find intriguing nuggets about the Google sagas that have already been well-chronicled. From the company's push to digitize books, to its tug-of-wars with media giants over its use of other entitites' content, the book provides some interesting perspectives. Auletta also vividly recounts how traditional media dropped the ball in failing to recognize the urgency of responding to the Internet. The author even touches on some extremely current issues, including Google's foray into the smart phone arena. In some spots, readers might be tempted to mutter "enough already," as Auletta tends to get bogged down in details. But overall, it's an excellent read that will be appreciated by those who follow the media and business trends.