Product Description

The rise of Google is one of the most amazing stories of our time. Jumping into the search industry long after Yahoo!, AltaVista, Lycos, and other competitors, Google offered a radical new approach to search, redefined the idea of viral marketing, and in just seven years became the largest IPO in the history of Silicon Valley. Google's enormous impact straddles the worlds of technology, marketing, finance, media, culture, dating, job-hunting, and just about every other sphere of human interest. And no one is better qualified to explain this entire phenomenon than John Battelle, the acclaimed Silicon Valley journalist who co-founded Wired and founded The Industry Standard. In this fascinating narrative of the past, present, and future of search, Battelle draws on more than 350 interviews with executives at Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and other companies, including Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO, Eric Schmidt. Battelle explores how search technology works, the amazing power of targeted advertising as a business model, and the frenzy of the Google IPO when the company tried to rewrite the rules of Wall Street and declared, "don't be evil" as one of its core goals. Battelle is equally enlightening about the cultural impact of the search industry. Every day, billions of searches reveal the wants, needs, fears, and obsessions of humankind - an unprecedented record that Battelle calls the database of intentions. What will Google and other companies do with all that information? Will the government regulate the search business? And what happens to privacy when every word ever written about someone is permanently archived and searchable in a fraction of a second? For anyone who wants to understand how Google succeeded and what its success means for all of us, "The Search" is indispensable.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #246102 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Amazon.com
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

Review
"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

Seth Godin, author of All Marketers Are Liars and Purple Cow
"John Battelle delivers insightful, thought-provoking, and essential reading."

Customer Reviews

Discover the future of search - today.
I found this a really interesting book. It’s not a ‘history of Google’ story (look at ‘The Google Story’ by David Vise, if that’s what you’re after); although Google’s evolution features throughout. It’s a ‘history of search’ story, which provides insights into Yahoo, Alta Vista, Google and the other main players. It’s also an essay on what ‘search’ could be, how it could change everything and what we should expect in future.

The highlights for me were:
The realisation that the ‘database of intentions’ (Battelle’s term for the as yet unrecorded database of all our collective searches) would be an incredible archive of the developed world’s interests at any point in time.

How TV advertising could become a function of the programmes you watch.

How cool mobile search would be (scan a barcode into a PDA to see if another local retailer has he item you’re after for less).

The positives and negatives of everything recorded about us being searchable, and the implications for privacy (like ‘reverse directory lookup’ – type in a phone number and Google returns a name and address).

The prospect of all our stuff being searchable (eg our kids having indexed digital photo albums instead of cardboard ones gathering dust).

The reasons behind Google acquiring other little companies that can help it produce things like Google Earth and Google Print.

The reason other traditionally non-search internet players (such as Amazon with its A9 search engine) are taking an interest in search.

The amazing possibilities of ‘perfect search’….

So don’t be left behind – buy your copy now.

Google delivers information at your fingers?
John Battelle has a long history in the web's short evolution. He is currently deeply involved in the Web 2.0 technologies and strategies and therefore has a great understanding of the past,present and the future of the web. This book very much reflects that fact by covering the past, present and future of search. Google may rule the roost today but let us not forget in the past so did Alta Vista.

The delicious irony is that today Google has delivered on Microsoft's stated vision of "information at your fingertips" first but this is only the first round of a very long battle in the war to win consumers.

If you want to understand what comes next ... I recommend you read this book.

Good Introduction to Search Engine Technology and Potential
You probably use search engines to find information. If you already understand how one search engine varies from the next, this book will be much too simple and limited for you. Avoid the book.

If, however, you choose which search engine based on how cool the url is for that engine, you should read this book. It will tell you a lot that can help you find better information . . . and what you may be able to look for in future search engine improvements. If that's your main reason for reading the book, you'll find it too long and involved for that purpose. There's an awful lot about the history of Google . . . which is essentially ancient history by now. I graded the book down from this perspective mainly because it takes Mr. Battelle a long time to get the simplest ideas across.