Product Description

This updated edition in paperback of the bestselling and critically acclaimed book on the rise of Google and the 'search industry" contains a major new Afterword from John Battelle. The rise of Google is one of the most amazing stories of our time. 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". Much more than just a business book, this explains how the search industry is changing the way we live in profound and unpredictable ways. "The Search" contains exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names at the top companies including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google is the No. 1 search engine and is now a recognised word in its own right - they receive over 200 million search requests every day and it is estimated that over 80 per cent of webusers turn to Google first.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34032 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 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
"The Search is a fascinating story of the original and rapid rise of Google and the industry it leads..At once exhilarating and frightening." Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Times Higher Education Supplement "A highly readable account of Google's astonishing rise"The Economist "A compelling glimpse of the search industry's early years.....Full of colour from first-hand interviews, it helps answer the basic question: How did Google jump so far ahead in this seemingly obvious bonanza of a market?" Business Week "A brilliant business book. All searchers should read it." Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute; former editor of Time"

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.