Overall Score / Comments
An investigative story told with precision and elegance which made for an exciting read that was easy to follow and very gripping. Giving you a great insider look at the world of Google on a global scale from the beginnings to the time of writing and into the future. Google is to its competitors as a laser is to a blunt stick
★★★★★
Summary
The GooglePlex, Silicon Valley, two brothers, a shed load of investors, one garage and a lego brick bespoke computer.
Vocabulary
bifurcated, cadre, bellweather, raucous, throng, erstwhile, cadence, dour, palpable, imbued, moxie, coterie, imprimatur, moniker, accede, grandiose, replete, bacchanalia, effigy, sojourn, mélange, cornucopia, burgeoning, miscues, abounded, brethren, genteel, cadre, aficionados
Terminology
- data mining;
- Moore's Law;
- PageRank - if someone points to you, you get some fraction of the importance that they have. Google's page ranking algorithm;
- Social Progressives - they favoured free and open source software
Key People
- Larry Page;
- Sergey Brin;
- Eric Schmidt;
- Andy Bechtolsheim - computer wizz and investor in Sillicon Valley;
Resources
- califia.com
- burning man
- http://blogoscoped.com/
Tidbits
- Google went public in an unconventional initial public offering at $85 per share on 19 August 2004;
- Business strategy and company motto - "Don't Be Evil";
- The soul of the Google machine is rapid innovation:- Maintaining smart innovation amid torrid growth;
- Google prefers small teams of three;
- Individuals are expected to allot 20 percent of their time to exploring whatever ideas interest them the most;
- The company lacks the usual layers of middle management;
- Larry and Sergey went to a Montessori school;
- Larry and Brin started a research group call MIDAS as Stanford. In Greek mythology, Midas was the king whose magic touch turned everything to gold.
Phrases
- Customised computers rapidly carry out searches by breaking the queries down into tiny parts. These parts are processed simultaneously by comparing them to copies of the internet that have been indexed and organised in advanced;
- People connect to the Google search engine both electronically and emotionally;
- To Google means "to search";
- The company's name has become a verb in the English language;
- You have to be a little silly about the goals you are going to set;
- Having a healthy disregard for the impossible;
- known for his dour expression;
- pell-mell rush;
- Quality of service that Google provided that was better than any body else thats why we went with them;
- Over time you develop a sense of who the special individuals are partly because of what they have done or are doing, and partly because of the way they express themselves. A great sense of purpose and burning sense of conviction;
- inauspicious start
- symbiotic relationship
- Saw this as a particularly insidious form of bias and eschewed any such payments
Quotes
- Having a healthy disregard for the impossible; you should try to do things that most people would not;
- Larry Page
- Inspiration still required plenty of perspiration;
- Larry Page
- I never get stucked into ideas with no economic merit;
- Andy Bechtolsheim
- They believed in word of mouth. This was the opposite approach. Build something of value and deliver a service compelling enough that people would just use it;
- Andy Bechtolsheim
- They are really driven by how things ought to be and not concerned with making money;
- Andy Bechtolsheim
- Whenever you query with more than one word, we're looking at the distance between words [on a web page];
- Larry Page