Google Book

A book that googles Google
Review: 'The Search' offers depth, insight
By Michael LiedtkeAssociated Press

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Google Inc. is such an influential -- and potentially scary -- company that it deserves a book as comprehensive as the Internet search engine responsible for its whirlwind success.
Veteran technology journalist John Battelle comes close with "The Search," a 288-page exploration of the company whose dorm-room invention, initially spurned by dot-com entrepreneurs, is now synonymous with looking up information online.
Providing fresh insights and information about Google is difficult because so much already has been written about the Mountain View-based company since its 1998 inception. (Full disclosure: I've been a part of the media frenzy, having covered Google for the past five years.)
Battelle nevertheless manages to keep things compelling, adding his own trenchant analysis about what Google's rapid evolution and powerful technology might mean for the company and our society as a whole.
He views Google and other major search engines as invaluable windows into the world's interests and desires, a "database of intentions" destined to become the hub of 21st-century capitalism.
It doesn't drop any bombshells. But "The Search" excavates some intriguing new details about Google, culled from interviews with more than 350 people including Google's controlling triumvirate -- Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
That helps Battelle shed some light on the motives driving Google's braintrust.
For instance, the frustrating experiences of inventor Nikola Tesla -- perennially overshadowed by his more renowned peer, Thomas Edison -- inspired Page to develop products with practical applications as he set out to change the world.
Readers also will find out more about the origins of Google's iconoclasm, as well as who came up with Google's "Don't Be Evil" motto (it wasn't Page or Brin).
And there are some anecdotes that seem difficult to fathom now. Like when Page and Brin initially once tried to sell their search engine technology -- then called BackRub -- but couldn't find anyone willing to pay their $1.6 million asking price. Not long after that, they raised their first $100,000 from Sun Microsystems Inc. co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim. Page and Brin, who are now worth a combined $20 billion, celebrated by treating themselves to breakfast at Burger King.
Security questions
While Battelle obviously admires Google, his book isn't a fawning tribute.
"The Search" tackles such prickly subjects as the serious privacy concerns raised by the reams of data collected by Google's 175,000 computers about the millions of people who use the company's services each day.
At one point, Battelle paints a disturbing picture, sketching out a scenario in which the federal government could demand that Google provide personal information about its users in the name of national security.
If that were to happen, Google would have to notify all the affected parties, right? Not under the U.S. Patriot Act, which specifically forbids companies from making disclosures about government requests for information.
Didn't know that? Don't feel bad. Neither did Brin when Battelle asked him earlier this year about the potential perils of Google becoming a secret tool for the U.S. government.
This book isn't devoted exclusively to Google. It delves into the history of search without bogging down in the technical details likely to bore a mass audience.
Battelle explains how AltaVista might have become what Google is today if its innovations hadn't been mismanaged by Digital Equipment Corp. and Compaq Computer.
And there is an entire chapter devoted to serial entrepreneur Bill Gross, who developed the search advertising model that Google eventually copied and now relies on for most of its profits (Google eventually paid a licensing fee to Overture Services Inc., the company that Gross created and is now owned by Yahoo Inc.)
There isn't much drama in "The Search," but Battelle can't really be blamed.
After all, Google is still too young to have stirred up the tensions and turmoil that have spiced up so many other business sagas.
As Battelle notes, "The only thing Google has failed to do, so far, is fail."