The Google Story

The Google Story

review by Flo Devellennes

I was really excited when the book finally arrived through the mail from Amazon. I had a few friends who had already read it and I was really keen of discovering what it was all about. I must admit I did have high expectations and was impatient to shed a light on all those Google mysteries one has when working in SEO.

First of all, this is NOT and autobiography, The book was carefully written by independent journalists, David Vise and Mark Malseed, and clearly proofread by many other Googlers, perhaps even its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. This was, at first, a bit of a dissapointment since I was looking forward to hear a bit of gossip and wild stories about these two guys’ adventures.

What I did discover is how Google is secretive about everything it does! I already knew they didn’t reveal details on search and indexing algorithms, but after reading this book, it sounds like working for Google is almost like converting to a new religion. Each and every idea that a Google employee comes up with stays into the Google HQ. Some ideas are even reviewed directly by Larry and Sergey! This chain of commandment is surprising for a company of that size.

This brings me to talk about the type of company Google is proning to have become. Amongst free lunch, travel, and TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday!) Google allows their employees to dedicate one whole day per week to personal projects (or 20% of their working time). This allows employees to allocate a considerable amount of work to potentially successful projects. It works both ways: employees are happy to work on something new and exciting, while Google profits from such innovations in terms of building innovative products. It’s a give / take relationship!

It seems like where Google really gets is right is by treating its employees like gold. OK, it might not be the easiest process (at least today) to get a job at Google - but when you get there, they make sure you don’t want to leave! The whole Google environment is built around innovating while having fun. This includes the design of the GooglePlex, as seen here. I believe this is a very strong incentive for young and bright professionals to apply and remain at Google: a forward-thinking and innovative company which treats its employees like gold. So what’s the hidden factor?

The book comes accross as a “praise” to Google. It uses a considerable amount of pages to explain the ethical and fair principles which are behind the whole advertising strategy. Any of the legal issues are dealt with very much care in the book, mentionning very or little downsides to Google’s privacy policies. It attempts to emphasize on the fact that Sergey and Larry are not driven by money, but rather their interests lie within the growing of the improvement and expansion of the company’s range of services.

The Google Story is a very good introduction for non-IT individuals, as it provides with a very good base of knowledge of the web and online advertising. It gives an introduction to the principles of search indexing, quality score, PageRank and PPC. This allows for a strong and relevant understanding of the underlying principles of online marketing.

For IT professionals like myself, the Google Story can come accross as very biased. It praises the fairness of Google methods and the range of free services it provides. I was expecting more information about the future plans for Google such as how it expects to tackle the privacy lawsuits it is facing or the inevitable pursuits for abuse of monopolistic position it will face in the near future. It is difficult to imagine the World without Google these days. It is doing a great job in terms of generating online revenue for many companies. I guess I just get a bit worried about all the information it is gathering about its millions of users. Who knows what could happen if it falls in the wrong hands…