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The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (精装)
by John Battelle
| Category:
Internet, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Technology |
| Market price: ¥ 268.00
MSL price:
¥ 248.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A good overview of search, its impact and Google as well as why Google rules the world. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 17 items |
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Walter Isaacson (CEO of the Aspen Institute), USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
Battelle has written a brilliant business book, but he's also done something more... All searchers should read it. |
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USA Today, USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
The Search is a superb story, well written and feverishly researched. Whether you are a student, techie, business executive, budding visionary or just enjoy pop culture, this is a book not to be missed. |
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The Economist, USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
John Battelle is Silicon Valley’s Bob Woodward. One of the founders of Wired magazine, he has hung around Google for so long that he has come to be as close as any outsider can to actually being an insider….The result is a highly readable account of Google’s astonishing rise. |
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The Wall Street Journal, USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
It’s a fascinating story, and Mr. Battelle… tells it well. |
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Wired News, USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
A surprisingly gripping story…The Search yields impressive results, pairing a reportorial eye for detail with an evangelical zeal to help readers understand the import of the search revolution. |
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Publishers Weekly, USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
Deeply researched and nimbly reported. |
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John Heilemann (author of Pride Before the Fall, USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
Nobody, and I mean nobody, has thought longer, harder, or smarter about Google and the search business than John Battelle. If you want to understand the rise of the search economy and culture, you need to read this book. |
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Seth Godin (author of All Marketers Are Liars and Purple Cow), USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
This book ought to be called 'The Answer.' As usual, John Battelle delivers insightful, thought-provoking, and essential reading. |
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Jerry Saperstein, USA
<2006-12-20 00:00>
For the first few pages, I thought I was reading a spin-off of Malcolm Gladwell's trash pseudo-science. Then John Battelle settled down and turned in a fine overview of what search is all about, where it came from, where it's at, where it might go and, simultaneously, tells the rather amazing story of the rise of Google.
Battele has done his homework. Better yet, he explains the science and technology of search, which is quite complex, in a way that practically any reasonably astute person can grasp.
One can only assume that his take on the histories of Overture, Yahoo, Google and others are accurate. The bibliography is rather on the sparse side, although it is entertaining in and of itself. Battelle claims to have conducted numerous interviews and there is no reason to doubt this. Nothing Battelle says rings hollow (except for a couple of instances which I will describe below).
Battelle does a truly extraordinary job of describing the implications of search technology in the future. For those outside the industry, I am sure they will be amazed, if not frightened, by just how pervasive search is and will become. In some ways, I almost wish Battelle had spent more time and pages on explaining what search can and probably will become. Policymakers should be ahead of the curve on this issue, lest they fall victim as usual to the special interests and the fear-mongers.
Regretably, Battelle does get a couple of things wrong and it appears that he's been drinking the fear peddlers Kool-Aid. For example he takes Google to task for a part of its Terms of Service that he says, essentially, will do what it is legally required to do with user information. Battelle spins this as if it were some great sin to say this, much less do it.
It doesn't seem to occur to Battelle that this provision is standard and that this condition is not at all uncommon. The law provides for the discovery of most "personal" information through subpoena or search warrant, depending on whether the case is civil or criminal. The reach of the law is still being debated in the proper forums, courts and legislatures. As it happens, providers like Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft have already done a bang-up job of influencing legislation protecting them and their users, much to the detriment of some users. For example, a few years back a man was subjected to hideous abuse by the ignorant because some ignoramus had falsely claimed he cheered a national tragedy. There was no question of the man's innocence or of the falsity of the charges levelled against him. But thanks to the undoubtedly expensive lobbying of the information providers, they were immune from liability under the law. Also, not every request for information by subpoena has to be honored. Companies like Yahoo and AOL have successfully fought disclosure of user information in some instances. (At the time of this writing, Google is doing precisely that.)
On the whole, Battelle is either acting out of his own personal political beliefs or repeating someone else's. The point is that he is wrong in his interpretation and wrong in claiming that Google is violating it's own "do no evil" hype. Likewise, his screed against the PATRIOT Act is entirely out of place in this book.
Battelle does take Google to task for its behavior with regard to China. This alone should make it clear that Google's "do no evil" mantra is nothing more than marketing hype. Here Battelle concedes the obvious: any major company has to do business with China. And one does business with China on China's terms. (I am always amazed at how silent so many otherwise noisy politically oriented people become when it comes to China.)
In any event, Battelle has lived up to the tagline on the cover: "[h]ow Google rewrote the rules of business and transformed our culture." As a bonus, he's also done a credible job of describing what search is all about. |
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Andrew Watson, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
As its title indicates, this book is about searching the internet. Hence, as its subtitle suggests, it is to a large extent about Google. The decision to focus on search rather than on Google is one that John Battelle feels compelled to defend in his first chapter. The publisher quotes this defense inside the front flap of the bookjacket.
It was a great decision, and results in an excellent book about a vital topic. Search is more important and interesting than any one firm. This book is more important an interesting than "Larry and Sergei's excellent adventure" would have been.
So, early on, Batelle gives us detail on AltaVista, the brilliant and misunderstood orphan that was at one point the leading search engine. He closes the book with an account of what's next for search, which is a bigger question than what's next for Google. Having said that, the core of the book is the story of Google, and Battelle tells it well.
The main problem with this book is... that it's a book. So, given that it was published in September 2005, it was "finished" months earlier. So, toward the end of the book, we encounter the phrase "once blogs reach critical mass," and when we search the index at the back of the book for "podcast," we don't find an entry.
I hope that there is a paperback, with an extra chapter covering blogs, podcasts, and other success stories of 2005. Of course, by the time that came out, something else will have come along.
Still, I highly recommed this book. |
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