Googled: The End of the World As We Know It

 

Few companies or products gain such a strong public prominence in the world that their name becomes a verb. Those that do have invariably pushed through a paradigm shift in the business world, and it’s fair to say will have made few friends in the process. Internet search engine Google is the company of the moment, one which author Ken Auletta here describes as an ‘audacious’ game-changer, surfing a huge technological wave ‘that seems not to have crested.‘ This is an authoritative, if not exactly loving, overview of the new media business model Google represents and is lively and accessible. Auletta reports the views of not just most of Google’s media rivals (who are generally and understandably somewhat hostile to its ever-widening activities) but also current and former Google staff and investors. Disappointingly, but not surprising given the general reluctance of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to speak to the press, the book lacks the word from the top on how they intend to deal with the inevitable economic roller coaster on which all companies find themselves – particularly as Google has now ‘waked up the bears‘ of other media giants, and could still be brought down by hubris and sheer scale. [Paul F Cockburn]