Book: Googled
The book benefits from Auletta’s long experience covering media for The New Yorker
By
Last Updated: Aug 11, 2010, 06:51 IST1 min
Advertisement
Chances are you use more than one Google product — search, mail, Docs, Maps, YouTube, Buzz — and that you love the company. These services, after all, are undeniably useful, reliable, almost safe and absolutely free. But, if you run a newspaper, a publishing house, an ad agency, a TV channel or a telecom company — or if your favourite book is Brave New World or 1984 — your attitude could be more ambivalent.
Advertisement
Google has, undoubtedly, changed the way the way we learn, communicate, have fun. But it has also crossed swords with a range of industries and, increasingly, governments. Google insists that it’s all for good others aren’t so sure. A recurring word in the book is ‘frenemy’ (a portmanteau of ‘friend’ and ‘enemy’), which describes how Google is viewed.
The book benefits from Auletta’s long experience covering media for The New Yorker. He seems to have interviewed every big name in the industry. The last two chapters take a look at the future, always a tough call, more so in the fast changing tech world. He treads cautiously — no sweeping pronouncements — and tries to answer the central question: Can businesses get users to pay for what they get online?
Advertisement
What of Google’s own future? It’s tempting to see it as a dominant unstoppable force. Again, Auletta’s views on this can be instructive, not just for Google but for everyone interested in business. If you have ever wondered about the impact Google had on your own life, this book is a must read. Googled.The End of theWorld As We Know ItKen AulettaVirgin Books, 384 pages, Rs. 599
First Published: Aug 11, 2010, 06:51
Subscribe Now- Home /
- Appraisals /
- Book-googled
Advertisement