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The tale behind an accomplishment is always interesting to read. And, if told as a play, with daring ambition, envy, power struggles, rivalry, litigation, accusations, counter-accusations, and a dash of humour thrown in for good measure, it would almost certainly make for compelling reading. To top it off, this isn’t a work of fiction – or even a portrayal of truth. It’s a storey about what transpired behind the scenes of the ‘hottest corporate, media, and technology success of our time,’ as the author puts it.
The book opens with a scene from 2003, in which Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, speak to a high school in Israel. They describe how Google came to be.
Page and Brin were Stanford University PhD students at the time. When Page had the notion of downloading the entire web onto his computer in order to create a search programme for it, Google was born. It was a bold concept. Even after a year, he could only complete a portion of the workout, which he had hoped to do in a week. “It’s necessary to be optimistic,” Page urged his audience, “and to have a healthy disrespect for the impossible.”
Page’s determination to stick to his strategy was aided by his optimism. Brin assisted him in mining the data and making sense of it as he continued to download the web onto his laptop. It required a lot of effort, a lot of night outs, and a lot of working over the holidays, according to the couple.
The storey returns to the beginning, when Page first encountered Brin, after this brief prelude-like introduction.
Page and Brin were both Stanford PhD students who shared a lot of interests. They came from homes that valued academic achievement and scholarship. They both had professor fathers and mothers who worked in the field of computers and technology. Their genetic codes, as well as their day-to-day existence, included computers, mathematics, and intellectual debates and conversations. It was only natural, then, that they got along swimmingly and began collaborating.
They also had a very conducive environment for creativity, experimentation, and ideation. Stanford is noted for producing a number of successful technological companies, notably HP and Sun Microsystems (Sun stands for Stanford University Network). Stanford students are adamant that turning a technology innovation into a business can have a far greater impact than writing a thesis about it.
In addition, a huge IT revolution was taking place at the time the two were together. Outside, companies like Netscape were making headlines with record-breaking IPOs, and the Internet was hailed as the next great thing. As a result, venture capitalists have a strong preference for investing in technical start-ups. These conditions lent itself to Internet-related research and development, and Page and Brin concluded that a comprehensive search tool was the one thing that Internet consumers most needed.
At the time, the search engines available provided a service that was far from ideal. There were a slew of them, including Lycos, Webcrawler, Excite, and a few others. They were all unsuccessful. They would merely provide the searcher a flurry of results that made no sense.
Another Stanford couple was running a startup at the time, which they dubbed ‘Yahoo.’ By establishing an alphabetized directory of Web Pages, they built a better search algorithm. In addition, AltaVista, a new search engine, was launched.Its search methodology was based on the number of times the key term appeared on the web page, just like other search engines, but it displayed results using the now-ubiquitous concept of web links. A link is merely a pointing device to another web page.
Brin and Page were enthralled by the concept of leveraging links in a search engine. They began to consider it in a whole different light.
Page and Brin grew up in homes that valued academic study, so they saw links as analogous to citations in scholarly papers. A article was deemed good in academics if it contained citations. The better the paper, the more citations it has. Furthermore, not all citations were created equal. The paper’s worth was improved by citations from credible sources.
Using the comparison, the two came up with PageRank, a search algorithm. It was determined by a variety of factors, including the amount of links pointing to the web page. The higher the rank, the more links there are. Links from more well-known websites, such as Yahoo, would also have more weight than a link from a less well-known website.
The Google guys termed their search engine ‘BackRub’ at first since it was based on backlinks to the site. They finally realised, however, that they needed to come up with a new name. They named it ‘Google’ since it dealt with large amounts of data. Googol is a very big number, consisting of one followed by one hundred zeros. Many people are unaware that ‘Google’ is essentially a typo of ‘Googol.’
Stanford was the first place where Google was made public. It has always had a clean and straightforward homepage, free of flashy animations and other distracting elements. In the Stanford network, it was an instant hit.
Brin and Page required more hardware as their database developed. Due to a lack of funds, they purchased low-cost parts and assembled them themselves. They also did everything they could to obtain unclaimed computers. They did everything they could to keep the cost of their hardware as low as possible.
Initially, the team tried to sell Google to Yahoo and AltaVista, two prominent web companies. Both organisations, however, were unable to accept Google because, among other things, they did not believe that search was an important component of the online experience.
The Googlers were unsure of the business concept in the beginning. They had no idea how Google was going to make money. ‘Don’t be evil,’ was the company’s motto. They believed that adverts on web pages were wicked and hence avoided having them on their pages.They hoped that additional websites would wish to use their search engine in the future, and that they would be able to profit by charging these websites. They were also solely reliant on word-of-mouth marketing. They didn’t market in any way..
As Google’s database grew, they began to purchase more hardware and hire more workers. Google was founded with a $1 million investment from Andy Bechtolsheim, an angel investor. However, they eventually ran out of it and required further funds.
They did not want to go public and seek money as many other companies did since they did not want their information to be made public and they also wanted complete control of the company. The only other alternative appeared to be approaching venture capitalists. The team was sure that they could raise funds from venture capitalists while maintaining control of the company.
Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins were the two venture capital firms they approached. Both firms were blown away by the concept and were eager to fund Google. The Google executives, however, asked that both firms invest jointly in Google because they did not want to relinquish control.
Two large venture capital firms on Wall Street would be unlikely to agree to a joint investment in a start-up company run by a couple of tenacious teenagers. The Google men, however, pulled off an unheard-of coup thanks to the intrinsic attraction and viability of their idea, as well as the assistance of some of their relationships. They were able to persuade the two firms to spend $25 million each, while maintaining complete control of Google. The two VCs’ only stipulation was that they recruit an experienced industry professional to run their company. The Googlers agreed, trying to push the appointment out as far as possible.
Several enhancements were made as Google evolved. The now-famous Google Doodle – an image that appears on the Google homepage to commemorate an important event or a person – began as a message to staff that Brin and Page were on vacation. When Brin and Page travelled to a Burning Man party, they put a burning man graphic on the site to let staff know they were gone. Following that, they experimented with substituting the two O’s of Google with Halloween pumpkins to represent the Halloween event. It was a huge hit with Google’s users right away. Since then, a doodle has been added to the logo to represent or honour significant events, sites, or people.
Google became increasingly popular. Danny Sullivan, editor of a renowned newsletter focused on Internet search, endorsed and admired it. It had cultivated a devoted user base that provided input on even the tiniest changes to the site. It had not, however, devised a means of generating revenue.
Brin was interested in a startup called Overture at the time. Overture was the firm behind the search results that came with Yahoo and AOL searches, among others. Instead of bright and distracting banner advertising, the Google team loved the notion of having adverts based on search. However, there was one Overture practise that they did not approve of: Overture guaranteed that a corporation would get a space among the adverts provided it paid a particular amount of money. It directly contradicted their motto, “Don’t be evil.”
As a result, they opted to go it alone. They created their own algorithm for search-based advertising. True to their slogan, they made sure that the real search results and the adverts were clearly separated. Advertisements would be ranked in the same way that search results are. The adverts would be ranked not only on the amount of money spent, but also on how many times they were clicked. As a result, popular adverts would be displayed more prominently.
Google’s ad prices were set through a continuous auctioning process. Every search word was auctioned off. A word like ‘financial advice’ would be far more expensive than ‘pet food.’ Google auctions began to be carried out by companies with dedicated workers. There were various nuances to consider. For example, the term ‘digital cameras’ would be auctioned at a greater price than the term ‘digital camera,’ because a user searching for ‘digital cameras’ is more likely to purchase one
Google’s advertising policy had its fair share of flaws. Once upon a time, an insurance company named Geico sued Google, alleging that it had enabled other companies to bid for its brand. A user looking for ‘Geico’ would see all insurance companies that have submitted a successful bid in his results. Geico claimed that Google had no right to allow its competitors to benefit from searches on its name.Google’s case was that Geico’s understanding of online customer behaviour was flawed. When someone searches for “Geico,” they aren’t necessarily going for Geico’s website. Furthermore, Google was not the publisher of the ads, and it has trademark protection systems in place. It was forbidden to use trademarks in the headline or content of advertisements. The case was ultimately won by Google.
Many people are allegedly misled by Google’s name of the advertisement area ‘Sponsored Links.’ Many consumers mistake advertisements for true results and click on them without realising it. The morality of this lack of obvious demarcation has been questioned numerous times.
With the business model in place, Google’s expanded workplace, dubbed the Googleplex, blossomed in terms of innovation and new ideas. If a person’s name and zip code are input, one employee came up with the concept of collecting that person’s phone number. Another person suggested auto-correcting spelling errors. If you misspell a celebrity’s name, for example, Google will automatically correct it and show search results for the corrected name. If you make a less obvious error, Google will provide you a “Did you mean…” link at the top of the page.
Google also introduced Google Image Search, which was a game-changer. Google’s database has millions of photographs that may be retrieved with a single mouse click.
Inside the Googleplex, the Google team built an infrastructure and a culture that encourages employees to stay for the majority of the day – and night. They were as frugal when it came to computer technology as they were when it came to providing the ideal environment for their staff. Free meals, limitless snacks, toys, roller hockey, scooter racing, and much more were available. Employees could be productive even while commuting because the buses were equipped with Wi-Fi Internet access.
Google was also aided by external events. The dotcom crash of 2000 resulted in the layoff of several highly skilled software developers, providing Google access to a large talent pool. Microsoft was also embroiled in a legal battle over its anti-competitive activities at the time. Microsoft’s image took a hit as a result of this. With its ‘Don’t be evil’ credo, Google has surpassed Microsoft as the best place to work as a software developer. The crème de la crème in the software industry began to prefer working for Google.
Inside the Googleplex, Google aggressively supported and fostered innovation. Employees were given the option of spending 20% of their time on new jobs that piqued their interest. They didn’t have to worry about whether or not it could be profitable, or whether or not it would be accepted or workable. They were free to work on whatever that piqued their curiosity. Ideas were frequently shared over lunch and on bulletin boards. An concept would grow in size as it developed. Google also offered the necessary resources for innovation. Several ideas arose from this society.An ardent news reader had the concept of presenting consumers with many sources of news that were all clustered together to enable them better analyse and understand the news. As a result, Google News was formed. Surprisingly, unlike Google search results, Google news results are crammed into a little space. This density is meant to provide the user with as much information as possible. The source, as well as relevancy, are used to determine the ranking. Froogle, subsequently renamed Google Product Search, was another breakthrough that allowed consumers to search for retail products to buy.
Google became a verb in a number of languages, including English, German, and Japanese, very quickly. Many arguments regarding Google have erupted as a result. There were difficulties associated to internet stalking of individuals because information on persons was merely a Google search away. Despite the company’s checks, Google’s adverts contained some indecent websites. In academia, students’ use of Google over traditional specialised databases was viewed as both increasingly easy and wide access to knowledge on the one hand, and as a shortcut method that encouraged sloth on the other.
Despite its enormous popularity, Google spends very little money on advertising. Only word-of-mouth advertising was used for marketing. Google avoided millions of dollars in revenue by keeping its site clean and ad-free. It avoided a graphics-heavy homepage, which would cause search results to load slowly. It was designed to provide users with quick results, as opposed to other sites that encouraged users to stay on their pages for as long as possible.There was no need to register to utilise Google search because it didn’t have a user lock-in. Google had eliminated the necessity for advertising by providing a superior product targeted exclusively at gratifying the consumer. Its only form of promotion was the sale of Google-branded caps and T-shirts.
Google has launched a new effort to attract consumers to Google rather than waiting for them to find it. Any website might sign up to use the Google search box on its page as part of this scheme. It was dubbed the affiliate programme, and it offered to pay websites 3 cents for each Google search they added. Of course, Google would profit from ad income.
Since receiving funding from the two VC companies, the Google executives have been under increasing pressure to select a CEO to oversee the company’s commercial operations. Google had passed the point at which it was necessary to go public, and VC firms insisted on having an experienced business expert serve as the company’s public face before going public. The Venture Capitalists sent several candidates to Brin and Page, but none of them were able to impress the Googlers.
As the pressure rose and the clock ticked down, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Novell, entered the Googleplex to meet Brin and Page. He had only agreed to visit them because of the demand of top executives from one of the venture capital firms, with whom he had a good working relationship. He was completely uninterested in the meeting. The Google employees were also uninterested in meeting with him. They were expecting another of the same drab and uninteresting type that they had seen before.
Schmidt’s biography was shown against the wall as he walked in, and his Novell approach was openly ridiculed. Schmidt retorted angrily, igniting a lengthy discussion. Schmidt recognised after he left that he hadn’t had an intellectual conversation like that in a long time. Schmidt, like the rest of the candidates Brin and Page had interviewed, was refreshingly different. The Venture Capitalists believed that Schmidt could perform the delicate balancing act of providing the company with a business structure and direction while maintaining the independence that Brin and Page desired.
Eric Schmidt was soon named Google’s CEO. He used all of his experience to his advantage and acted maturely. When he pushed, when he agreed, when he backed off, and when he argued, he was a master. He allowed the Googlers a lot of flexibility, though. He realised that they had established a culture of invention at Google, which he didn’t want to mess with. All he wanted to do was create a business and managerial structure based on the vision and culture that Brin and Page had painstakingly created.
Of course, there were grounds of contention between Schmidt and the Google executives. It took a lot of persuasion from Schmidt to persuade Brin and Page that the company’s payroll system, which was based on free software, needed to be overhauled. Schmidt desired to purchase Oracle packaged software, which he considered was necessary given Google’s size and rate of growth. However, Brin and Page could not see the point in paying thousands of dollars to Oracle when free software was available.
There were also times when Brin and Page insisted on having their way. AOL’s search business was reportedly the subject of a bloody bidding war between Google and Overture. Google eventually secured it by promising AOL millions of dollars in guarantees. Schmidt was concerned about this because the company’s cash position was rapidly dwindling. Brin and Page, on the other hand, continued with the transaction because they believed that investing in search and search-related advertising with a company like AOL was well worth the risk. It turned out to be the best decision in the end.
This apart, Google also inked a deal with Yahoo to provide its search results. It also signed a $100 million deal with AskJeeves.com, a competitor, to provide it with search-based advertising. It showed maturity and confidence on Google’s part to get into deals with competitors.
In April 2004, Google promised to launch an email service which it promised would be markedly superior to existing email services. Brin and Page knew that, with the abundance of email service providers already functioning, a new email service had to be significantly superior to be able to succeed. Google Mail, or Gmail, they believed, was significantly superior.
Gmail’s unique features included easy retrievability through a Google-like search of emails, 1 GB of free storage, which was several times the storage space of existing email service providers, and a unique way of representing a series of emails, resembling a conversation. Gmail was first given to 1000 opinion leaders for testing. They could then give Gmail to a limited number of people on an Invite basis. This gave Gmail a kind of exclusivity which made it a much desired item.
Gmail, on the other hand, ran into problems just when everything looked to be going smoothly. Ads in Gmail were supposed to be identical to those in Google. The adverts would be context-sensitive, based on the email’s content. The announcement sparked outrage among privacy advocates. There were threats of legal action, as well as requests to shut down Gmail. The problem was with email scanning. It was thought that by reading every email, Google was invading people’s privacy. Security risks were also expected as a result of the large storage capacity and accompanying long retention time of emails.
For the first time, Google’s otherwise spotless reputation was tarnished. Google was about to go public, so the timing couldn’t have been worse. Brin and Page were caught aback since they had expected a favourable response to what they thought was a superior product. They hoped the protests were only a blip on the radar and that things would return to normal shortly. They stressed that email scanning was automatic and that they would not be notified of the content. They added that each email service provider examined emails for the purpose of displaying emails and detecting malware.
As time went on, and more people began to use Gmail, they began to find the experience extremely fulfilling. The negative press gradually faded, and Gmail eventually became a huge success.
When the time came to take Google public, Brin and Page decided to do things their way once more. A typical IPO in the United States is carried out with the assistance of large investment banks. These banks publicise the shares through a “road show,” assist in stock pricing, and guarantee a minimum amount to the issuing corporation. The investment bank’s and the issuing company’s objectives, however, clashed. The investment bank, on the other hand, wants the stock to remain undervalued so that it appreciates in value and benefits its preferred investors. On the other side, the firm would want the price to be as high as possible in order to raise the most money feasible.
Google didn’t want investment banks to make decisions for them. They were willing to spend half the sum that investment banks typically requested and wanted to control the parameters of the IPO. They wanted the IPO to be open to everyone, so anyone could participate. Only 5 shares were required as a minimum. Pricing would be determined by an auction, similar to Google ads. They believed that the road shows disproportionately disclosed information to a small group of people. To make things more equitable, they made all pertinent information available on the Internet for everybody to see.
They also issued two classes of shares, Class A and Class B, to maintain control. Regular investors held Class A shares, which had one vote apiece. Class B shares were for them, and each one had ten votes, giving them complete power.
As the stock issue date approached, suspicion about Google’s stock began to grow. The price range of $110-$135, or around 150 times earnings per share, became too excessive. Employees of Google were worried that after the stock issuance, they would exercise their stock options and leave the firm. To make matters worse, Brin and Page were interviewed informally and casually by Playboy magazine. It was a much earlier interview, but it was timed to capitalise on all of the recent news around Google. It was not only a breach of SEC guidelines, but it also raised doubts in the minds of potential investors about the seriousness of Google’s top executives.
Google’s venture backers, who stood to lose a lot of money, had no choice but to intervene. To avoid violating the quiet period, the Playboy storey was decided to be added as an appendix to Google’s registration forms. In addition, venture investors opted to hold off on selling all of their Google stock, indicating that they expected the stock price to rise. Finally, Google’s initial public offering (IPO) was completed, with the stock trading at $85 per share. It is currently worth $530 per share.
Google’s reputation became stronger with each passing year. It snatched AOL’s European business from under Yahoo’s nose by promising AOL million-dollar assurances after the two companies were on the verge of finalising a transaction. Sergey Brin negotiated the deal. Sergey Brin’s key tasks included closing agreements, lowering costs, and dealing with cultural and motivational challenges. Larry Page, on the other hand, was more hands-on with his job. He also oversaw personnel hiring and found creative ideas with the most potential. For his part, Eric Schmidt, the CEO, was in charge of operations. He made sure tasks were completed on time and that deadlines were met. He was also in charge of finance, accounting, and other computer systems.
The innovations continued to pour in. Google Suggest figured out what you were looking for. For your PC, Google Desktop provided a comprehensive search solution. Google brought up a video search and a Google satellite map. Google Scholar was created to make it easier to find scholarly articles. The to-do list gradually grew longer and longer.
In the midst of all of this, Google embarked on a massive project to digitise all books in major libraries and make them accessible to Google users. A few libraries were chosen, starting with the University of Michigan. The books were scanned with technology that was gentle on them and did not harm them. These books would be scanned and made available in a format that would prevent them from being copied. Users would only be able to see bits of pages from works that were still under copyright.
Google devised a convincing value proposition in order to gain the cooperation of publishers. It would pay for the scanning and indexing of books in exchange for the right to include them in its search results. It would then offer them in a format that would prevent them from being copied. It would also provide direct access to bookstores who would be able to purchase the book. As a result, Google was effectively offering the customer a taste of the book’s content in order to entice him to buy it. Publishers ultimately came around to the idea. Google Books was the name of the project.
We might see Google deploy its huge processing power to assist genetics research in the future. Google has already downloaded a map of the human genome and is talking to experts about the potential. Millions of genes, along with massive amounts of biological and scientific data, produce a combination that can only be executed by a machine with Google’s processing power, storage capacity, and storage space.
The book has an excellent writing style. The author ensures that the reader is kept interested and enthralled from the beginning to the end. He accomplishes this without the need of any theatrics. The author provides the reader every incentive to keep reading the book by simply ordering events logically, occasionally moving focus to minor characters, and just describing articulately how the Google phenomenon unfolded. Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s personalities are well depicted. Because the book is written in the style of a novel, the reader will never be bored.It’s also worth praising the author for his objectivity. While he lavishes praise on Google in general and its founders in particular, he also criticises them on occasion, such as when they gave an unbecoming interview to Playboy.
On the other hand, the author occasionally delves into excruciating detail, such as the extensive description of the Burning Man Festival, which puts the reader to the test. Furthermore, certain individuals, such as the chef Charlie Ayers, are given disproportionate prominence. While it’s reasonable that the chef’s time at Google helped to build a whole new food culture and excite staff, dedicating a whole chapter to him and featuring one of his recipes is neither essential nor justified.
Overall, the Google tale takes you on a journey through time, through the most successful Internet success storey to date. It’ll keep you fascinated throughout the ride, and you’ll appreciate it.
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