Kenneth

Better written than earlier books on Google, but not the first to tell the story.

This author is unusually professional in his reporting, perhaps even fair and balanced. If you haven’t already read a book on Google, this one is more grown up than most. If you have already a few books on Google there may not be enough new stuff here to be worth reading yet another book on Google.

There is one truly controversial thing in this book, but it’s so smoothly stated that it’s easy to overlook. The author takes the position that the vast majority of Google's success, and all of its problems, is/are due to its deliberate attempt to cultivate an engineering culture. This is a refreshing prespective, which is rarely stated, and perhaps quite subversive. Legions of business consultants will try to help your company get away from its engineering culture. But if they succeed you won’t be the next Google. Where are the consultants that will try to help your company establisher or retain an engineering culture?