What Would Google Do?

By: Jeff Jarvis

Narrated by: Jeff Jarvis

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

A bold and vital book that asks and answers the most urgent question of today: What Would Google Do?

In a book that's one part prophecy, one part thought experiment, one part manifesto, and one part survival manual, Internet impresario and blogging pioneer Jeff Jarvis reverse-engineers Google, the fastest-growing company in history, to discover 40 clear and straightforward rules to manage and live by.

At the same time, he illuminates the new worldview of the internet generation: how it challenges and destroys, but also opens up vast new opportunities. His findings are counterintuitive, imaginative, practical, and above all, visionary, giving readers a glimpse of how everyone and everything, from corporations to governments, nations to individuals, must evolve in the Google era.

Along the way, he looks under the hood of a car designed by its drivers, ponders a worldwide university where the students design their curriculum, envisions an airline fueled by a social network, imagines the open-source restaurant, and examines a series of industries and institutions that will soon benefit from this book's central question.

The result is an astonishing, mind-opening book that, in the end, is not about Google. It's about you.

©2009 Jeff Jarvis (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Really bad book. Very fluffy.

I bought this book thinking the author would write about the way Google grew and the strategy of the company. What I found was a very badly written book in which the author, a la 1990's Business Week articles, makes very thing related to the internet great and beyond failure. He sprinkles his narrative with names of persons supposedly famous and are game-changers, but in reality are one-hit wonders (business ideas wise). I found the book very fluffy and empty on substance. The book might be a good entertainment for business school graduates who think they are at the edge of technology because they can text, tweet, and have a page on facebook.

Really bad Book.

Shallow and one-sided

"It seems that no company truly knows how to prosper in the internet age, except Google."

These are the opening lines of the book, and so the tone of the book continues: Google is perfect, the rest of the world sucks.

Any internet user with even a little knowledge knows that the reality of the situation is different: Google does some things well (search and monetising search) and have struggled in achieving traction with their other products.

Not worth the effort - I suggest reading "The Google Story" instead.

Shallow and Bias

The review is probably bias as I only made it to chapter 3 and decided I should not waste my time listening further. It has no objectivity, and mention of opposing business principles. One example the author states that you should let customer feedback completely dictates your product design and road map as a customercentric way to run businesses, but what about products that customers didn't even know they wanted?
Know what you are getting into before you read this book.

Too much Jarvis not enough Google

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Bloggers

What could Jeff Jarvis have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Write about Google and it's impact in an objective manner. Speak more to Google's

What three words best describe Jeff Jarvis’s performance?

Self-serving, un-insightful, shallow

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from What Would Google Do??

Nearly every blogging reference.

Boring

I think Jeff Jarvis would be happier living in a European country, more specifically France.

Unobjective; audiobook equivalent of linkbait

This book, while it does seem to be an exercise in what could be, is hopelessly one-sided throughout toward Google, has little to no counterpoints, and very little understanding of the business realities underneath some of these industries and why they do what they do.

It is written like a series of blog posts that are great for retweeted or sharable headline links. If you're looking for one-sided "Google is perfect" to reinforce your thought process, buy it. If you're looking for critical or thorough commentary or thoughtful writing, skip. I shoulda listened to the guy who wrote the first review.

A series of "what if's"

I recommend readers look elsewhere to learn about Google and internet strategies for business. The premise of the book is built on the idea that Google is a successful company and if you mimic them, with Jeff Jarvis as a guide you will be successful too. Unfortunately, there is little fact or reason in the book about when the strategies are appropriate.

I had hoped for more exploration of the case studies, rather than, what felt like cherry picking only cases that agreed with the author. As it stands, the book takes the tact of a cure-all prescription for whatever ails a business.

Terrible

I had a friend recommend this to me. Terrible book. Some good thoughts scattered throughout, but hard to dig them out of the mess. Sorry, I just didn't think this book at all profound or helpful to me. IF it had boiled it all down to an hour, it MIGHT have been worthwhile.

So what that you didn't like your Dell...?

Not that you want to take credit for Dell changing its customer service approach (as you mention several times) but what's your point? For thirty minutes I've been listening to narrative about your problems with Dell. Can I stop and get a refund at this point Jeff?