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

Favorite Business Book Since Blue Ocean Strategy

The world is changing and those who recognize it will prosper. This book goes into how knowing your core business very well and opening the rest up to the world can help you succeed in today's environment. The author takes a hard look at what Google has done to traditional businesses such as the newspaper industry. However, Jarvis does not stop there. He takes the next step to propose fixes to several industries. While many of his fixes are not feasible, they are all doable. And much to the disappointment of the current industry leaders, someone is going to catch on and take the lead.

I would also recommend his blog as a nice refresher of the books content to keep you thinking.

THE road map to business in the internet age.

This book isn't about Google, it's about innovative business models. Jarvis uses Google as the straight-A student of the digital generation. He tells the story of sticking it to Dell after a customer-service nightmare; and explains what Dell did about it. In the last section of the book, he takes a tour of different industries and shows us how they might be run in a Google world. The book couldn't be more interesting for anyone who wants to understand how to revolutionize their business in the image of Google.

An Enlightening Guidebook

Great book! Great stories of personal application and success!
Jarvis does an amazing job of enlightening the listener on how to answer the question "what would google do" in your personal life/business

A must read for every business

This is a fabulous book that will help you understand how the Internet is changing everything --- and will increasingly change every segment of our economy. The individual chapters about each key industry were particularly helpful.

Excellent

Outstanding, Thought Provoking Book.... the ideas in this book can make you millions!

WWGD: Wow What a Great Doing!

This book provides a comprehensive review of the changes undergoing media communication its ongoing impact on everyday life and in business strategy and operations.

The author does a superb narration: his knowledge and enthusiasm come vividly across.

A great place to start....

"Overall I would definitely recommend this book. I say overall, because there are times where I am just amazed at some of the revelations and correlation he builds with reference to Google and new social based business models. Other times, I flat out want to ask him if he has lost his mind.

This book opens up a plethora (word of the day) of other books related to the Internet, up-and-coming social technologies and new business concepts such as "Free as a business model". Based on Jeff's recommendations and references of sources, I now want to research and read them based on what is covered in this book. At the very least, this book is a great starting point for learning more about the future of the Internet and web based social networking."

Very useful overview of countless DOT Com topics

As the internet has emerged, some of us have been pretty on-the-ball in regards to education and knowledge. Something I found incredibly worthwhile with this book was how it speaks in such a way that both daily internet users and designers can benefit/pull info from this AND also small business owners who have basically been in the dark about the thing called the "internet"! I have had several people listen to this with me who have absolutely no idea about the internet and walked away with a much better idea of what they could do for their smaller businesses.

Insights into the Google Approach to the Market

The author does not have any hands-on experience inside Google, however he does put together an intriguing set of ideas around how Google and its peers (Facebook, Craig's List, etc.) will change our industries. He is very insightful and can see many things that I, being in the technology industry, never even imagined. For instance, what will happen to ad agencies? Are they toast? And if so, why don't they seem to be worried? What would a restaurant do if it approached its market like Google? Would its menu list the number of people who've ordered each dish? Would you see things like "people who liked this dish also seemed to like this one." This book changed my thinking about all industries and especially my own, IT consulting. I strongly suggest reading / listening to it.

Author should take his own advice

Interesting book, but it would be nice if the author would have provided a page on his website that had a list of the links referenced in this audio book. I did as he suggested, a Google search, and found no such list. It's hard to go back in an audio book to find those links after you've finished listening. It's not as easy as a book to mark a page. So, a page on his blog would be nice.