What Would Google Do?

Product Details

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 Googlethe fastest-growing company in historyto discover forty 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 everythingfrom corporations to governments, nations to individualsmust 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.

Product Reviews

(4 stars) - Digital business advices for your company
Nice book to get you started on digital media. It has good clues on the sucess of the most important companies on the digital age.

(2 stars) - Take it easy, Jeff
Oh dear. This could be a good book if Jarvis could resist to praise himself (makes up 15% of the book), get lost in far-fetched anectodes (40% of the book), give hair-risingly naive recommendations to the old economy (another 20%) and try to squeeze facts in BS bingo style headlines that just don't quite fit (I guess 10%).
But the remaining 15% or so gave me really good thought starters and an intuitive understanding of the beautiful new world of W2.0.
Don't get frustrated over the first chapters and make your way to the last chapters - this is where he really wraps things up nicely.

(4 stars) - What you should do also
Although I think this book perhaps views the world a little too Google-timistically I believe most of what it speaks about is very true and very relevant. In many cases I believe it is a book that would not only appeal to the average person but should also be required reading for technology people.

The book presents many examples of how Google is changing the game and how it is also not working by traditional rules. It details how Google is perhaps unique in its ability to shape its own destiny and that of the technology landscape. In that respect there are many lessons for other businesses. One only has to look at the success Google has achieved and continued to achieve to understand that the 'What Would Google Do?' is something that should at the very least not be ignored and in many cases should be duefully copied and adapted.

The book was not only an extremely interesting read but also written in a style that makes it easy for anyone to read. It maintains its inetrest from page and page and follows a logical progression. The only criticism is that it focuses very much on the positive aspects of what Google has achieve perhaps to the detriment of so of the questionable things it has done. However, in the end no business is perfect and a growing business like Google needs to be allowed to make mistakes as it reaches maturity.

This book is a very worthwhile and interesting read for not only those people who are interested in Google but also those who are looking to understand and become inspired as to what potential the Internet may hold fro themselves, their business and society in general.

(5 stars) - A must read for the new age of the internet
Summary

Jeff Jarvis presents a compelling case for how Google "changes everything". In a sense, you are either participating in the new world of Google or the world will rapidly pass you by. Mr. Jarvis states that by Google's ability to catalogue nearly everything, the world is made simpler. The old world of constraints and limits is gone and the new world of openness and information is upon us. Customers now have the power. Either companies adapt or they will feel the consequences.
The book
Jarvis tackles several industries with the question "what would Google do", or "if Google rules the world..." How would Google run the government, the telephone company, newspapers, the insurance company, utilities, manufacturing, and hospitals? His favorite target is real estate agents. In the age of Google, why do we have the multiple listings? What purpose does it serve but to limit information and drive up commissions for realtors? This industry is ripe for Google.
Mr Jarvis believes opening up one's personal life to all on the web. In his blog, he has all his personal affiliations, beliefs, medical conditions, work history, etc. It is his belief that in the age of Google, it is best to have as much information as possible about you on the web. It is through this information that we connect with other people who have similar interests, health conditions, hobbies, etc. Jarvis calls this "Googlejuice".
Googlejuice is information that that be catalogued and stored on the internet. Of course, the way Google works, the more people request information about a topic or an individual, the higher in the ranking on searches that the information is viewable to others.
The foundation of Jarvis's case is built upon the power of the new architecture of the network of the web. By joining the network of Facebook or Linkedin, personal information has exploded on the net. Networks offer the opportunity to build collective knowledge. Through this network, Google and the internet offer the opportunities for companies to "listen" to what their customers are saying about their products. Jarvis makes a case that at minimum, companies must monitor the web for feedback on how their company is doing.
More proactively, Jarvis states that eventually companies can design products through the collective masses on the web. The products would be suited for the customer as they had the opportunity to build it. He predicts that mass market is dead and niche marketing is the way of the future based on the masses converging on the network and designing custom products.
Jarvis can be a little idealistic as times in his futuristic thinking. The "Dell model" of build to suit over the web was very successful, however was replaced by the efficiency of HP's mass production. Jarvis ignores the efficiency of mass produced goods. He also discounts companies R&D investments to dream up products that the masses did not even conceive. Additionally, while consumers can think of custom designed products, companies must design entire supply chains to support them.
The most important concept that Mr. Jarvis has presented in his book is how Google has flipped the power structure of selling products. Consumers now have the knowledge, the information, and the collective "voice" from the internet. As a result, either companies have to adapt, or if they do not, they do so at their peril.
I found myself challenged by the book but also a bit concerned. I began to think about the implications to the end of privacy. If everything about you is searchable, can there be a danger in misuse by companies, the government and unscrupulous individuals. Identity theft is already a growing problem. In some ways, the technology is out in front of our ability to protect us.
The most compelling chapter in the book is Mr. Jarvis's description of the "New Business Reality". The three new realities are as follows: "Atoms are a drag" and "Middleman are doomed", and "Free is a business model".
Jarvis is a proponent of "free" as a business model. His reference throughout the book is on the Google model. Therefore, companies provide free access and build their revenue based on selling advertising. Ok, so it works for Google, but "free" is not always a sustainable model. Facebook has yet to build a sustainable profitable business model on the free concept.
Mr. Jarvis presents a refreshing look at the new technology world we live in. He challenges business models built on scarcity and the ability to charge customers higher prices based on the lack of information. The internet drove down prices of everything from books, CD's, electronics, the price you pay for a car, etc.
The "Google rules" as Mr. Jarvis presents are as follows: "Give the people the control and we will use it", "Your worst customer is your best friend" and "your best customer is your partner". The basic theme running through all there rules is transparency, access and the power of the masses. I do not think any of these three concepts are necessarily new. Top performing companies all listen to their customers and place customer service first. However, the difference in the age of Google and networks is speed. In the old model, customer feedback was through individual letters, or telephone calls or surveys. Each customer's voice to the company represented only their own experience. Now with blogs, networks, and Google searches, their experiences with a company's products or services are part of a mass of people. The customer has the power.
The book moves along at a very good pace. Mr. Jarvis continually explores new territory in the book. He explores his creativeness in pushing the boundaries of one's thinking. While the book is named "What would Google Do?", he spends little time in the book talking about Google.
If you bought this book thinking you would find out more about Google, you will be disappointed. The book could have been named "The Internet Changes Everything" but then again, this is not a new concept. The book is really about the emerging technology of the network and the power of the search engine cataloging technology. It is not about the corporation of Google and their business model. I did find this as one shortcoming in the book. I was expecting more insight into the Google Corporation.
Despite the lack of insight into Google, I would highly recommend this book to business and individuals to compete in the new internet age. As an individual, the book challenges your traditional way of thinking on networks and providing personal information on the internet. As a businessperson, the book will challenge you to re-examine your web presence and how you are using it to respond to customers.
Jarvis does present a few exceptions to his Google rules: lawyers and public relations people. While there is potential to change laws based on network feedback etc, he does not see Google affecting lawyer's livelihoods. Additionally, he believes the PR business is a personal business and will remain so into the future.
Of course, Jarvis's title plays on the religious concept of "What would Jesus do?". He even addresses this irony at the end of the book. While this may seem a bit irreverent, Jarvis means no harm or disrespect. On the contrary, the question is "what would Google do?" is essential to our thinking now and in the years ahead. The implications for us in our everyday business is that we will need to ask both questions if we are to compete in the new fast paced, information laden, catalogued, networked world of Google.

(1 stars) - Repetitive, very boring after 3 chapters
Got the book for the fancy title and found the first couple of chapters intriguing. After that it just got extremely repetitive. The author appears to be confused between "Internet" and Google. All the stuff that Internet enabled was being atrributed to Google. It almost felt like Google paid for him writing this book -- may be they did! he also seems to believe that there was no search engine before Google and if Google would not have come around, the world would have ceased to exist.

I was amused by opinion about "open/democratic" company the author proposes everyone should run... it did not make sense and author just keeps on repeating the same point chapter after chapter.

Overall, I was quite bored reading this and closed it after reading 3-4 chapters.

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