Google Speaks: Secrets of the Worlds Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page

Product Details

"It's not hard to see that Google is a phenomenal company....At Geico, we pay these guys a whole lot of money for this and that key word."
Warren Buffett

"Google rocks. It raised my perceived IQ by about 20 points."
Wes Boyd, President of Moveon.Org

"Google is my rapid response research assistant. It's the Swiss Army knife of information retrieval."
Lloyd Grove, columnist, Portfolio.com

"Who's afraid of Google? Everyone."
Wired magazine

"Writers of the past had absinthe, whiskey or heroin. I have Google."
Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Product Reviews

(5 stars) - A Fair Assessment of a Controversial Company
Google Speaks is the first "Speaks" book I have read, apparently there are two others - Warren Buffett Speaks and Jack Welch Speaks, both of which I plan on reading after having read this book. The style is conversational which makes it accessible for technologists and the general population alike. This book basically traces the roots of Google back to the childhood of the company's founders through the eyes of the founders, family, friends, colleagues, investors, and employees, which in total provide a comprehensive picture of Google and the culture within that company.

Google Speaks is really rare in that it was over 300 pages, but felt like a short book as it is so engaging and conversational. What I really enjoyed about this book it that it felt very fair - at some points the company and it's leadership are praised, while at other times it is critical. The good, bad, and ugly are all presented here. There is much valuable content here - the Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and cloud computing personally stand out for me, as well as the glossary which provides a nice resource of Web (and Google specific) definitions.

Great book for those interested in Google, a motivating success story, Internet search and advertising, or just a good, engaging story.

(4 stars) - Google Speaks: what you need to know about Google
Janet Lowe, bestselling author, captures the billion dollar corporation that was once a school project on the campus of Standford. Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, had a vision of their Internet search engine. Today, that vision turned into a business colossus with an annual revenue of $16 billion dollars. Janet presents a easy-to-read description of the number one Internet search engine.

Sergey Brin, Co-founder of Google, was studying math at a college level when he was 15. After graduating from college in 3 years, he headed west to earn his Ph.D. Larry Page, the other co-founder of Google, was surrounded by computer at the age of 5. Every since then something latched on to him about computers. After graduating from University of Michigan, with a degree in computer engineering. Larry also decided to head west, to Standford University. What was a student project for their research paper, soon became a billion dollar corporation. It didn't happen overnight, but with lots of support from their colleagues Google is the Internet. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both now 36, have become the "King of the Internet."

Larry and Sergey has a very strong connection with Standford University. Besides the fact that Standford was the starting point for their successful business. Standford is also Google's business partner, and let's not forget, Larry and Sergey both met their wives at Standford. One of Google's main assets, the PageRank patent, is owned by Standford University. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, taught business courses at Standford. Google's advisor, Professor Rajeev Montwani, was Sergey's Ph.D. advisor. As you can see, it is inevitable to associate Google without Standford.

This book clearly reaches out to any entrepreneurs who are interested in success stories. It wasn't easy for Larry and Sergey to go public, they still faced difficulties as they tried to decide what to do. Although, they are successful entrepreneurs, it was their distinctive competency that set them apart from Microsoft and Yahoo!

I gave this book four stars out of five. It was very easy-to-read and straight forward. But there are sections of the book that drags on and on. It is very informative to learn how Google was all started and all the process Larry and Sergey went to get to this point. They have brought internet marketing into a new level. There is only gossip for the future of Google, but by looking at all their current application. It is safe to say, they are reaching for nothing but extraordinary.

(1 stars) - Factual blunder
The read was certainly interesting and enlightening. Considering that I'm already a fan of Google, and somewhat know their journey of growth and fame. It contained things that were already well known to me, but some smaller facts which I found quite interesting. The whole book suddenly discredited itself when I found a simple factual blunder, which simply discredited any other facts that may have been in there. Janet Lowe is suddenly discredited as just another author who's out there to make a quick buck by not researching extensively. Extremely disappointing especially when she probably 'goggled' everything else to write this book.

Flickr was acquired by Yahoo, not Google.

(5 stars) - Google Speaks--An Enlightening Read
For those who cannot get through the day without using Google to search out an item on the Internet, Google Speaks is an enlightening book to read. The story of Sergey Brin, a young Russian immigrant, and Larry Page, described as "a typical American boy" in most ways, this book is, also, the story of the founding of Google, a company designated by Time magazine in 2006 as "the smartest company of the year."

Author Janet Lowe brings out some revealing facts about the young entrepreneurs, including the information that both Sergey and Larry attended Montessori elementary schools. The educational methods of Maria Montessori "seemed to have shaped both Sergey and Larry," Lowe writes. The two gifted young men later met as Stanford graduate students, and what began as a college research project developed into an amazing company.

Lowe's book details the growth of Google and tells about many of the people involved in the company's phenomenal developement. It also tells how the name "Google" came to be. Larry and Sergey intended to name the company "googol" which is "the mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. However, someone misspelled the word as "Google" which Lowe terms "a blessed blunder."

Among the many unique projects described in the book, is a collaboration between Google and NASA to provide "high-resolution lunar imagery and maps to the Google Moon program. The book also tells about a copyright infringement dispute with the Authors Guild and others when Google began scanning and copying millions of books in library collections.

The Timeline and Glossary sections in the back provide excellent references for the reader. Google Speaks is a wealth of information. It is a book that everyone who enjoys using the Internet should read.

Mary Montague Sikes, author
Secrets by the Sea, Eagle Rising, Hearts Across Forever, Hotels to Remember
[...]

(5 stars) - Google, the powerful search engine
Google is an exceptional company. It is currently the most used search engine on the web. I picked up this book because I wanted to learn how this company started and why it is so successful. I enjoyed reading the history of the two founders who met at Stanford, and, at first, thought of each other as arrogant and obnoxious, but then ended up founding one of the most powerful companies in the world together.

Google is extremely successful because it has a platform power or network effect. As more people use the platform to search the Internet, the more valuable it becomes. The company knows how powerful its platform is so it works really hard to expand it in any way it can. I enjoyed reading this book.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

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