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The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our...
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by John Battelle
Sales Rank: 46016
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List Price: $25.95
$7.99
At Amazon
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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Amazon Remainders Account September 8, 2005
ISBN-10: 1591840880
ASIN: B000GUJHBW
Product Dimensions:
9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
Customer Reviews & Comments
This review is from: The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (Hardcover)
The book is excellent, although if you are a true techno-geek it will be pedestrian from a technical sense. However, for the novice it is a great overview on the history of search engines and the power they are just starting to demonstrate. I found the history of all the various engineers and technology overlaid against the backdrop of luck, economics and timing, to be a fascinating glimpse into the reality that the best technology is not usually what makes the most money. At the core of the book though is the concept of what a search engine can do. Obviously there are as many possibilities to develop and implement search algorithms as there are creative people to invent them (Microsoft MSN, Yahoo and others have products that compete directly with, and in many cases outperform the more well known brand the book focuses on), but essentially they have the power to pull together unbelievable amounts of formerly disconnected data, and create a targeted marketing aimed at you personally. The potential danger of all of this technology is that depending on how you set the algorithm, you no longer simply search reality, but actually create it. For example, a change in how the search engine works can drive business to some on line retailers while destroying the business of others. It can conceivably literally create trends, and promote views, all through the seemingly blind eye of the program. The problem is that these programs are anything but blind, and we are on the verge of tremendous legal battles due to the creativity of those trying to use the system to deflect traffic from the owner of a trademark, to their own competing brand, with full compliance by the folks at Google. Overall, this book is an excellent way for the novice to understand this phenomenon a little better, and be more aware of how our world is changing. Sure, there are valid literary criticisms of the book, and the author is biased towards (seems enamored with) Google, but it is a very interesting book that is informative, and certainly not dull. Recommended.
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The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our...
List Price: $25.95
Available from Amazon
Price: $7.99
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