The Search

I've been waiting for this book for at least a year.

I've read the excerpts and syndications, but it was with great confidence that I pushed the "add to shopping cart" on Amazon.

John Battelle was born to write this book on search and Google and the evolving Internet.

It really doesn't matter whether you are a techie or not, this book is about an important topic that has invaded everyone's daily lives.  My bet is almost anyone will find it worth reading.

I'll let you know what I think when I am done.

Comments

[Abby]

Batelle is going to be in Chris Lydon's Open Source tomorrow (Wednesday). That's the same show that Jeff Jarvis was recently on discussing internet responses to disaster relief. If you miss it at 7PM Eastern, you can listen to the podcast.

http://www.radioopensource.org/google-sociology/

[Catablast! Media Group]

I was very disappointed with the Google book.

It doesn't tell us things we couldn't "Google" and find ourselves.

The book runs through the company's founding, survival through the tech downturn, and the IPO.

The highlight of the book is an anectdote relating the time Page and Brin out-negotiated Sun Micro's Vinod Koshla, who desperately wanted Google to sell out to Excite.

Whoopee.

If someone other than Batelle wrote it, it'd be a knockout business biography.

But in relation to what he is capable of, "The Search" troubles me.

This will be a hot seller for 12-18 months, but I feel confident in saying that you won't be reading this one in business school 5, 10, or 15 years from now.