Googled: The End of the World As We Know It - Hardcover

Auletta, Ken

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594202354 ISBN 13: 9781594202353

Publisher: Penguin Press, 2009

Synopsis

A revealing, forward-looking examination of the outsize influence Google has had on the changing media Landscape.

There are companies that create waves and those that ride or are drowned by them. As only he can, bestselling author Ken Auletta takes readers for a ride on the Google wave, telling the story of how it formed and crashed into traditional media businesses?from newspapers to books, to television, to movies, to telephones, to advertising, to Microsoft. With unprecedented access to Google?s founders and executives, as well as to those in media who are struggling to keep their heads above water, Auletta reveals how the industry is being disrupted and redefined.

Using Google as a stand-in for the digital revolution, Auletta takes readers inside Google?s closed-door meetings and paints portraits of Google?s notoriously private founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as those who work with?and against?them. In his narrative, Auletta provides the fullest account ever told of Google?s rise, shares the ?secret sauce? of Google?s success, and shows why the worlds of ?new? and ?old? media often communicate as if residents of different planets.

Google engineers start from an assumption that the old ways of doing things can be improved and made more efficient, an approach that has yielded remarkable results? Google will generate about $20 billion in advertising revenues this year, or more than the combined prime-time ad revenues of CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX. And with its ownership of YouTube and its mobile phone and other initiatives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt tells Auletta his company is poised to become the world?s first $100 billion media company. Yet there are many obstacles that threaten Google?s future, and opposition from media companies and government regulators may be the least of these. Google faces internal threats, from its burgeoning size to losing focus to hubris. In coming years, Google?s faith in mathematical formulas and in slide rule logic will be tested, just as it has been on Wall Street.

Distilling the knowledge accrued from a career of covering the media, Auletta will offer insights into what we know, and don?t know, about what the future holds for the imperiled industry.

About this title

About the Author:

Ken Auletta has written the “Annals of Communications” column and profiles for The New Yorker since 1992. He is the author of eight books, including Three Blind Mice, Greed and Glory on Wall Street, and World War 3.0. In naming him America’s premier media critic, the Columbia Journalism Review said, “No other reporter has covered the new communications revolution as thoroughly as has Auletta.” He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.

From AudioFile:

While Google has been around for only a dozen years, the company has already changed the Internet and is on its way to becoming the leading player in online games. Auletta follows the company from its early days and draws portraits of its key players. While Google provides many free services, its rapid growth has scared many other Internet companies. Jim Bond's narration can be frustrating. He speaks too slowly sometimes, lessening the appeal of this unique story and making it difficult to stay interested. Additionally, some parts of the book itself are slow, and Bond's inconsistent pace makes the listener want to skip ahead. But overall, the book itself is fascinating enough to trump the lackluster narration. K.M. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1594202354
• ISBN 13: 9781594202353
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400