Googled, by Ken Auletta

“The world has been Googled. We don’t search for information, we “Google” it” 

So begins Auletta’s narrative about the rise and rise of an information superpower. From humble beginnings (if the projects of geniuses at Stanford can be described as ‘humble’), Google has seemingly liberated the Internet. 

There is nothing technically wrong with this book. It is very well researched. It’s also phenomenally detailed. Auletta’s status as a very successful business journalist enabled lots of access to super-rich CEOs and he gets great little sound bites from his acquaintances. I like the manner in which Auletta initially paints the battleground between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media giants. 

Still, I have to say, I found this book a bit of a chore to finish. Because Google only makes money from one thing, advertising, Auletta really only has one thing to talk about. If only I had a Google share for every mention of Adsense or Adwords. The references are constant and unnecessary. Google provides a good service for advertisers. It made them extremely rich. We get it, Ken.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

There is also a love hate relationship between Auletta and his subjects. Auletta is obviously peeved the founders, (Sergey Brin and Larry Page), took so long to give him one-on-one time and is sometimes unflattering in his descriptions of them. Even so, he is in awe of their vision. He is a business journalist and as a thriving business Google benefits from his admiration, but not his sharp analytical critique, which is what this book lacks. Chapters spent building up the motivations and innovations of Google are ended with short paragraphs that barely cover the more negative aspects. ‘Waking the Government Bear’, a chapter about legislative movements scrutinising Google’s privacy policy ends with a line that suggests Google’s disregard for such things is motivated by public benefit, but not their own.

I struggle to believe this and Auletta in his admiration of the their business acumen, does not probe this enough. Google’s mantra is ‘Don’t be Evil.’ However, spread throughout the book are examples of Google simply defining what ‘evil’ is and isn’t, then plundering on through whichever industry happens to take its pleasing. For instance, Google’s ongoing quest to scan every book in existence to make them available and searchable to users is ambitious but full of folly. Children as young as nine years old know about copyright, ownership and publishing rights because they violate them every day on Bitlord. Google walked into battle with authors and publishers at the very first hurdle.

Google is not naïve, as Auletta claims they were in this venture. They were ruthless. They offered to scan and digitise the catalogues of libraries, at their own expense. This was not a gesture borne from the good will in their hearts. If Google is to be responsible for holding all that content, they are to be only organisation we can go to if we want to search it.

When we search, our every request, download and viewing is recorded somewhere on the planet in one of Google’s extensive and top secret server locations, ready to unite your screen with an advertiser who wants to sell Garnier products to readers of Dorian Gray and turkeys to people who read A Christmas Carol. Well, not quite, but you get what I mean. The more content Google can make searchable, the more accurate the picture of you they can sell to their advertisers. Google argue the old way of doing things is tired and that there is always a better way. But in their eyes, it is only better if we can access innovation through them and them alone. 

I’m inclined to question the personal benefit of allowing businesses to access to specific audiences appropriate for their products and services. In celebrating Google’s ability to link businesses with their potential clients, Auletta fails to notice Google are effectively ‘littering’ the internet; the electronic equivalent pedalling fly posters for things like ‘diet pills’’ and ‘free cash, now!’ all over our online experience. Advertising is a manipulative industry. The book itself references the successful tactics of premium brands like BMW and Mercedes, who market their products to the young so their aspirations dictate how they will spend money when they get old and rich. (As a side note, the book implies this is an art and in no way inherently insidious). Advertising isn’t suddenly a ‘good’ thing because Google’s adverts are text based, brief and targeted. These adverts are still a constant source of steady mindless chatter that bombard us when we look for routes to unknown places, check our emails, or spy on our neighbours using Google Earth.

Auletta lavishes praise on the company when reporting on the working environment inside Google. The value placed upon engineers over PR staff is an ethic that undoubtedly makes Google as successful as it is. I’m not going to make the big deal out of this that Auletta does; Google is a computer engineering company. Seeing engineers as assets is as important as an airline valuing its pilots. 

Google does put it’s plentiful money where it’s mouth is and engineers get to spend twenty per cent of their time working on their own projects. I’m highly sceptical about this; if you are given the opportunity to eat three meals a day at your workplace, indulge in free massage and engage in exercise during working hours, your definition of ‘personal interests’ will surely coincide with that of the company's.

This may not even be intentional; consider that Page and Brin were until recently part of a sometimes esoteric recruitment process, (one current lawyer in the organisation was given thirty minutes to write Brin a contract to sell his soul to the devil), it’s easy to see Google took on recruits who were already of their mindset.  Don’t believe what Auletta insists upon in his book, there is no work-life balance if you work for Google. You work for Google whilst you actually live inside it. This book gave me the impression that Google will let you innovate in your own time, but will not hesitate to take your innovation, develop it, then stick adverts all over it to make it worth their while.

Google didn’t invent search, which is a reality the book never stresses enough. Alta Vista, Lycoa, Ask Jeeves, Northern Lights… all companies that used to be familiar to us and used to do what Google does. Google became a brand because it did search better than everyone else. Then it became a giant because it monetised it. But I would argue the scale of their economic success simply reflects the scale of the internet. It does not reflect the scale of Google’s brilliance. 

Auletta allows Brin an anecdote about a visit to Zambia. Brin recalls meeting a driver who was forced to spend an £200 a DVD-ROM drive that costs $30 in the US. Brin’s point was the value of information. He argued that if his subject had the information, he could discover the true value of his purchase and not be ripped off.

Brin’s clumsy anecdote neatly summarises Google’s biggest failing, the unwavering belief that their thought process is logical, therefore always right. By not considering import taxes, export taxes, shipping costs, supply and demand and retail pressures you can draw the conclusion that this Zambian driver is getting ripped off. Or, you can try to understand why you cannot always compare like for like.

I’m sure you can march into PC World in San Fransisco and buy a DVD-ROM for $30 but there are trade, manufacturing and retail conditions that dictate that the cost of such an item in Zambia is $200. And that’s life. Google is of no use to this gentleman’s predicament. Even if this person wanted to buy the spare abroad, he could do so without the help of Google. Brin and Page think they can liberate individuals with information. Information is useless without context, something in this instance Brin failed to grasp. 

Adsense and Adwords have cornered corner forty per cent of all advertising dollars spent online. Google is so rich, it could spend $500m acquiring You Tube and make no money off it whatsoever.  Auletta is so enamoured with Google’s vital statistics, he fails to make observations when enough evidence is there to do so. Brin and Page claim to run an environmentally and socially conscious company, yet cavort around the world on their private jets. He fails to make the link between the increasing array of Google products and Google’s increasing ability to effectively profile us. Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Mail, Google Images, Google Shopping (formerly Froogle) mean we unsuspectingly tell Google where we live, where we go, who we know and what we buy – all magic beans in the form of data a media giant like Google can sell to make all that lovely revenue.

I can appreciate a good service when I get one. Google is quick, easy and smart. I know nothing about algorithms but I know Google has algorithms to die for. The book, for me, presented a beast of an organisation run by openly arrogant techies and their hidden ambitions are starting to be revealed. Google wants to deliver information via the internet to the world. I’m not so sure. Google does not want to deliver the internet, it wants to dominate it.

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