An exceptional book by any standard, as a b-school student it changed the way I see at the business world. The book starts of with the technicalities of the processes involved in the concept of search on the internet. The techie stuff isn’t intimidating at all; rather it gives way to understanding of the book. The book traces the lives of two Stanford computer science students and how they create GOOGLE, which by far has been the only threat to bill gates.
The most beautiful learning which this book gave me was the attitude of the Stanford students when they step in to their colleges. There is almost no desire to have a job , from day one they have this burning desire to start off on their on cos they know that somewhere in their neighboring dorms were the origins of IBM , SAP and APPLE. The book beautifully traces the origin of all the major search engines and is a very inspiring collection of business case studies. Gripping as a thriller James comes on top explaining the route through which Google has become what it is. He calls Google the “database of intentions” .And very truly so the search words entered into the Google search pages reflect the intentions and the innermost desires of our generation.
The book also traces the strategies of Yahoo and msn in the search business and the downfall of AltaVista. It’s a business book no doubt but the way the author has presented the facts of one the greatest companies of our times makes way for a very inspiring reading.
The spirit of starting your own thing, choosing the right people by realizing our deficiencies and looking at goals which are audacious ….the story of google has inspired me as I pass out from my b school.Dont miss it…