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book cover
book cover
Author: Steven Levy
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Reviewing the growth of Google from its academic project origins at Stanford to the company that is rolling in billions of long-tail advertising dollars, forms the central exchange for information on the internet, having by then already grown to 24,000 employees.

This week’s book review: “In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives” by Steven Levy.

Wow, this book really surprised me for two sections. The first section that I absolutely love is the founding of Google and its origins, which give big insight on the founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and the underlying philosophy of the company. The other section that I loved to read was Google in China, which gives a lot more insight on Google’s involvement in China and their problems with entering China. Other things that I learned was the press finding out the unofficial motto, “Don’t do evil,” the Android platform, and how employees are actually ranked (spoiler: they don’t want to have the corporate hierarchy).

After reading the book, I look at Google a little more differently. It doesn’t mean I completely trust Google with my data, but there are definitely people there that are much more smarter than I’ll ever be. Steven Levy definitely keep me entertained as the writing is more of a story format of the lives of the founders rather than just a straight biography of the company. It may be too early to give the history of Google, so I can’t wait to see what’s in store.

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