Larry Page Developing the Largest Corporate Foundation in Every Successful Company Must Face: As Google Word.” the United States
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LOWE —continued from front flap— Praise for $19.95 USA/$23.95 CAN In addition to examining Google’s breakthrough business strategies and new business models— In many ways, Google is the prototype of a which have transformed online advertising G and changed the way we look at corporate successful twenty-fi rst-century company. It uses responsibility and employee relations——Lowe Google technology in new ways to make information universally accessible; promotes a corporate explains why Google may be a harbinger of o 5]]UZS SPEAKS culture that encourages creativity among its where corporate America is headed. She also A>3/9A addresses controversies surrounding Google, such o employees; and takes its role as a corporate citizen as copyright infringement, antitrust concerns, and “It’s not hard to see that Google is a phenomenal company....At Secrets of the World’s Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs, very seriously, investing in green initiatives and personal privacy and poses the question almost Geico, we pay these guys a whole lot of money for this and that key g Sergey Brin and Larry Page developing the largest corporate foundation in every successful company must face: as Google word.” the United States. grows, can it hold on to its entrepreneurial spirit as —Warren Buffett l well as its informal motto, “Don’t do evil”? e Following in the footsteps of Warren Buffett “Google rocks. It raised my perceived IQ by about 20 points.” Speaks and Jack Welch Speaks——which contain a SPEAKS What started out as a university research project —Wes Boyd conversational style that successfully captures the conducted by Sergey Brin and Larry Page has President of Moveon.Org essence of these business leaders—Google Speaks ended up revolutionizing the world we live in. reveals the amazing story behind one of the most Google Speaks puts these incredible entrepreneurs “Google is my rapid response research assistant. It’s the Swiss Army important new companies of our time by exploring in perspective and shows you how their drive and knife of information retrieval.” the people and philosophies that have made it a global phenomenon in less than fi fteen years. determination have allowed them to create one of — Lloyd Grove ENTREPRENEURS, SERGEY PAGE BRIN and LARRY ENTREPRENEURS, SECRETS BILLIONAIRE of the WORLD’S GREATEST today’s most powerful companies. columnist, Portfolio.com Written by bestselling author Janet Lowe, this book offers an engaging look at how Google’s founders, JANET LOWE is the author of the bestselling “Who’s afraid of Google? Everyone.” Sergey Brin and Larry Page, transformed their Warren Buffett Speaks, Jack Welch Speaks, and —Wired magazine Bill Gates Speaks, all from Wiley. Her articles have vision of a better Internet search engine into a business colossus with about $16 billion in annual appeared in such publications as Newsweek , the “Writers of the past had absinthe, whiskey or heroin. I have Google.” the revenue. Lowe discusses the values that drive Brin Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, — Michael Chabon and the San Francisco Chronicle. and Page——for example, how they both live fairly author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay modest lives, despite each having a net worth Jacket Illustration: © Michael Witte in excess of $15.9 billion——and details how they have created a culture that fosters fun while, at the same time, keeping Google at the forefront of technology through relentless R&D investments and imaginative partnerships with organizations such as NASA. 8/<3B:=E3 —continued on back flap— ffirs.indd ii 3/26/09 2:58:28 PM Google SPEAKS ffirs.indd i 3/26/09 2:58:28 PM ffirs.indd ii 3/26/09 2:58:28 PM Google SPEAKS Secrets of the World’s Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page JANET LOWE John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ffirs.indd iii 3/26/09 2:58:28 PM Copyright © 2009 by Janet Lowe. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifi cally disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fi tness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profi t or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Lowe, Janet. Google speaks : secrets of the world’s greatest billionaire entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page / Janet Lowe. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-470-39854-8 (cloth) 1. Brin, Sergey, 1973– 2. Page, Larry, 1973– 3. Computer programmers—United States—Biography. 4. Businesspeople— United States—Biography. 5. Internet programming—United States. 6. Google (Firm) 7. Google. 8. Web search engines. I. Title. QA76.2.A2L69 2009 005.1092—dc22 [B] 2009004121 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ffirs.indd iv 3/26/09 2:58:44 PM Dedicated to Stephen Plaxe, Carolyn Muller, Audrey Sniegowski, Dale and Kathy Lowe, Jade Easton, and all my other Angels. Thank you. ffirs.indd v 3/26/09 2:58:44 PM ffirs.indd ii 3/26/09 2:58:28 PM ffirs.indd vi 3/26/09 2:58:44 PM Contents Acknowledgments xiii INTRODUCTION 1 THE GOOGLE GUYS 13 Sergey Brin 13 Russian Roots 13 American Passage 14 Educating Sergey 15 The Road to Stanford 15 Boy Genius to Adult Genius 16 Wedding on a Caribbean Sand Bar 17 23andMe 18 Flying High 20 Larry Page 21 Cradled in a Computer Culture 22 Nikola Tesla, Page’s Hero 23 Tesla’s Story 24 The Tesla Car 25 vii ftoc.indd vii 3/25/09 3:02:00 PM viii CONTENTS Motivated by Montessori 26 The Leadership Program 27 The Solar Racer 28 Go West, Larry 28 Lego-centricity 29 Mensa Boy 30 Larry Gets Married 30 The X-Prize 31 No More Laundry 32 The Power of Partnership 33 Forging the Stanford Connection 35 A Creative Environment 35 A Poignant History 37 An Academic or an Entrepreneur? 39 A Grim Goodbye 39 Networking at Its Best 40 Burning Man 42 ADULT SUPERVISION 44 The Collective Wisdom of Silicon Valley 45 He’s Been the Rock; They’ve Been the Rockets 46 A Man of Infl uence 47 Climbing a Different Kind of Mountain 50 IN THE BEGINNING 51 The Ultimate Search Engine 55 Not Inventing, but Improving Upon 57 Look Around You for Inspiration 59 How Search Works 60 Platform Power 63 Open Platform 66 ftoc.indd viii 3/25/09 3:02:00 PM Contents ix GOOGLE BY ANY OTHER NAME 68 A Blessed Blunder 68 From Noun to Verb 69 Playing with the Name 70 The Google Logo 71 The Google Doodle 72 Google Zeitgeist 74 A COMPANY IS BORN 78 Yahoo! Drew the Map 79 The Requisite Garage 81 The Venture Capitalists 83 The Elusive Business Plan 86 Investing in Wild Ideas 88 Good Ideas Put to Good Use 91 Dealing with Dark Matter 91 Aversion to Advertising 93 Advertising that Delivers Results 95 Two Ways to Advertise: AdWords and AdSense 96 Extending the Google Reach 100 The Science of Advertising 101 Google Didn’t Advertise Itself—at First 101 Birth of the Google Economy 104 GOING PUBLIC 106 “We’re Different” 109 The Dutch Auction 111 Buffett on Google 113 Berkshire Hathaway’s Share Structure versus Google’s 114 ftoc.indd ix 3/25/09 3:02:00 PM x CONTENTS The Playboy Interview 116 Ten Years Later 118 THE VISION 123 Make It Useful 125 The Many Ways to Google 127 Make It Big 132 We Serve the World 133 Make It Fun 135 Google Users Hearken to the Call 138 Don’t Do Evil 139 How Google Defi nes Evil 140 The Motto Loses Some Shine 143 Can Free Speech Go Too Far? 144 Make It Free 146 GOOGLE CULTURE 148 New Management Style 149 Ten Things Google Has Found to Be True 153 Riding the Long Tail 156 20 Percent Projects 157 Perpetual Beta 159 Fabled Workplace 160 An Alternative Point of View 163 Googleplex 164 Google in Ireland 168 Top Ten Reasons to Work at Google 169 The Battle for Brainpower 171 Guarding the Secrets 177 ftoc.indd x 3/25/09 3:02:01 PM Contents