Googled: The End of the World as We Know It (2009) - Ken Auletta

Ken Auletta is a columnist for the The New Yorker Magazine.  His column, "Annals of Communications," focuses on the new communications media.

Googled, as the name implies, tells of the rapid rise in size and importance of Google.  Auletta introduces us to the two founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, whose passion to devise the best search tool possible led to a company that has revolutionized how the world gets its information.

In addition to developing a search tool that has enabled users to find information on almost any topic in seconds, Google has disrupted a wide-range of traditional industries.  Through the development of online services such as AdWord and AdSense that directly link advertisements to search terms and web content, Google engineers have brought a level of efficiency to advertising that threatens traditional  models.  By charging only when the viewer actually clicks on the advertiser's link, Google has changed the economic model as well.

Through the development or purchase of online programs, Google has disrupted other industries including film, television and print media.  With the purchase of YouTube, Google incurred charges of copyright infringement from the television and film industries.  Most notably, Viacom filed a $1 billion lawsuit in 2007 against Google.  Google contended that since it does not post content itself to YouTube and since it immediately deletes copyright protected content when informed of an infraction, it is covered by the "Safe Harbor" provision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998.

Google's plan to digitize "all of the books in the world"  has also led to conflict with publishers and authors.  In 2008, Google reached an agreement with the U.S. publishing industry when Google agreed to pay for past copyright infringements and also to purchase future content.  News publications have also expressed dissatisfaction with Google's news aggregation sites, claiming that Google is profiting from their content without paying for it.

As Google moves into other areas such as Cloud Computing, Mobile Telephony and Social Media etc. additional conflicts can be anticipated.  Auletta contends that much of the conflict that Google has experienced thus far can be attributed to naivete.  He believes that Brin and Page, believing that bringing information to the world in the most efficient manner was good, failed to appreciate the legal and economic ramifications.

While reading this book, Google launched the Buzz.  It was very interesting to see the reaction while understanding how this fits into the Google vision.

Some interesting facts and stats:

1. In 2008, Google's ad revenues matched the total ad revenues of the five broadcast TV networks.
2. It took Microsoft 15 years to reach $1 billion in revenues.  It took Google six.
3. Piper Jaffray projected that consumers would download $2.8 billion in applications to their cell phones in 2009 and $13 billion by 2012.
4. In early 2009, Amazon reported that 10% of the books they offered in print and for download were downloaded to Kindles.  By May of that year the number had risen to 35%.
5. 15 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube every minute.  That translates to 86,000 full-length movies every week.