by Ken Auletta
First published 2009
Ken Auletta examines how Google transformed from startup to media disruptor through unprecedented access to the company's leadership. He chronicles the rise of notoriously private founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, taking readers into closed boardroom discussions and strategic decisions that upended traditional publishing, television, and advertising industries. Auletta documents both Google's internal culture and the responses of legacy media companies struggling to adapt to digital transformation. He reveals the specific strategies behind Google's market dominance while exploring why established media executives and Silicon Valley innovators often misunderstand each other's motivations and methods. The book provides an objective analysis of how one company's technological innovations forced entire industries to reconsider their business models, offering readers insight into the broader collision between digital disruption and traditional commerce.
Genres: business, computers, non-fiction, 21st-century, journalism, google
Vibes: intimate, objective, thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-access, investigative-journalism
400 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press