The Google Story
The Google Story by David A. Vise provides an historic overview of the rise of the Google empire. Given that the story starts in 1997, the book can cope with providing a lot of detail in the space available. Everything is here, from Larry meeting Sergey to the IPO. I found the inclusion of chapters dedicated to individuals such as Charlie Ayers (Google’s chef) and Eric Schmidt (Google’s CEO) of particular interest.
Throughout, Vise paints Google as a cool company to work for and one whose products are groundbreaking. It is certainly true that Google has had spectacular success: taking on various competitors (Microsoft is one of them) and being able to generate money without giving away their secrets. Vise provides details of the concept and success of Ad Words, showing how the company generates enormous amounts revenue each year. A bit disappointing is the discussion of the Google digitization project, though one may excuse the author on the basis that, at the time of writing, the problems facing Google on a legal front were not exposed.
All in all an interesting, quick read. Recommended to anyone who has an interest in the rise of Silicon Valley ideas and the essential brainpower that drives the Internet. 
