What Would Google Do? - An Audio Book Review

What Would Google Do?, by Jeff Jarvis, talks a lot about Google and what he believes makes it so successful. He draws on these ideas to form several hypotheses about the future rules of business, such as "give the people control and we will use it", "You don't create communities, but you can provide elegant organization", "the mass market is being replaced by masses of niche markets" and a number of other similar "Google Rules".Jarvis examines these rules throughout the first half of the book, discussing how they apply to Google and how other companies are using these rules for success. And how if not followed these rules can lead to big problems.I truly enjoyed the first half of the book, often stopping the audio book to take notes on a particularly interesting insight from Jarvis.However, after a great first half filled with real examples, the second half of the book explores a hypothetical world of businesses running on "Google Rules." It stretches the imagination and in s
ome places credibility. It's too bad he could not draw on more real examples to prove his point, which leads to concerns about the rigor of his analysis. He may have extrapolated correctly, but then again he may not.He also fails to incorporate Google's massive scale into how these "Rules" apply to the rest of us. For example, only about 1 percentage of people in any community are really big contributors and another 9 percent of people add on to that contribution. The rest of the people watch passively. This means that the wisdom of crowds works when there are lots and lots of people involved. The same cannot be said for a restaurant with hundreds of customers, which is one of Jarvis's hypothetical businesses.Still, I recommend listening to What Would Google Do?, with a particular emphasis on the first half. To audio books is chock full of insights that will make you think. As for the second half, find your industry and give it a listen. Maybe it will make you think differen
tly.

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