What happens when I try to give 300 or so folks at Google NY a straight answer about the future of Google? This. (Video of my talk at Google NY, which the Google video blog posted today)….
Several readers have sent me mail telling me how they've purchased The Search as a Holiday gift for office mates or family and friends. A couple have even sent boxes of them to me so I can personalize them for the office. That makes me a happy happy author….
Several readers have sent me mail telling me how they’ve purchased The Search as a Holiday gift for office mates or family and friends. A couple have even sent boxes of them to me so I can personalize them for the office. That makes me a happy happy author.
It struck me that I should perhaps promote the book as a good Holiday gift right here on my site. After all, if anyone might appreciate such a plea, it’d be you guys. So here’s my offer. If you want, buy the book and then let me know you did. In the body of the email, write a short inscription you’d like printed on a book plate (a sticker/label) and I’ll print it on the label, sign it, and mail it to you (include your mailing address as well). That solves the problem of sending the book back and forth, now I just have to mail a label to you. Then you can stick the label on the inside cover or first blank page of the book. Voila, a personalized holiday gift!
If you think this sounds cool, why then first buy the book on Amazon or wherever, then email me with your address, message, and perhaps a snippet of the purchase confirmation email (so that I can see that you actually bought the book). I promise to do as many as I can before Christmas….
Read MoreYesterday I got a chance to talk with a room full of eBay folks, and it was a bit different than my time at Yahoo, Google, Amazon, or Microsoft. I've always viewed eBay as a more buttoned up and, well, corporate company, perhaps because Meg Whitman is such a…
Yesterday I got a chance to talk with a room full of eBay folks, and it was a bit different than my time at Yahoo, Google, Amazon, or Microsoft. I’ve always viewed eBay as a more buttoned up and, well, corporate company, perhaps because Meg Whitman is such a Wall St. icon.
After I ran through some passages of the book and told a few stories, we got to a pretty robust Q&A (one attendee, Alan Lewis, wrote it up here). A lot of questions about Google, not surprisingly, given the Base announcement.
One interesting question was “What should we (eBay) be doing that we’re not doing right now?” I thought for a while and it struck me that the answer was “experimenting.” Google has a whole culture based on that idea, and Yahoo has been doing a lot of it lately. And Amazon, well, Alexa’s news was very keenly watched in the halls of eBay yesterday.
Read MoreJust finished a book talk at Google New York, where more than 400 folks work (and more are coming in each day). The office is split between Ad Sales and Engineering, for the most part, as was the audience – about 200 or so were there. Again, I was…
We also talked – a lot – about the media industry, as one might expect given this town. Needless to say, the ongoing and seismic shifts in media business models is near and dear to the minds of that crowd.
Afterward I got to sign scores of books, and the Google library got one copy as well. My inscription? “Scan This Book!”
If my posting was light yesterday, it was due to my trip south to Yahoo, where I finally got a chance to speak and speak with the folks there, thanks to the kind invitation of the folks in the Technology Development Group (thanks Chad and Jeremy). Jeremy wrote up…
I really like having the chance to interact with so many smart folks who are deeply engaged in the story of search. It’s an honor.
During the Q&A I was asked about privacy, and issue which is asked by every single audience I’ve ever spoken with, and every single press interview I’ve done in the past three months of the book tour. Yesterday at Yahoo I managed to give my “nightmare scenario” a full public airing, and folks didn’t laugh me off the stage, so my next post will sketch it out in full.
I was on the PBS NewsHour yesterday. Transcript is here…….
The Search has debuted in Japanese. Editions are coming out in around ten countries, so far. I sure wish I could read Japanese so I could see how the book is selling……
The Search has debuted in Japanese. Editions are coming out in around ten countries, so far. I sure wish I could read Japanese so I could see how the book is selling…
Alas, The Search did not win the FT Business Book of the Year award. But I'm happy to be in the company of those who were shortlisted, and Thomas Friedman, who won. News first came from Pravda, oddly, but I was there, and it was a fun night nonetheless……
With David's book as well. It's a combo deal. Ugh. I knew that was going to happen. But I'm pleased with it, regardless. From it: "The Google Story" and "The Search" cast those accomplishments in opposite lights. While they overlap considerably – and while both books flatter Google with…
“The Google Story” and “The Search” cast those accomplishments in opposite lights. While they overlap considerably – and while both books flatter Google with covers that mimic its brilliantly modest logo – they interpret Google’s ethics and future prospects differently. The sky’s the limit in “The Google Story,” a glowing, sometimes credulous testament to “that Googley sense of magic.” Mr. Battelle takes a more knowing, technical approach and is more inclined to look for trouble.
I’ll take that.
Read MoreI've just got back from participating in BBC radio's "Start the Week" – an analogy for which does not really exist in the US, sadly. It's a conversation between four pretty different folks, each Monday morning. Apparently a lot of people listen to the show here in the UK….
