Category: Book Related

Yesterday I once again drove down to Google, but this time it wasn’t to do a set of interviews for the book, it was to read from the book to perhaps the most demanding audience I’ve ever encountered – a room full of Googlers, nearly 200 in all.

I was a bit nervous. While I think the book is fair, and clearly acknowledges the importance and power of Google, it also has more than its fair share of reporting on the negative aspects of the company’s astonishing rise – from privacy concerns to allegations of arrogance and self dealing. Would I be booed off the campus?

It didn’t help my anxiety to see a gaggle of folks in the audience who also were in the book or helped me in one way or another – from Louis Monier and Peter Norvig to Raymond Nasr, Steve Langdon, and Eric Case.

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I sense you might be getting sick of me tooting this particular horn, but I can’t help myself, The Search made it to the Wall St. Journal’s weekly list of Business Bestsellers (reg required) today, at #12. That’s pretty good for only being out ten days, I’m told. And now I can brag about being a bestselling author. Like I am right now.

Again, I think all this happened because of Searchblog readers. I really enjoyed meeting some of you in New York, I have a few more events coming up, and will make sure to keep my book page updated. Thanks.

As you all know, I promised to use this forum as a platform for anyone who took issues with the book to provide me feedback and corrections, if I got anything wrong. I was recently contacted by a communications consultant for Frank Quattrone, one of the most formidable investment bankers of the dot com era. I made a passing reference to Frank in my book, and he clearly disagreed with my observations. Bob Chlopak, Communications Consultant to Frank Quattrone, drafted a statement, which I post in full below. I’m happy to do the same for any source or character in the work who feels similarly.

”The Search” mischaracterizes Frank Quattrone’s case. The book makes reference to the right to privacy for personal email and says:

“While the more sophisticated e-mail user among us has grown to understand the folly of this assumption in a corporate environment, the idea that e-mail is an ephemeral medium is still widely held. In 2003, Frank Quattrone, one of the technology sector’s most powerful bankers and hardly a computing rube, was brought down by such a presumption when incriminating e-mails were used as evidence against him in a widely publicized trial.”

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So we have a time, date, and location for my New York pitstop:

Wednesday 9/21

6:00 pm

Coliseum Books

11 West 42nd Street, NYC

Between 5th and 6th Aves, across from Bryant Park

(212) 803-5890

www.coliseumbooks.com

Hope to see all you New York Searchbloggers there!

The Financial Times was kind enough to excerpt The Search in its weekend edition – they gave it quite a bit of space. Then I found out about this honor. The FT has included The Search in its list of finalists for “Book of the Year,” along with The World Is Flat, Freakonomics, Disneywar, and several others. I’m flabbergasted.

Update: Apparently, you can vote for your favorite. Now, I’m not suggesting you vote for me, of course, but if you feel so inclined…

Late last week my publisher arranged a discount on The Search for all Searchblog readers who care to buy it at Barnes & Noble – it’s 35% off. You have to use this link…..it’s good till the end of September.

I’m down in Santa Barbara where I’m giving a talk to the folks at Commission Junction’s CJU, an annual event for affiliate marketing. Then I’m going to NYC for a few days of book related stuff there. I’m planning on having a MeetUp of sorts while in NY, so stay tuned for more info….probably will know more by the end of Monday.

A few weeks ago I was “quoted” by the Onion in a spoof on Google, and I thought that pretty much capped my entire career as an observer of the internet world. But today I was reading through my emails as I was awaiting my turn on yet another radio show, and up popped Search Engine Watch’s daily email. “Search as the Great New Game” was the title, which sounded interesting, so I pulled it up.

I was stunned to see that it was Chris Sherman’s review of my book, and not only that, he really liked it. And Danny also filed a blog post which had really kind things to say as well (and a few corrections and disagreements, which I will get about addressing in the next edition).

Now I can truly say that my work was worth it. I’m deeply honored. Thanks, Chris, Danny, and Gary, it means the world to me, it truly does.

Well, I’m happy about this one and this one too. Wow. And whew….