Google: The Beginning | Hacker News Reader

Google: The Beginning

online.wsj.com

134 pointsmjfern12 comments

If you like this article, you would probably enjoy Stephen Levy's book In The Plex:

http://www.amazon.com/Plex-Google-Thinks-Works-Shapes/dp/141...

You'd probably enjoy the forthcoming book which this article is promoting - it's pretty much an extract from it.

I've read both, and I greatly preferred "In the Plex". It seemed like a book that really had a thoughtful (if sympathetic) view into Google's inner workings. Levy's book drew from numerous interviews, and wove them together into a narrative that had structure, meaning, and was a great read.

"I'm Feeling Lucky" is a more personal book; It gets a LOT more into the nitty-gritty of personal politics, which can be interesting in a ValleyWag way, but didn't necessarily make me feel like I understood Google in a more meaningful way.

I got a lot of insight into Edwards' family, his mindset, and a much lower-level view into the Google offices.. But if you're only going to read one, read the Levy book.

"It gets a LOT more into the nitty-gritty of personal politics"

That's the feeling I get from the author's last few posts that have made it to the top of HN.

It seems very superficial and focused on how he felt versus something substantial.

'In the Plex' is amazing, a must read for anybody in the industry

Not directly relevant, but on the subject of Google in foreign languages.

Every time I visit a foreign country and use a local computer there, the default search language is in this local language (in spite of me being logged in into my non-local google account). One can click to search in English, but the next search is shown in this language again. And "google.com" redirects to "google.local country". If you stay abroad long enough, it is a great way to learn some Pavlov reflexes in obsessive clicking.

Definitely a first world problem, but if someone could let folks like me know how to address that issue, that would wonderful.

http://www.google.com/ncr

If you go to google.com you will get get redirected. But if you click "google.com in English", it will set a cookie and you won't get redirected anymore after that. At least that works for Germany and The Netherlands.

it's even a problem of the first part of the first world :)

at least you have google.com in english everywhere in one click.

but me russian in the netherlands won't get google.ru in russian link automatically. (?)

You can also do http://www.google.com/?hl=fr (or whatever language)

Article does not make me want to read the book -- all the anecdotes are about how his marketing education didn't apply to Google. Every one of his stories are "I told Sergey to do it this way, he didn't listen and was wildly successful."

Seeing this guy give a talk next week.

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