买入这本书完全打乱了我的阅读计划，我本来在读The Tipping Point和《寻路中国》（我一般同时阅读两本书，中英各一本），而且接下来还有一堆书买了放在Kindle里等待打开。
我喜欢Google这家公司，而且我也在各大业界Blog里得到了这本书的诸多八卦。比如国内的Blog们喜欢注重本书的第六章，铺天盖地的文章，争先恐后地非法翻译。这盛况很久不见，怪诱人的。再比如海外的重量级Blog们，诸如TechCrunch和Mashable，分别在不同的时间发布不同的节选。不能说铺天盖地吧，爆的料也超多的，感觉要是不买一本来看就会失去许多八卦的乐趣一样。
这么一本精彩的书放在面前，我按耐不住蠢蠢欲动的钱包，乖乖地掏出12.99美元买了回来。感谢Kindle，我可以在付款后五分钟之内看到这本书，而不用跟买The Oatmeal的那本小画书一样的半个月。
但这本书在我看来，精彩的八卦就那么多，没有更好玩的事情了⋯⋯这本书更多的是一部公司创业史。由于这家公司的隐蔽政策，一些本应该传播出去的事情也变成了秘密。作者Steven Levy事后在Quora上说了一下这本书的心路历程，这次的书得到了LP、SB和ES三人的许可，拿到了超高权限的许可。
在绝顶聪明的工程师眼中，这家公司已经不那么酷。有一些工程师甚至用脚投票，从山景城搬家到帕罗奥多。特别是在Google早期发展起了重要作用的Sheryl Sandberg女士，已在2008年3月在Facebook履新。这些跳槽行为虽然不能说明Facebook一定比Google好，但在一定意义上也反映了一些趋势。
当然，Google仍然是一家伟大的公司。如果不是它，我现在不会那么快地学会Python脚本（带来的后果就是工作效率的低下），也没办法用到电子化的地图，Sony Reader上也看不到Google Books里的书，也许还在使用GreatNews这种离线的阅读器来看RSS，Google AdSense的那USD300广告费大约不会变成现实……
在面临邪恶力量时，Google的表现实在是令我感到奇怪。按照两位创始人的想法和价值观，应该不会做出这种决策才是。但即便是我仔仔细细地看完了第六章，我也找不到一个有说服力的理由。也许，这就是“纠结”的后果？当初Eric Schmidt说有5000年的耐心，结果过了5年就退出了。
退出就退出吧，Google should haven’t been here.
不管怎样，这是迄今为止，我读到的最好的一本关于Google的书。如果对Google感兴趣，建议找来读一读。
—–我是英文评论的分割线—–
以下是我发布在Amazon.com的书评，万一没通过Amazon的审核也算是留个备份。内容基本上是这篇Blog的翻译，没啥特别的。
This book breaks my reading plan totally. I was on The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip (P.S.) (Printed Chinese version purchased on Amazon China. Yes we do have copyrighted books in China:). And there are a lot of ebooks in Kindle as my reading list.
I love Google. I love their products, like Search, Gmail, Maps, Reader, and YouTube. In this book I got a lot of info (or gossips, depending how you define this small things) about the company.
The Chapter Six is unsurprisingly interesting to Chinese Google users. Not long after release of this book, tons of blog posts, illegal translations are flooding my RSS reader. This is phenomenal. And it haven’t happened for a long time. The big heads – Tech Crunch, Business Insider and Mashable – also have at least one post on the book. They also reminded me to purchase a copy to fill my little monster of curiosity.
So this is it. I paid $12.99 to get a copy. Thanks to Amazon’s kindle reader. I can get hands on the book in less than five minutes. If I place an order to a printed copy, I have to wait, like two weeks.
In my opinion, all the interesting gossips in this book have been leaked by the bloggers. Nothing more. Google has a hiding strategy. They have a lot stories hidden, which should be publicly known. That’s why we have to buy a history book on Google. As Steven Levy wrote on Quora, this book has approved by Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt. Google even gave Steven a unprecedented access.
But some engineers think Google is no longer cool. A few left the company from Mountain View to Palo Alto. The most shocking big one is Sheryl Sandberg, who was a key person for Google ad division. She left Google for Facebook in March of 2008. It is hard to say Facebook is the future of internet, or social network will kill search engine. Yet, you know what I mean 🙂
In any aspect, Google is a great company. Without help from Google, I couldn’t have learned Python script in a short time (higher productivity on daily basis), or enjoy the fantastic map service, read free ebook in public domain, maybe still using a offline RSS reader, and $300 revenue from AdSense…
Yet Google made strange decision facing evil and dark power. In my understanding of two co-founders, they should haven’t make such a decision (to enter China market and quit). I don’t have an answer even carefully read the Chapter Six. Maybe it’s a result to satisfy everyone(?). Eric Schmidt said they had 5000 years patience. Yet they quitted in five years.
So let it be. Google should haven’t been here.
However, this is the best book on Google by now. If you are interested in small stories on Google, buy one now.
我也有 The Tipping Point ，英文版，纸版。