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amazon.co.uk
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amazon.com |
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ISBN 1857883616
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Published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing Ltd.
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Written by John Battelle
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Title:
The Search
Review:
I'm a big fan of John Batelle's "Searchblog"
, it is almost required reading for anyone
with an interest in Internet search. Partly because he's a bright guy
who writes well and partly because he has access to leading players in
the field. These include Yahoo! founders David Filo and Jerry Yang and
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google. The combination of
access, intelligence and the informality of the blog medium make for a
stimulating read.
Hence I awaited his book "The Search" eagerly. The book is about
Internet search, tracing the story of web search from Archie --
probably the first Internet search tool back in 1990 -- to current
innovators like Blinkx and Technorati. At 260 pages with decent
footnotes it is a solid tome and it is an extremely interesting book,
adding depth and structure to the ideas (or memes as it has become
fashionable to call them) outlined on John's blog.
But to use a piece of economics jargon the outcome is sub-optimal or
(as my old geography teacher used to say) he hasn't quite done himself
justice. My objections are three-fold. One is the tone; OK, so it is an
American book, but John's easy informal style which works well on his
blog does jar a little in print. Perhaps a few too many "I figured's"
and over-use of fashionable jargon like 'grok' and 'meme'.
Second is that the book hasn't quite decided what it is: a history of
Google, or a history of search. In Chapter 1 the author explicitly
states that he is not writing a history of Google but as the book goes
on, Google figures so heavily that one isn't quite sure. There is a
great deal of detail on Google's rise, especially in the early days.
Maybe this is justified; maybe Google does account for the majority of
the interesting developments in the history of search, but I can't help
feeling that the author is too caught up in the excitement of the
moment to deliver a well-rounded perspective.
My final objection is that the book is extremely US-centric and indeed
Silicon Valley--centric. The only companies discussed in any detail
are based there, and even then Yahoo! and Google predominate. IBM's
Websphere, a huge technological effort, merits only a brief mention
for example. This is not to say that Silicon Valley is not very
important, perhaps dominant in the development of search, but shouldn't
search companies such as Autonomy (UK) and Fast Search & Transfer
(Norway) have got a look-in?
Overall this is still a fascinating and stimulating book, one I am
glad I read. But it is not by any means the definitive history of
'search'. I look forward to a second version.
FreePint Reviewer:
Tim Houghton is founder and MD of New Media Intelligence, a web
monitoring or web clipping firm. The firm monitors all types of new
media including blogs, media sites and activist web pages. To try
NMI's monitoring services for free just visit
http://www.newmediaintelligence.com.
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