In the Plex by Steven Levy

In the Plex (2011) is an inside view of what Google is all about. It took me just over two weeks to read this book, and I literally read it every day. I cannot remember the last time it took me this long to a read a book that I could not put down. The reason it took a while is there is an incredible amount of information. Everything Google has done up until the beginning of this year is documented. The author has been reporting on the company since they first began and was granted permission to all kinds of inside access at Google.

The book starts with how Google was started by two kids in graduate school at Stanford. He tells stories of them in their offices: from dorm rooms to a lady’s house to above a pizza shop to a real office building. The two founders, Brin and Page, tried to sell Google numerous times, but nobody really wanted it. Eventually they figured out how to make money – advertising. They cracked the code everyone was trying to decipher on the internet. Last year alone they earned $30 BILLION dollars in revenue.

People probably know the basic stuff Google does…the search engine, g-mail, YouTube, Android phones, Chrome browser, blogger, Google Maps and street view. But some other things really stand out: attempting to scan every book in existence (33 million of them); building data centers all over the world; impacting the 2008 presidential election; building a car that can drive itself. It’s amazing how many different things Google does. While their motto has always been “Don’t be evil”, they’ve run into many enemies as they’ve grown into different sectors. In one instance, 133 companies and organizations combined in a lawsuit again Google (their law department has hundreds of employees). The book details every project Google took on, so you really get to understand how things came about.

Brin and Page are very interesting people. Countless times they are described as Montessori kids, which is a unique type of schooling that really spurred their creativity and installed their principles. They are absolutely geniuses, but not typical business leaders. They don’t dress up and are not formal in any way. They have exercise balls in their offices. Brin blesses or rejects each new hire (he did this for all 30,000 employees). They ask ridicules questions in interviews. After reading In the Plex, their actions are justified and it all makes sense.

I will say that if you are not technologically inept, this book would be incredibly confusing. I can see an elderly crew struggling with some of the concepts. Most shocking to me was that Google keeps logs of every search. And they pin-point it to each individuals internet IP address. With their ads, they now install "cookies" that track every website you visit. The book is much more than privacy issues though. If you take the time to learn of Google’s history, you will understand why this intrusiveness is appropriate and in their eyes, completely okay.

I enjoyed the story 100%. I cannot say enough good things about this book. It’s fitting this was a long post. My rating for In the Plex: 5 stars out of 5! Get it here!