I'm Feeling Lucky_ The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 - Douglas Edwards [0]
The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59
Douglas Edwards
Table of Contents
Title Page
Table of Contents
...
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Introduction
PART I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
PART II
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
PART III
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
PART IV
Chapter 26
Timeline of Google Events
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Footnotes
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Boston New York
2011
Copyright © 2011 by Douglas Edwards
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
www.hmhbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Edwards, Douglas, date.
I'm feeling lucky : the confessions of Google employee number 59 / Douglas Edwards.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-547-41699-1
1. Google (Firm)—History 2. Internet industry—United States—History.
3. Corporate culture—United States—History. 4. Marketing—United States—History. I. Title.
HD9696.8.U64G56 2011
338.7'6102504—dc22
2010052588
Book design by Brian Moore
Printed in the United States of America
DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
All of the author's profits from the sale of this book will be donated to charity.
Lyrics to Grateful Dead songs copyright © Ice Nine Publishing Company. Used with permission.
To Kristen, without whom the journey would have been
impossible and the destination meaningless.
Nothing to tell now. Let the words be yours, I'm done with mine.
—"CASSIDY" BY JOHN BARLOW
Contents
Introduction [>]
PART I: YOU ARE ONE OF US
1. From Whence I Came [>]
2. In the Beginning [>]
3. A World without Form [>]
4. Marketing without "Marketing" [>]
5. Giving Process Its Due [>]
6. Real Integrity and Thoughts about God [>]
7. A Healthy Appetite for Insecurity [>]
8. Cheap Bastards Who Can't Take a Joke [>]
9. Wang Dang Doodle—Good Enough
Is Good Enough [>]
10. Rugged Individualists with a Taste for Porn [>]
PART II: GOOGLE GROWS AND FINDS ITS VOICE
11. Liftoff [>]
12. Fun and Names [>]
13. Not the Usual Yada Yada [>]
14. Googlebombs and Mail Fail [>]
15. Managers in Hot Tubs and in Hot Water [>]
16. Is New York Alive? [>]
PART III: WHERE WE STAND
17. Two Speakers, One Voice [>]
18. Mail Enhancement and Speaking in Tongues [>]
19. The Sell of a New Machine [>]
20. Where We Stand [>]
21. Aloha AOL [>]
22. We Need Another Billion-Dollar Idea [>]
23. Froogle and Friction [>]
24. Don't Let Marketing Drive [>]
25. Mistakes Were Made [>]
PART IV: CAN THIS REALLY BE THE END?
26. S-1 for the Money [>]
Timeline of Google Events [>]
Glossary [>]
Acknowledgments [>]
Introduction
LARRY PAGE IS an intense guy. At least he was in 1999 when I first began working for the company he co-founded with Sergey Brin.
Whenever I found myself in a room with Larry, I felt an urgent need to do more, as though every second in which I wasn't communicating vital information was a waste of his bandwidth.
One day in 2002, I ended up alone with Larry in his office after a long and protracted battle over some policy or other. I had fought and I had lost, and I had come to opine on what I had learned and to extend an olive branch across what had been a turbulent time. Larry, dressed in casual shades of gray, peered intently at his screen. Or rather, at his two oversized adjacent monitors, filled with code and open web browser windows. Sergey, with whom he shared the office, was not on hand. Disassembled in-line skates, a crumpled hockey jersey, and a Japanese geisha doll kept watch over his empty chair.
"Larry," I began, "I know I haven't always agreed with the direction you and Sergey have set for us. But I've been thinking about it and I just wanted to tell you that, in looking back, I realize that more