三民網路書店AMAZON書店2011年「商業與投資類」好書第1名
第1本獲准進出Google總部長達兩年時間、參與多次內部會議
訪問數百位離職與現任員工而寫就的Google內幕！
．Gmail、Android、Google雲端服務等超展開創新開發過程
．解開Google兩大黑箱之謎──搜尋引擎演進及廣告盈利模式
．Google在中國的道德難題與內部對中國政策的歧異
．Google將如何保持競爭優勢與創新優勢？
歷史上像Google如此成功，且廣受推崇的企業可沒幾家。它改變了網路的使用方式，也成了我們生活不可或缺的一部分。這到底是怎麼辦到的？
《連線》雜誌資深主筆史蒂芬．李維史無前例同時取得LSE三巨頭──佩奇（Larry Page）、布林（Sergey Brin）與施密特（Eric Schmidt）──之首肯，長達兩年多次進出Google總部，引領讀者一窺Google全貌。
Google創辦人佩奇和布林，早在史丹佛大學就讀時便掀起網路搜尋引擎革命。在改造搜尋引擎後，他們又推出另一傑出創新──徹底推翻傳統模式的網路廣告。這讓Google賺進數十億美元。有了這個源源不絕的資金供應，Google才能大展身手，推動更多計畫，例如不斷精進的搜尋引擎、大容量電郵信箱Gmail、開放原始碼的Android系統、YouTube，以及Google Maps、Google Docs等雲端運算服務。
本書深入理解Google不同於多數大型企業的內在文化，發現Google之所以成功，主要來自該公司以工程師至上的「唯宅獨尊」思想。他們毫無歉意的菁英主義聘用策略，且不吝付出涵蓋食衣住行的優渥報酬，讓Google成為全世界最優秀電腦技客的群聚之地。同時Google亦嚴謹遵循某些網路價值，立志「不做邪惡的事」：講求速度、保持公開、熱衷實驗、不怕冒險。
然而，Google這種「唯宅獨尊」、自由奔放的價值觀，反而讓他們在中國栽了個大筋斗。本書翔實記述Google進軍中國始末，揭示布林及同儕在中國策略上的不同主張。而在社交網站的進程上，目前也正以Google+ 奮力追趕Facebook──這在Google企業史上可是絕無僅有的頭一遭。如今有不少員工已經決定離開Google，轉向一些規模較小、但身段更靈巧的新興企業……
過去發誓絕對不做邪惡大企業而名揚四海的Google，未來能否保持競爭優勢？
它現在是否正逐漸喪失創新優勢？
從來沒有任何一本書能像《Google總部大揭密》，能如此徹底揭露Google的過去、現在與未來。
Few companies in history have ever been as successful and as admired as Google, the company that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes readers inside Google headquarters—the Googleplex—to show how Google works.
While they were still students at Stanford, Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin revolutionized Internet search. They followed this brilliant innovation with another, as two of Google’s earliest employees found a way to do what no one else had: make billions of dollars from Internet advertising. With this cash cow (until Google’s IPO nobody other than Google management had any idea how lucrative the company’s ad business was), Google was able to expand dramatically and take on other transformative projects: more efficient data centers, open-source cell phones, free Internet video (YouTube), cloud computing, digitizing books, and much more.
The key to Google’s success in all these businesses, Levy reveals, is its engineering mind-set and adoption of such Internet values as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk taking. After its unapologetically elitist approach to hiring, Google pampers its engineers—free food and dry cleaning, on-site doctors and masseuses—and gives them all the resources they need to succeed. Even today, with a workforce of more than 23,000, Larry Page signs off on every hire.
But has Google lost its innovative edge? It stumbled badly in China—Levy discloses what went wrong and how Brin disagreed with his peers on the China strategy—and now with its newest initiative, social networking, Google is chasing a successful competitor for the first time. Some employees are leaving the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups. Can the company that famously decided not to be evil still compete?
No other book has ever turned Google inside out as Levy does with In the Plex.
本書中譯版《Google總部大揭密》由財信出版。
作者簡介
史蒂芬．李維STEVEN LEVY
長期關注Google已超過十年。李維曾是《新聞週刊》（Newsweek）資深編輯兼科技新聞主筆。現任《連線》（Wired）數位雜誌資深主筆。曾寫過和Apple有關的兩本著作──《Insanely Great》與《為什麼是 iPod？》（The Perfect Thing），以及經典之作《駭客：電腦革命的英雄》（Hackers）。現與妻兒住在紐約。
Steven Levy is a senior writer at Wired, and was formerly senior editor and chief technology correspondent for Newsweek. He is the author of six previous books, including Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, which was voted the best sci-tech nonfiction book of the last twenty years by readers of PC magazine, and Insanely Great, the definitive account of the Macintosh computer. A native of Philadelphia, Levy lives in New York City with his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Teresa Carpenter, and their son.
Visit the author at www.stevenlevy.com
