5.0

Reading this book in 2018 is too late, was what I thought when I picked it up. The revenue model of Google is no more a mystery as it used to be way back then. Google has always been an open company, what could this book have that we all don't know? It isn't a legacy to be celebrated, we are seeing Google taking new heights in front of our eyes.

It turned out that I was wrong. No matter how much I knew about this giant, without this book I would have never learned about one trait of its cofounder which was instilled in everyone who joined them. It was INTEGRITY.

When I was somewhere in the middle of this book, a famous Indian e-commerce website was acquired by an American multinational retail corporation. I was personally disappointed with the turn of events. Soon I started to feel sympathetic for the cofounders who must have to make a compromising decision because of being under pressure of their Investors.
And then I read about the pressure the Google cofounder had on them to make their company public. And how seamlessly they did it but on their own terms. They respected what they have built over the years, but kept the trust of their customers who were also emotionally attached to Google above all. I was so glad that the book gave such a very comprehensive view of in and around Googleplex.

My review might have taken away few stars for being slightly biased towards the success of Google and not discussing their failures. But considering that the book first published seven years after the Google was founded, no one really cared much about what wrong they were doing. At that time they were making up for what was wrong happening around. Possibly a sequel can dive into that.