John Battelle: The Search
This is a book I've been waiting to read for a while: former Wired and Industry Standard editor John Battelle's history of Internet search. Google dominates this book but it's not a dry, formulaic company history - instead, it's a meditation on what the Web was, what it's become and what's coming down the road. When you consider that Google has gone from zero to $3 billion in revenues in 5 years, almost wholly because of its Adwords contextual ad program, you get an idea of the potential of Internet search. It's not just the vast amounts of money to be made though - it's the fact that our lives have moved almost effortlessly online now, and the next generation is one that is used to the internet being there. Search is the new mirror of who and what we are.
I've long enjoyed Battelle's SearchBlog where he's been discussing the book as it progressed to print as well as giving his characteristically pithy and usually spot-on assessments of new developments in the search arena, more interested in what the technology can do than how it does it. I'm pleased to note from reading the book's intro that this informal writing style has continued into the book, dense with ideas but friendly to read too.
Wired started running excerpts from The Search this week. The book's due out in September. I'll be reading it on the plane back home, so I hope to post something more considered on it in the next couple of weeks. As I arrive back in the UK tomorrow and will be catching up with friends and family over the next month, posting here might be light - but I'm sure Steve and Ismo can keep you amused.
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