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BOOK REVIEW
Understanding the G-force
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The Google Story
David A Vise with Mark Malseed

The Google Story starts off comparing the life-changing aspect of its creation to Guten-berg's invention of the modern printing press, and you are never allowed to lose sight of the fact that this book is taking you 'inside the hottest business, media and technology success of our time'. Admittedly, it is difficult to avoid hyperbole when discussing Google. The story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin and their remarkable search engine and comp-any is already the stuff of general as well as geek legend. The book traces Google's climb from a wrongly spelt word to a company that plans to bring all the world's knowledge to the fingertips of anyone who wants to access it.

Google's success, Vise believes, has cont-inued because its founders have a complex blueprint about changing the world that they are determined to follow to the t. No amount of pressure, whether from the venerable US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or from their initial investors, have caused Google to shift its stand. Among the funniest parts in the book are those with SEC's response to Google's IPO filing. SEC advises austerely, "Please revise or delete the sta-tements about providing 'a great service to the world', 'to do things that matter', and 'making the world a better place'.

A certain utopian attitude to information dissemination does colour all of Google's initiatives. The company's run-ins with various authorities, competitors, governments and independent watchdogs, are all documented here. But you do get the feeling that Page and Brin have made such an impression on Vise that rarely are the digressions of their firm discussed in detail. Rather, it is mainly ind-ulgence that tempers how the book views these instances, among them Google scree-ning e-mails of gmail users and how much of its advertising revenue is contributed by adult ads. Page and Brin's reluctance to relinquish control of their company, through going public and bringing in a CEO, are dealt with more honestly, but it is all happy endings there. Google's hits are what are likely to stay with you.

Perhaps because Google and its founders are so often in the news, it often feels like you have already read a lot of what is in this book elsewhere, like the free gourmet meals that Google offers its staff or the time it gives them to follow their own projects. But there are enough back stories to satisfy curiosity and have trivia on your fingertips about a company that, it has to be said, just might be the one to change the world as we know it.

3 quick lessons
What the Google guys prescribe

1. Optimism is important. So, have a healthy disregard for the impossible

2. Make all of the world's knowledge available to everyone who wants to access it

3. Ultimately, Google is all about continually making things better than they are

Bestsellers List

Hardback fiction

STEP ON A CRACK, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.
(Little, Brown, $27.99.)

PLUM LOVIN', by Janet Evanovich.
(St. Martin's, $16.95.)

NATURAL BORN CHARMER, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
(Morrow, $24.95.)

HIGH PROFILE, by Robert B. Parker.
(Putnam, $24.95.)

HANNIBAL RISING, by Thomas Harris.
(Delacorte, $27.95.)

THE ALEXANDRIA LINK, by Steve Berry. (Ballantine, $25.95.)

FOR ONE MORE DAY, by Mitch Albom. (Hyperion, $21.95.)

CROSS, by James Patterson. (Little, Brown, $27.99.)

HIDE, by Lisa Gardner. (Bantam, $25.)

DEEP STORM, by Lincoln Child. (Doubleday, $24.95.)

Paperback fiction

THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER, by Kim Edwards.
(Penguin, $14.)

THE DREAM-HUNTER, by Sherrilyn Kenyon. (St. Martin's, $7.99.)

IRISH DREAMS, by Nora Roberts. (Silhouette, $7.99.)

THE HOUSE, by Danielle Steel. (Dell, $7.99.)

HONEYMOON, by James Patterson and Howard Roughan. (Warner, $7.99.)

MOST LIKELY TO DIE, by Lisa Jackson, Wendy Corsi Staub and Beverly Barton. (Zebra, $7.99.)

THE TEMPLAR LEGACY, by Steve Berry. (Ballantine, $7.99.)

MCKETTRICK'S LUCK, by Linda Lael Miller. (HQN, $7.99.)

DIRTY BLONDE, by Lisa Scottoline. (Harper, $7.99.)

CAUSING HAVOC, by Lori Foster. (Berkley, $7.99.)

Source: New York Times Best sellers list February 18
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