
How Google Works - panarky
http://www.howgoogleworks.net/
======
donw
I'm not sure how helpful this will be to a lot of new and aspiring business-
owners. In my work, I've had to spend a lot of time reminding both engineers
and business-types that You Are Not Google.

Engineers are particularly bad on this front. I've seen teams blow huge
amounts of time building massive, distributed, fail-over systems, because
that's what Google does. Even though the load could be handled by a couple of
dedicated boxes, and existing customers are screaming for crucial
functionality.

Scaling is a problem you deal with when your growth rate says you have to --
not when your servers are sitting idle, waiting for a sudden rush of customers
will come any day now.

There's nothing wrong trying to learn as much as you can from a bunch of smart
people, but that's not the same as copying the things that they've done
because "it worked for them and they're successful now".

Statistically speaking, your company is probably a lot smaller than Google,
and you have very different problems than Google does.

~~~
timr
Don't forget the other major class of engineer problems: trying to automate
the Human Interaction.

A lot of engineers (myself formerly included) think that Google emerged as a
multi-billion dollar company directly from the head of Jeff Dean...ignoring
the critical role that things like biz dev (getting that first yahoo deal!)
played in their massive success.

One of the hardest lessons I've had to learn in life is that success has very
little to do with engineering. The technical side needs to be just good enough
to work. The rest comes down to marketing and networking.

~~~
arach
> One of the hardest lessons I've had to learn in life is that success has
> very little to do with engineering. The technical side needs to be just good
> enough to work. The rest comes down to marketing and networking.

My understanding is that Google started getting traction because the
technology savvy crowd embraced the search engine early on. This was because
the search engine was built on a technology foundation that was solid and
delivered great results. I think all pieces must come together to achieve
success (luck being a piece) but saying engineer had little to do with
Google's success doesn't seem correct to me.

I disagree.

~~~
timr
Read Steven Levy's book ("Inside the Plex"). It provides an alternative
narrative to the one most engineers believe. In particular, it says that
Google had good early traction from technology people, but the Yahoo deal is
what made them mainstream.

~~~
nhstanley
For those not old enough to remember, (I believe) this is the Google-Yahoo
deal referenced: [http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2066171/Yahoo-
Partners-...](http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2066171/Yahoo-Partners-
With-Google)

------
dlevine
The reason why it isn't available on Amazon is that it's published by
Hachette.

I looked up the book on Barnes and Noble, and the publisher is listed as Grand
Central Publishing.

A Google Search for "Grand Central Publishing" reveals that it's part of
Hachette ([http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/publishers/grand-central-
pu...](http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/publishers/grand-central-
publishing/)).

~~~
fuzzywalrus
Looks like the Hachette war has spilled into Audible as well, the audiobook
version doesn't list Audible either.

Side note: The bottom of the page has a few interesting choice quotes: For
example: ""Think 10X, not 10%. Global scale is available to just about
everyone. But too many people are stuck in the old, limited mindset."

Sounds like they're describing a certain rival who only owns a fragment of the
mobile OS space.

------
OzzyB
Open page,

ctrl + f: 'creative' = 6 results. ctrl + f: 'engineer' = 0 results.

Oh I see, you creatives now.

I guess it's time to revise some history and let the world know that you
weren't just a bunch of super smart engineers... you were creatives along!

So, do I still need to take that code test? Or can I give you that link to my
portfolio page?

~~~
hawkice
From the page: "Who are these smart creatives? They’re the product-minded
people who combine technical knowledge, business expertise, and creativity."

That doesn't seem like revising history as much as trying to sell a book. If
you have the The Solution (tm), you likely have fancy non-traditional terms.

~~~
fein
One of the lessons of business should be that "The Solution" is never found in
a single book.

I honestly find this publication tacky.

------
cgtyoder
_The authors explain how technology has shifted the balance of power from
companies to consumers_

Said without a hint of irony.

~~~
dmix
It's true. Google's all encompassing centralized nature combined with Eric
Schmidt open-door policy to mass surveillance (ie. 'if you have nothing to
hide') and destroying privacy helped us realize we need to 'redecentralize'
the internet and moved away from silos.

------
gojomo
Critics, pranksters, and culture-jammers, hurry:

 _howgoogleREALLYworks[.net|.com|.org]_

...are all still available!

~~~
panarky
Forget the 'really'.

The .org is still available. Occupy Google could snatch up howgoogleworks.org,
copy the .net content and do a quick and dirty parody site.

~~~
gojomo
Good thing they're all at Burning Man.

------
ojbyrne
Why is an ad the top item on Hacker News?

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jiggy2011
I was hoping for something more technical.

~~~
blauwbilgorgel
Perhaps:
[http://www.google.com/intl/en/insidesearch/howsearchworks/](http://www.google.com/intl/en/insidesearch/howsearchworks/)

------
TheBiv
It's pretty interesting to me that Amazon is not an available format for
downloading the digital version, but iBooks is (as well as Google Play and
B&N). I wonder if that is a publisher choice or an author choice?

Looks like an awesome book!

~~~
kawsper
Sadly, it doesn't look like there is a .mobi version available :/

Anyone with an idea on how to get this on a Kindle?

~~~
lavingiasa
You can convert to .mobi with programs like Calibre.

------
adnam
Everybody who works in marketing is now rushing to update their LinkedIn
profile to describe themselves as a "smart creative".

------
gress
A good piece of propaganda.

------
revskill
Without the search engine, Google is nothing. Period.

~~~
TezzellEnt
I'll have to respectfully disagree. While search is their main product, with
AdWords being their main source of income, Google also has maps, local,
docs/drive, gmail, google play, wallet, android, etc.

While it wouldn't be a 'giant' without search, search definitely helped
increase adoption of their other products and gave them revenue to invest into
other things (plus their moonshots).

~~~
aikah
most of these product being ad driven,with the exception of some cloud
services,though I really doubt Goggle win that much money on google/drive. It
can however scan your files for "metadatas"

------
serve_yay
I can't figure out what the hell this is.

------
razfar
where is Amazon?

~~~
peachepe
[https://www.google.com.ni/maps/place/Amazon/@9.966497,-84.11...](https://www.google.com.ni/maps/place/Amazon/@9.966497,-84.11618,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x8fa0fb3946798a95:0x7891377133490958?hl=en)

------
IBM
I found his Google+ post related to this supremely ironic and hilarious.

[https://plus.google.com/+EricSchmidt/posts/EHwUGHrAPGi](https://plus.google.com/+EricSchmidt/posts/EHwUGHrAPGi)

~~~
mturmon
Yes. All that stuff about "creatives" will age poorly, I think.

------
felipelalli
I read "Now Google works". I thought to myself, finally!

