Author:Ken Auletta
Googled is candid, authoritative and based on extensive research, including in-house at Google HQ where Ken Auletta had unprecedented access. He conducted over 150 interviews at Google with the company's founders and executives and also interviewed those in the media who are struggling to keep their heads above water. Crucially, Googled is not just a history or reportage: it's forward-looking. Auletta reveals how the media industry is being disrupted and redefined and shows how and why the worlds of 'new' and 'old' media often communicate as if residents of different planets. Googled is already being hailed as the definitive work on Google and is a crucial roadmap to how media business may be done in the future.
At last, a book about Google that does not require readers to get in touch with their inner geek. The most important company of the internet era, and the most controversial new media company for a generation has deserved a more accessible account for the general reader. In the hands of Ken Auletta, media writer for The New Yorker magazine, it gets one.
—— Financial TimesKen Auletta, one of America's best business journalists, has turned his attention on the firm, with particular reference to the challenges it faces ... superbly reported
—— John Lanchester , ObserverThis insightful book reinforces the need for old media ... brilliant
—— The TimesCompelling
—— The EconomistThe story he is telling, and its ramifications, is a narrative which is shaping the era in which we live, and at a frightening pace
—— TelegraphI cannot wait to read Ken's book. He is a rare business journalist and author who manages to combine extraordinary access to the kings and queens of industry without ever compromising his editorial integrity. If anyone can shed light on the Google monster, it is Ken.
—— Michael GradeRichly reported ... Auletta has provided the fullest account yet of the rise of one of the most profitable, most powerful and oddest businesses the world has ever seen
—— San Francisco ChronicleKen Auletta has produced the seminal book about media in the digital age. It is a triumph of reporting and analysis, filled with revealing scenes, fascinating tales, and candid interviews. Google is both a driver and a symbol of a glorious disruption in the media world, and Auletta chronicles, in a balanced and thoughtful way, both that glory and that disruption.
—— Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of TIME, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, and authorA telling portrait of a paradigm-altering company, which in 11 years has utterly transformed the business and media landscape
—— Michiko Kakutani , New York TimesNo other reporter has covered the new communications revolution as thoroughly as has Auletta.
—— Columbia Journalism ReviewGoogled functions as a fine primer for anyone looking to get to a grip on the company's history and its repercussions on the current media landscape
—— Los Angeles TimesA sharp and probing analysis of the apocalyptic upheavels in the media and entertainment industries
—— Publishers WeeklyAbsorbing
—— ScotsmanInside the darker side of Instagram
—— EVENING STANDARDInstagram has reshaped how we eat, shop, talk and present ourselves. In No Filter . . . Sarah Frier offers a rare glimpse into how the company came to be a formidable force in the tech industry.
—— BEST TECH BOOKS OF 2020 , MASHABLEA lively and revealing account of how the world came to see itself through [Instagram founder] Mr Systrom's lens . . . The tale of nerds who struck gold offers glimpses of Silicon Valley's weirdness.
—— THE ECONOMISTNo Filter offers an engaging account of how tech founders' ideals inevitably have to be squared with making profits.
—— WALL STREET JOURNALA fascinating business story - but also much more than that . . . Frier is a skilled reporter and an astute and sensitive cultural observer. No Filter is a vital read for anyone seeking to understand the incredible power Silicon Valley executives exercise over us, and the opaque, unpredictable and undemocratic mechanisms by which they do so.
—— New StatesmanA vivid portrait of clashing Silicon Valley egos
—— Best Books of the Year: Business , Financial TimesOfficially, this is the tale of the photo-sharing app Instagram, but it's also a wider story of Silicon Valley - the fragile egos, the feuds, the deals done around fire pits . . . Mark Zuckerberg is the book's sometimes cartoonish villain, ending staff meeting with the cry: "Domination!"
—— Business Books of the Year , SUNDAY TIMESNo Filter is a topical and well-reported account of the rise of Instagram and its takeover by Facebook. But it also tackles two vital issues of our age: how Big Tech treats smaller rivals and how social media companies are shaping the lives of a new generation.
—— Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FINANCIAL TIMESBloomberg reporter Sarah Frier chronicles the rise of photo-sharing social network Instagram, from when it was still a location-based app named "Burbn" to the ad-driven juggernaut it is today . . . Frier deftly streamlines from multiple interviews with some of the most high-profile executives, venture capitalists, and most-followed celebrities on Instagram
—— The 10 Best Business Books of 2020 , FortuneCongressional documents may have told us why Mark Zuckerberg thought he needed to buy Instagram, but No Filter is the inside story of the company that Facebook actually bought. Sarah Frier's book is the definitive account that bridges the gaps between the company Instagram was born as, the company that eventually sold to Facebook for $1 billion, and the company we know today. The intrigue of this origin story will only grow as the status of Instagram - as a brand within Facebook and a player in our daily lives - is sure to change in the decade ahead.
—— Favourite Business Books of 2020 , YAHOO FINANCEUtterly brilliant . . . It is so fascinating because it works at two levels: there's the personal story of these two founders making it up as they go along . . . and then there's the bigger story of Silicon Valley itself, and the unstoppable pressure to grow and go viral . . . [Frier] explores how Instagram changed society in terms of influencers, and also in terms of what it does to us, when we see these heavily filtered images of perfection in other people's lives - and this is really worth thinking about.
—— Extraordinary Business Book ClubExamines the all-pervasive impact of Instagram and what it says about today's society.
—— Independent.ie