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  • In the Plex

  • How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
  • Written by: Steven Levy
  • Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
  • Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (29 ratings)

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In the Plex cover art

In the Plex

Written by: Steven Levy
Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
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Publisher's Summary

Few companies in history have ever been as successful and as admired as Google, the company that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes listeners inside Google headquarters - the Googleplex - to explain how Google works.

While they were still students at Stanford, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin revolutionized Internet search. They followed this brilliant innovation with another, as two of Google's earliest employees found a way to do what no one else had: make billions of dollars from Internet advertising. With this cash cow (until Google's IPO, nobody other than Google management had any idea how lucrative the company's ad business was), Google was able to expand dramatically and take on other transformative projects: more efficient data centers, open-source cell phones, free Internet video (YouTube), cloud computing, digitizing books, and much more.

The key to Google's success in all these businesses, Levy reveals, is its engineering mind-set and adoption of such Internet values as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk taking. After it's unapologetically elitist approach to hiring, Google pampers its engineers with free food and dry cleaning, on-site doctors and masseuses, and gives them all the resources they need to succeed. Even today, with a workforce of more than 23,000, Larry Page signs off on every hire.

But has Google lost its innovative edge? It stumbled badly in China. And now, with its newest initiative, social networking, Google is chasing a successful competitor for the first time. Some employees are leaving the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups. Can the company that famously decided not to be "evil" still compete?

No other book has turned Google inside out as Levy does with In the Plex.

©2011 Steven Levy (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

What the critics say

"Thoroughly versed in technology reporting, Wired senior writer Levy deliberates at great length about online behemoth Google and creatively documents the company’s genesis from a 'feisty start-up to a market-dominating giant'.... Though the author offers plenty of well-known information, it’s his catbird-seat vantage point that really gets to the good stuff. Outstanding reportage delivered in the upbeat, informative fashion for which Levy is well known." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"The book, a wide-ranging history of the company from start-up to behemoth, sheds light on the biggest threats Google faces today, from the Chinese government to Facebook and privacy critics." ( The New York Times)
“With a commanding voice, L.J. Ganser narrates this history and exploration of Google….Ganser’s stern voice is clear and moves through the text with determination.” ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about In the Plex

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Dry, boring, and repetitive

This is one of the worst books I’ve experienced. I forced myself passed the half way point because I was hoping it would turn into something interesting, but all the author ever talks about is advertisements. I get it, google makes money from ads. I thought it would have taken a much shorter timeframe to tell us that.

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Great nuggets on Google thought process

I enjoyed getting a chance to see how Google operates. Understanding how they grew the business and what decisions are like in a good look into how to grow on the web. I would have liked to get more into the nitty gritty about some of there more questionable practices.

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great book

Love the story. Good performance. Interesting ideas. Wood recommend to anybody interested in modern business.

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