What Would Google Do?

But they'll still need to grow to scale and critical mass, and the way that they can do that, watching Google's example, is by building platforms and networks. So I think that the Google economic model may well be copied even more now than it would have been without a financial crisis. And the need to rethink your worldview, and reinvent your business, is only greater now, so the need to follow examples from successful, smart companies like Google is only greater now, as well.

You only mention Chrome, the Google-developed browser, twice. How come? It seems like a pretty big deal to me.
Because I have a Macintosh, and they haven't made it for the Mac! It's that simple. I'm jealous and I want to play with it, but you might have read in the beginning of book that I don't have a Dell anymore.

Apple is successful despite being pretty un-Google-y. Today, because of Steve Jobs's health, the company may be at a crossroads. Do you think they should take this moment and become Googlier in any way?
Good one. In the book, Rishad Tobaccowala argued that Apple already is Google-y, because of what its brand stands for: it makes us godlike. The Jobs story … I'm fascinated by questions of public-ness and transparency and the end of privacy. And part of what I define as being Google-y, or really more Internet-smart, is being transparent and open, so that you can be found on Google. There's an ethic behind this transparency that I've learned in the blog world. Should Apple have been more transparent about Steve Jobs's health? Yes, probably. But, health is an issue of privacy. So I don't know where I come down in the end.

Fred Wilson, on his blog, won't buy Apple stock right now because he's mad at Apple for the way it handled this. I understand that from an investment perspective. And in my book, I talk about revealing my own health history and the benefit I've gotten out of that, but I'm not the CEO of Apple, and I'm not the god of Apple.

Otherwise, I hope that Apple doesn't change, because I love Apple products. I have my iPhone, I have my Mac, my whole family is on Apple. What they shouldn't change is their worldview; they do damn good work.

You write that "Your customers are your ad agency," and that companies should embrace their online critics before bad word of mouth spreads. So, you have two five-star reviews on Amazon. You also have a two-star review from a guy named Jeff Lippincott .  He said your book is "poorly organized and poorly written." How are you going to be Google-y in your response to Mr. Lippincott?
I can learn lessons from Mr. Lippincott and write my next book better. I can't re-copy-edit the book now; it's more about an argument with the ideas. The greatest benefit that I think I could get from people's reviews on both Amazon and on my blog, where people are often critical of me or disagree with me, is a substantial discussion of the ideas. The chapter on insurance in the book came out of my readers telling me I was wrong when I said that insurance couldn't be Google-y.

What we have online is kind of a peer review, and a means of collaboration. Nick Carr said in The Atlantic that Google makes us stupid because deep reading yields deep thinking. I'm not going to disagree with him about that. But deep conversation, ongoing conversation, a continuing review of ideas also yields, I think, deep thinking. That's what I would hope for, and at the end of the book I invite the discussion to continue. I want it to continue, I know people will disagree with me, and that has great value for the readers of that in turn.

© 2009