The Google Story ^{2nd Ed.}

Moscow-born Sergey Brin and Midwest-born Larry Page dropped out of graduate school at Stanford University to, in their own words, "change the world" through a powerful search engine that would organize every bit of information on the Web for free, The Google Story takes you deep inside the company's wild ride from an idea that struggled for funding in 1998 to a firm that rakes in billions in profits, making Brin and Page the wealthiest young men in America. Based on scrupulous research and extraordinary acess to Google, this fast-moving narrative reveals how an unorthodox management style and culture of innovation enabled a search engine to shake up Madison Avenue and Wall Street, scoop up YouTube, and battle Microsoft at every turn. Not afraid of controversy, Google is expanding in Communist China and quietly working on a searchable genetic database, initiatives that test the founders guiding mantra: DON'T BE EVIL.

• Preface: Google Grows Up
• Introduction

1. A Healthy Disregard for the Impossible
2. When Larry Met Sergey
3. Learning to Count
4. The Secret Sauce
5. Divide and Conquer
6. Burning Man
7. The Danny Sullivan Show
8. A Trickle
9. Hiring a Pilot
10. You've Got Google
11. The Google Economy
12. And on the Fifth Day
13. Global Goooogling
14. April Fools
15. Porn Cookie Guy
16. Going Public
17. Playboys
18. Charlie's Place
19. Space Race
20. A Legal Showdown
21. A Virtual Library
22. Attacking Microsoft
23. Money Machine
24. The China Syndrome
25. Googling Your Genes
26. Rocket Man

• Appendix I: 23 Google Search Tips
• Appendix II: Google Labs Aptitude Test (GLAT)
• Appendix III: Google's Financial Scorecard

A very nice story about Google, or rather about how the founders personalities have influenced it. I really liked it, even though some things were glossed over (like the uproar from the Publishing companies over the attempt to scan all books, Google Docs, etc.)

After you have read this, you may even manage to get thru Planet Google just to get some complimentary info.

Not worse than any other bio about a current company founders (in fact, in many parts a lot better).