What Would Google Do?

Jeff Jarvis writes well enough, and he narrates in a pleasant, businesslike tone. He has the the kind of friendly, authoritative voice popular in podcasting. But this is one audiobook that would benefit from abridgment. So many of the points--for example, that Google listens to its customers--are easily grasped yet overexplained, tempting one to skip over them. Other sections sound self-serving, for example, the discourse on the author's battle with Dell's Customer Service department. In the end, audio listeners are left wondering whether they're hearing a series of entries from Jarvis's popular blog. R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

November 24, 2008
This scattered collection of rambling rants lauding Google's abilities to harness the power of the “Internet Age” generally misses the mark. Blog impresario Jarvis uses the company's success to trace aspects of the new customer-driven, user-generated, niche-market-oriented, customized and collaborative world. While his insights are stimulating, Jarvis's tone is acerbic and condescending; equally off-putting is his pervasive name-dropping. The book picks up in a section on media, where the author finally launches a fascinating discussion of how businesses—especially media and entertainment industries—can continue to evolve and profit by using Google's strategies. Unfortunately, Jarvis may have lost the reader by that point as his attempt to cover too many topics reads more like a series of frenzied blog posts than a manifesto for the Internet age.

May 1, 2009
Media columnist ("Guardian"), blogger (buzzmachine.com), and journalism professor (CUNY) Jarvis reads his book about the influence and consequences of Google and other e-businesses' principles and practices with excitement and expression. While many of his observations are insightful (e.g., Google juicethe higher a search result ranks, the more juice it's got), others are naïve and ill-informed (e.g., Google Patents). The tracks are divided into chapters, and music signals the end of each disc. Chapter titles and playing times are printed on each CD, substituting for the extensive index found in the print edition. Recommended with reservations for those interested in creativity, innovation, and new business models. [Audio/video clips available through www.harpercollins.com; the HarperBusiness hc was described as "a well-indexed and thought-provoking survey," LJXpress 3/2/09; see Q&A with the author, "LJ" 2/1/09.Ed.]Gail Preslar, Eastman Chemical Co. Business Lib., Kingsport, TN

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