Somehow I seem to have had plenty of time for reading non-fiction books in the last couple of weeks, so here comes another quick book review. Or should I say rant? The book I would like to talk about is Jeff Jarvis’s ingenious collection of haphazard prose and ideas entitled What Would Google Do?
In my opinion, this book circles around one central – and not a particular new – idea: As a company, be open and transparent, and your customers will love you. Which, accidentally, cannot be said about Google, but the author has piece of advice for us:
I suggest you follow Google’s example in its product development and ignore its silence and opaqueness elsewhere.
Neat!
Jarvis talks about the troubles he had with his Dell computer, the way in which he publicised his problems, the ensuing wave of bad publicity for one of world’s largest PC retailers and Dell’s transition into an open, customer-oriented company which encourages user participation these days. This strategy has been talked about before, so Jarvis rattles on about a topic that’s really not so exciting.
What I found most annoying, though, was his naive (or should I rather say slavish?) devotion to Google and the way in which this company operates. Why else would anyone utter such a statement:
If any institution relies more on permanence than hastiness, God’s does. Google, like God, values permanence.
Jarvis continues by sketching an ideal world where everything is “elegantly organised” by Google, be it power supply, all kinds of retail as well as health and education. In the end, the author argues, “Google could become the operating system not just for the web and the world but for our homes and lives”.
Is it just me or does this sound too much like 1984?! Surely, Google has its place in the world, delivering fast and (mostly) relevant search results and offering a range of useful applications for free. But hoping for letting a company govern each and every aspect of our daily lives is just outrageous.
If your Google devotion and technology euphoria is as strong as Jarvis’ and you’re also interested in how much he got for writing his manuscript, this book is for you. For all the others: Rather go for a walk and enjoy an un-Googlified lunch.
