Posted by Laura Glendinning in Media Quick Hit, Reviews on November 11, 2009
LOS ANGELES (YBH.ME) – Sit at your computer, go to Google’s home page and type in a search word. It’s done by millions of people, millions of times a day.
Website publishers, search engine competitors and the savvier members of the general public have always wondered one thing: how do they do it? How do they rank website A over website B? What, to use the insider term, is their algorithm?
Ken Auletta's new book about Google is an informative look at the internet giant.
Search engines are ruled by the engineers who write the sorting program, and they are human beings with preferences and an agenda, hopefully benign. Star media reporter Ken Auletta’s new book “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It” has released one tidbit among many, after extensive interviews with Google honchos.
It’s official. According to Auletta, the top secret Google algorithm gives extra weight to certain sources. As founder Larry Page puts it in the book: “I don’t want to measure journalism by the number of hits something gets, because I know that Britney Spears will get a lot more hits than a story about Afghanistan. But I don’t want that to rank higher on the search results than a story in The New York Times.” Google has a very robust news service that does a remarkable job of returning relevant news stories based on almost any search term. The question then becomes how does Google rank news stories and websites in general.
While not answering that question directly ( how could he? Google would sue) Mr. Auletta book is a great read about the rise of Google. From dorm room dream to private jets, the Google story is amazing. It’s thought that 40 percent of online advertising dollars go straight to Google, to the tune of $22 billion a year, maybe more.
If anyone could get inside Google’s culture, it’s Auletta. Here’s a snapshot of his bio: “Starting in 1974, he was the chief political correspondent for the New York Post, then staff writer and weekly columnist for the Village Voice and Contributing Editor of New York Magazine. He started writing for The New Yorker in 1977. Between 1977 and 1993, he wrote a weekly political column for the New York Daily News. He has hosted numerous public television programs and served as a political commentator for both WNBC-TV and WCBS-TV.”
For further revelations about the business giant that is Google, you’ll have to buy and read the book. The book is available at Amazon and major booksellers. Or you can just Google Mr. Auletta to find places to buy the book.