Book Review: WWGD – What Would Google Do?

May 8, 2010 - Jan Fabry
WWGD? – The PowerPoint

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Anyone who wants to go “2.0” should read this first. In this book Jarvis explores the impact of the internet on our society and the impact of Google on our economy. Let there be no doubt: Google and the internet are UNDER-hyped.

What you will learn (and MUST incormporate) when you read this book:

  • Web 1.0 = “look at me” / Web 2.0 = “look at you”. Once you get this, you are halfway;
  • Give people control – we will use it;
  • Be a platform instead of a destination (how: ‘Elegant Organization’);
  • There is an inverse relationship between control and trust;
  • Life is a beta;
  • Numerous examples of industries and sectors that would be / will be inversed once the Google mindset is adopted;

With this book Jarvis gives us an unprecedented and audacious look into a future we woud not dear to imagine. Recommended for anyone in ANY business who will not be retiring in the next few years.

  • What Would Google Do? is not a book about Google. At least not directly. This is a manifesto for the social web. A book arguing for transparency, openness, and collaboration. A book imploring that we think differently: beseeching businesses to hand over control to their clients; to share and innovate; to develop platforms and networks of trust; to encourage discovery and diversity over secrecy and authority; to adopt a mindset of abundance over the scarcity models of the past. Google is positioned as the poster child of this new paradigm, the exemplar of the modern company. And the question, What Would Google Do?, is our call to action. A call challenging our assumptions of what is required to succeed in a world that is increasingly public and interconnected.