Ken Auletta - Googled - The End of the World as We Know It

41 “free of many of the old prejudices”: Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1995.

42 “Fortunately, I had taken up lock picking”: author interview with Sergey Brin, September 18, 2008.

42 They “thought it was sleazy”: author interview with Rajeev Motwani, October 12, 2007.

43 “I’ll take stock”: author interview with Craig Silverstein, September 17, 2007.

43 Information about Google’s early days in 1998 from author interviews with Ram Shriram, September 16, 2008, and June 12, 2008; Craig Silverstein, September 14, 2007, and September 17, 2007; Jeff Bezos, July 9, 2008; Sergey Brin, September 18, 2008; and Susan Wojcicki, September 10, 2007, and April 16, 2008.

45 ten thousand search queries: Google’s “Google Milestones” chronology

45 Search really “does have a potential”: Karsten Lamm, Stern, January 1999.

CHAPTER 3: Buzz but Few Dollars (1999-2000)

46 one million dollars received from its four initial investors: Google’s IPO document, August 2004.

46 Google had indexed only about 10 percent… five hundred thousand daily: author interview with Marissa Mayer, August 21, 2007.

47 “a graduate-student Disneyland ”: Michael Specter, “Search and Deploy: The Race to Build a Better Search Engine,” The New Yorker, May 29, 2000.

47 A green Ping-Pong table… “ ‘Do you speak?’ ”: author interviews with Marissa Mayer, March 25, 2008, and November 4, 2008.

47 five-million-dollar penthouse… in Palo Alto: Julian Guthrie, “Googirl,” San Francisco Magazine, March 2008, confirmed by a close colleague of hers.

48 “we need a business plan”: author interview with Ram Shriram, September 16, 2008.

48 “a binder on what other companies were doing”: author interview with Salar Kamangar, March 27, 2008.

48 Kordestani was a perfect fit… “It was a very thoughtful process”: author interview with Omid Kordestani, April 15, 2008.

49 Drummond remembers: author interview with David Drummond, September 11, 2007.

50 David Krane was working… “the Interlochen uniform”: author interview with David Krane, April 18, 2008.

51 “Google wanted to create”: Ruth Kedar blog entry, January 15, 2008.

52 Ron Conway… “more famous than I am!”: author interview with Ron Conway, March 25, 2008.

52 Danny Sullivan… “science” of their search results: author interviews with Danny Sullivan, August 27, 2007, and March 20, 2008.

53 “had a purist view”: author interview with Ram Shiram, September 16, 2008.

53 Barry Diller… “wildly self-possessed”: author interview with Barry Diller, March 3, 2009.

53 the founders “were on a mission”: author interview with Susan Wojcicki, September 10, 2007.

54 They set out to recruit: author interview with Ram Shriram, September 16, 2008. Another account of the negotiations with Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia was provided by John Heilemann in GQ, March 2005.

54 Doerr remembers the meeting vividly: author interview with John Doerr, September 18, 2008.

54 “devotion to their dream”: author interview with Michael Moritz, August 23, 2007.

55 “The understanding when we invested”: author interview with Michael Moritz, August 23, 2007.

55 “I think of him as Kobe Bryant”: author interview with Ram Shriram, June 12, 2008.

55 They also held their first press conference: Google home movie, June 7, 1999, shared with author by Google.

56 “Big deal”: author interview with Sergey Brin, September 18, 2008.

56 “We got overwhelmed with traffic”: author interview with Craig Silverstein, September 17, 2007.

56 figure out how to block pornography searches: author interview with Matt Cutts, August 20, 2007.

57 called in a real estate agent: author interview with Susan Wojcicki, April 16, 2008.

57 “Chef Audition Week”: author interview with Marissa Mayer, March 25, 2008.

57 “The fat found in fish”: interview with Charlie Ayers, Advancedengineeringbd.com, March 23, 2008.

57 “I think they were a little bit perturbed”: author interview with Sergey Brin, October 10, 2007.

58 The first place in the valley Al Gore visited… “It was hilarious!”: author interview with Al Gore, June 10, 2008.

58 At around 4:30… “Which prize?”: author attended this and all other Google TGIF’s described.

59 Doerr described Sergey: author interview with John Doerr, September 18, 2008.

60 game show: To Tell the Truth, March 10, 2001, available on YouTube.

60 “Larry can be a little raw”: author interview with Megan Smith, April 17, 2008.

60 a fashionable cocktail party: author attended party for 23andMe, September 9, 2008.

61 7 million searches a day: Google Web site.

61 NASDAQ… fell 78 percent: “How the Web Was Won,” Vanity Fair, July 2008.

61 “Ax in any successful venture”: author interview with Hal Varian, March 27, 2008.

61 revenues would total $19.1 million: Google August 2004 IPO filing with the SEC.

61 “zero discussion”: author interview with Salar Kamangar, March 27, 2008.

61 an encounter around this time with Page and Brin and Bill Gross: John Battelle, Search, Portfolio, 2005.

62. established Google as Yahoo’s official search engine: Randall Stross, Planet Google: One Company’s Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know, Simon amp; Schuster, 2008; also Vise and Malseed and Battelle books.

62. 3.7 million shares: Google’s Form-1 Registration Statement from IPO filing, August 2004.

62 “It was really about the quality of the search”: author interview with Danny Sullivan, March 20, 2008.

63 moving too gingerly for Doerr and Moritz: author interview with Doerr, September 18, 2008, and Moritz, August 23, 2007.

64 “They thought everyone… was a clown”: author interview with Paul Buchheit, June 9, 2008.

64 “they wanted a fellow intellectual”: author interview with Omid Kordestani, April 15, 2008.

64 “they were not convinced”: author interview with Marissa Mayer, November 4, 2008.

64 “They resisted hiring ordinary people”: author interview with Micheal Moritz, August 23, 2007.

64 “All of us on the board”: author interviews with Ram Shriram, June 12, 2008, and September 16, 2008, and with Michael Moritz, August 23, 2007, and March 31, 2009.

65 “It was chaos”: author interview with Tim Armstrong, February 28, 2008.

65 The founders interviewed two computer scientists: author interview with Marissa Mayer, November 4, 2008.

65 indexed one billion Web pages: Google Web site.

65 $19 million… $14.6 million: Google Form S-1, filed with the SEC on August 18, 2004.

CHAPTER 4, Prepping the Google Rocket (2001-2002)

66 five billion songs: Apple press release, June 2008.

66 ten million entries: Google search of Wikipedia.

67 Don’t settle: Larry Page speech at Stanford University, May 1, 2002, available via a link on Page’s Wikipedia page.

67 “the real turning point”: author interview with Craig Silverstein, April 14, 2008.

67 one senior engineer “had 130 direct reports”: author interview with Eric Schmidt, April 16, 2008.

67 Doerr… thought his friend Eric Schmidt might be a perfect fit: author interview with John Doerr, September 18, 2008.

67 Brin had called Schmidt: author interview with Eric Schmidt, April 16, 2008, and June 11, 2008.

68 “They started going at it”: author interview with Eric Schmidt, October 9, 2007.

68 Schmidt was born: author interview with Eric Schmidt, June 11, 2008.

70 Schmidt was paid a salary of $250,000: Google’s Form S-1 IPO Registration, August 18, 2004.

70 The “three of them must agree”: author interview with Eric Schmidt, October 9, 2007.