This year has seen the existing order in the internet economy wholly overthrown by the unstoppable rise of Google. Whereas Microsoft once reigned supreme as the most feared company on earth, that title now belongs unquestionably to Google. The company dominates internet search, handling more than half of all the world's enquiries, twice as much as its nearest rival (Yahoo). That makes it incredibly influential among computer users, and the company has used its soaring stock price to bolt on a whole collection of additional services, many of them offered up free of charge, thereby eviscerating the financial model painstakingly assembled by its competitors. Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo and other far longer established companies are all being forced to adapt their own business plans to respond to this newcomer's unconventional and often unpredictable strategy, which bounces back and forth between anti-corporate idealism and ruthless commercial logic. 

Search has always been the key to the growth of an online economy, and Google is far from being the first company to convert that customer need into cash. But the company  surpassed all its predecessors by making its search engine far more effective and efficient that any rival's. While other companies struggled to make money by selling space in search results, thereby degrading their relevance, Google for years avoided any such commercial considerations. As a result, when it did finally start to accept advertising, its power over the marketplace was already immense, made even more bigger by the funds unlocked by a public offering of stock.

This book, by a founder of technology bibles Wired and The Industry Standard, offers a thought-provoking and exhaustively researched analysis of the development and monetisation of internet search from its primitive origins through early (now defunct) pioneers such as Excite and Altavista to today's highly sophisticated CPC environment. In fact it is at heart as much a book about the development of the internet as it is a business study of Google, and a fascinating analysis of the forces changing the future of information delivery.  

Added 8th December 2005