Steve Levy 新書《In the Plex》怎麼樣？有什麼有趣的段落？

12-25

In the Plex : How Google thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives

我來貢獻一個"In The Plex" 里關於谷歌拼音抄襲事件的段子: 1. 崔瑾(前谷歌公關)在召開谷歌拼音媒體發布會前就已經得知谷歌拼音抄襲搜狗拼音這件事了，但她還是保持鎮定在記者面前開完了發布會。2. 谷歌拼音的項目負責人是王詠剛。 3. 實際完成抄襲工作的那個實習生最後加盟了微軟。

知乎審查我的專欄文章這些書，不會有簡體中文版（二）：In the Plex - Offline: better connected - 知乎專欄，我決定以德報怨多回答幾個問題。

沒有人講這本書里關於谷歌中國（書里就是這麼叫的，GuGe）的內容，我簡單歸納如下：

1，講谷歌中國這一章的章名是：GuGe: Google"s Moral Dilemma in China。內容涉及了』審查制度』，但核心部分還是講述Google進軍中國最後又退出的始末。

2，GuGe來了又走的的過程中，Levy強調了Brin的作用。他的前蘇聯移民身份，以及有此產生的想要讓信息自由讓人類擺脫蒙昧和控制的理想，是最初推動Google進入中國的力量。最後做出退出中國決定的也是Brin。當時的CEO施密特並不支持，因為他表示過Google有足夠的耐心在中國站穩腳跟。但Page和Brin只要達成一致，就沒施密特什麼事兒了。他後來退位Page回歸也就可以理解。Google的創始人基因非常明顯。

3，李開復向施密特自薦管理谷歌中國的時候，兩個創始人看重的是他的華人背景、個人聲譽、可能能與政府建立良好的溝通。但最後，兩位創始人也意識到，最初他們看重的東西，都成為了讓谷歌中國成為真正的Google的阻礙因素。

4，Levy對李開復在谷歌中國內部的個人影響力有偏向負面的評價，就像一個偶像。對於政府公關問題的評價則是完全負面的，谷歌中國從來都沒有解決好這個問題，反而自己內部的公關人員走馬燈換了太多。對百度的評價偏向中立，無論Google還是Levy都不認為百度是對手或是失敗的原因。行文到真有點』百度確實更了解中國』的意思。

5，與政府針對審查制度的你來我往也沒必要多說了。妥協過，反抗過，結果比較慘淡。追究其根本原因，還是Google對於形勢的判斷過於樂觀。他們相信隨著新一代成為中國社會中堅力量，中國會更開放更自由。Google應該更早地參與這個過程，甚至幫助這個國家更快地實現開放和自由。進程本卻身並不像Google想像的那樣能在三五年內實現。社會改良是一個漫長的過程，還會伴有陣痛。Google不幸地』享受』到了這股陣痛。

Levy為這本書準備近了十年，他在供職過的所有媒體上都做過對Google的跟蹤報道。這本書是否權威？可以參考Levy在Quora上的這個回答：Google給了我無上特權。在深度採訪了包括Page、Brin和施密特在內的眾多高層、參加Google內部不計其數或公開或秘密的項目和會議之後，才最終完成這本書。

這本書的簡體中文版權在中信出版社，他們2010年就買了，但到今年還沒版。原因如果大家有興趣了解，請點回答開頭的鏈接。

這本書很有趣，而且提供了很多以前從未披露過的信息，視角很獨特。我目前看了28%，這裡摘錄一些我在 Kindle 上 Highlight 的段落：

one problem was so glaring that the team wasn』t comfortable releasing Froogle: when the query 「running shoes」 was typed in, the top result was a garden gnome sculpture that happened to be wearing sneakers. Every day engineers would try to tweak the algorithm so that it would be able to distinguish between lawn art and footwear, but the gnome kept its top position. One day, seemingly miraculously, the gnome disappeared from the results. At a meeting, no one on the team claimed credit. Then an engineer arrived late, holding an elf with running shoes. He had bought the one-of-a kind product from the vendor, and since it was no longer for sale, it was no longer in the index. 「The algorithm was now returning the right results,」 says a Google engineer. 「We didn』t cheat, we didn』t change anything, and we launched.」

「How big do you think this can be?」「Ten billion,」 said Larry Page. Doerr just about fell off his chair. Surely, he replied to Page, you can』t be expecting a market cap of $10 billion. Doerr had already made a silent calculation that Google』s optimal market cap—the eventual value of the entire company—could go maybe as high as one billion dollars. 「Oh, I』m very serious,」 said Page. 「And I don』t mean market cap. I mean revenues.」

During one session, when discussing the fact that not all countries commonly use credit cards, Page proposed taking payments in barter appropriate to the home country. For instance, Page suggested, for transactions in Uzbekistan, Google could take its payment in goats. 「Maybe we can get to that,」 Veach responded, 「but first let』s make sure we can take VISA and MasterCard.」

an ad that ran alongside a gory murder story in the New York Post: someone had chopped up a body and stuffed it in a garbage bag. Alongside this gruesome text was a Google ad for plastic bags.

「We would analyze a page about a plane crash and happily place an ad for airline tickets.

In 2008, a story about the Mumbai attacks headlined 「Terrorists kill the man who gave them water」 was accompanied by an ad that read 「Terrorism: Pursue a certificate in terrorism 100% online. Enroll today. Ads by Google.」 An account of massive food poisoning at an Olive Garden restaurant in Los Angeles was accompanied by a coupon offering a 「FREE Dinner for Two at Olive Garden.」

In 2001 newly hired CEO Eric Schmidt ran into Varian at the Aspen Institute, Schmidt was with Larry Page, and Varian remembers thinking, Why did Eric bring his nephew from high school here?

"Sergey—you just asked Colin Powell whether he made the right moves in Desert Storm. Seriously, you』re talking to Colin Powell!"

Fortune雜誌最近摘取了該書決定離開中國的戰略決策過程，Don"t do evil是如何貫穿在創始人的決策中的（來自蘇聯的布林對信息控制的黑暗社會有深刻的憎惡）。正給《IT經理世界》寫篇創始人為什麼與專業經理有著不同的決策法則。Google 創始人佩奇、布林與專業經理施密特不同之處是本書最有趣之處。