题目内容
Randall Stross, a journalist at the New York Times, does a good job of analyzing this un bounded ambition in his book "Planet Google". One chapter is about the huge data centers that Google is building with a view to storing all that information, another about the sets of rules at the heart of its web search and advertising technology, another about its approach to information bound in books, its vision for geographical information and so forth. He is at his best when explaining how Google's mission casually but fatally smashes into long-existing institutions such as, say, copyright law or privacy norms.
And yet, it's puzzling that he mostly omits the most fascinating component of Google, its people. Google is what it is because of its two founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who see themselves as kindly elites and embody the limitless optimism about science, technology and human nature that is native to Silicon Valley. The world is perfectible, and they are the ones who will do much of the perfecting, provided you let them.
Brin and Page set out to create a company and an entire culture in their image. From the start, they professed that they would innovate as much in managing—rewarding, feeding, motivating, entertaining and even transporting (via Wi-Fi-enabled free shuttle buses) their employees—as they do in internet technology. If Google is in danger of becoming a caricaturez (讽刺画), this is first apparent here--in the over-engineered day-care centers, the shiatsu massages and kombucha teas (康普茶). In reality Google’s are as prone to power struggle and office politics as anyone else.
None of that makes it into Mr. Stross' account, which at times reads like a diligent summary of news articles. At those moments, "Planet Google" takes a risk similar to trying to board a speeding train: the Google story changes so fast that no book can stay up to date for long. Even so, a sober description of this moment in Google's quest is welcome. Especially since Google fully expects, as its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, says at the end of the book, to take 300 years completing it.
By describing Google as a "Big Brother", people think that Google ______.
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