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谷歌方法：創意精英如何實現夢想與開創未來的
繼《重新定義公司》《重新定義團隊》之后，谷歌重磅作品《谷歌方法》強勢來襲。 作為全球頂級的科技公司之一，谷歌成功的核心方法在于吸引創意精英、提供平臺、打造卓越產品。《谷歌方法》以谷歌地圖為切入口，講述了谷歌如何通過上述方法，用6年時間，將谷歌地圖打造成月活用戶超過10億的偉大產品。 在《谷歌方法》中，你將看到： 谷歌招攬英才、提供不設限的平臺資源、收購新創公司背后的邏輯； 拉里·佩奇與謝爾蓋·布林從大處著想，利用地圖產品實現谷歌的戰略布局； 谷歌突破技術的限制，相繼推出谷歌地圖、谷歌地球、谷歌街景，徹底改變了人類游覽世界的方式； 谷歌地圖如何促成了Airbnb、Uber、無人駕駛汽車等基于地圖的新興企業和科技的發展； 現象級AR游戲《精靈寶可夢GO》，如何引爆全球用戶； 創意精英如何跳脫傳統的商業原則，實現夢想與開創未來的。
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 22, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
March 23, 2019
An interesting look behind the creation of Google Maps and Google Earth, from someone who was present at the very beginning. For anybody who wonders how on earth Google managed to map our entire planet in such a short period of time.
October 20, 2019
Never Lost Again: The Prequel
I met Dan Gordon in August of 1992. Based on previous work I had done, Dan thought I’d be a great asset to his growing team so he brought me in for an interview. He spoke for 15 minutes and never asked me a question. Instead, he told me of his vision – he wanted to create a visual environment where one could fly around above the earth, and then dive on into the streets, and then go into buildings, and back out again. He knew this wasn’t possible yet, but still wanted to run in that direction. And he wanted people around him that wanted to run in the same direction.
The company was Autometric, and it had a very interesting pedigree. Engineers at this small company had begun at Paramount Pictures handling satellite imagery in the 1950s. Eventually, Lou Brown wrangled a deal to stand up this group as an independent company. Early work included the invention of the Chromatron, which Sony purchased prior to developing the Trinitron, and performing photogrammetric analysis of the moon for the Apollo landings.
In any case, by the 1990s Autometric was doing great work in imagery, databases, and satellite orbits. Dan saw all of this and envisioned an environment called EDGE. EDGE stood for several different things, but eventually settled on Enhanced Digital Geographic Environment. We worked on EDGE for several years – it ran on gl, then on OpenGL on SGI workstations. The work we were doing had our software aboard aircraft flying missions over Kosovo, Bosnia, and eventually Iraq. It was a fantastic visualization tool.
He added “Whole Earth” to the name in order to trademark it. And he challenged me to make it apply. Jim Otto had an early version of the globe, with a single texture attached to a wire frame globe and it was compelling. Turning that into a dynamically loaded, infinite scale was my job. Dan told me he wanted to fly “from outer space to in your face.” Once running, we experienced the same oohs and aahs that are referenced in the book. Except this was in 1995, and truly no one had seen anything like it before. While we had a dedicated marketing team, I did get to demo it to some, including Dan Rather at CBS news (“This is something that I’ve always asked for.”). EDGE Whole Earth was used on air several times in 1996 and 1997 for Ron Brown’s crash reenactment in Croatia, earthquakes, the presidential inauguration, etc. I had the same discussions with our data providers about license fees. They thought I was crazy for letting CBS use the software for the tiny amount they were paying.
We worked closely with SGI. At one point, we had submitted the largest order SGI had ever seen.
I also worked with Michael Jones and the Performer team. Performer was a great tool with lots of promise. Unfortunately, early versions had bugs that we couldn’t work around and promised features were always late. Then, when they were released, the APIs for the old features changed enough to make us re-engineer our work.
In 1996 we had a solid version of EDGE that Dan wanted to show off to the folks at SGI. At that point it was a fully functioning globe, with a base map containing an elevation point every 100 meters, and a base image of 10m per pixel, provided by NASA. Into that globe, we inserted arbitrary imagery and additional elevation points dynamically as the user moved around. In the audience for that demo were 100 or so SGI engineers, including Michael Jones, Chris Tanner, and the Performer team. After the demo, Michael came up to us and exclaimed that he “had never thought of the difficulties of rendering a 3D globe before.” We talked about how EDGE was able to get around the inaccuracies of using a floating point gl pipeline to render the globe accurate enough to show features on the ground, while still rendering satellites in space. I had no doubt that Michael was very sharp – he immediately focused on the challenges. “How fine a resolution can you go?” EDGE could accurately go to 0.5 meter square and maintain absolute accuracy, but relative accuracy was good much further down. “How much imagery would you need to cover the globe at that resolution?” If we’re talking 3 bytes / pixel, then that’d be about 1.5 Petabytes for the land. So you could do all the land at 1 square meter for less than a petabyte. Michael finished the conversation by promising to get Performer deliveries on schedule, and also to add features to it that would support a globe. He handed me a tape with the very latest development build of Performer for me to try.
Over the next couple years, EDGE had continued success, with a port to Sun and then to PCs, culminating with a deal with NIMA (now NGA) to be the visualization tool for imagery. It was free to download, and the data would be streamed to the user from NIMA servers.
Autometric continued to demo EDGE, and on one such occasion I was demoing the latest version at SIGGRAPH on an immersive table – a projector mounted across the room bounced the image off of mirrors under a table, bouncing the image to the translucent tabletop. People standing around the table could look down and see the Earth while satellites zoomed around and US fighters flew a sortie over Iraq. I also had some weather feeds showing a cold front over the US. Zooming in to particular spot in Montana brought up a picture of one of the interns on the project, who had eventually become one of the key developers. And if the viewer donned special glasses, the whole scene popped up out of the table in 3D.
SIGGRAPH participants come in from all backgrounds. And over the years, the diversity greatly increased. But all were impressed. Some with the imagery, some with the table, some with the 3D effect, some with the satellites. One gentleman, however, came in and while keenly attentive, did not seem enthusiastic about any particular element. Instead, after the demo concluded, he waited for others to leave and pulled me aside where we could talk in private. He had a binder with a lot of info in it. He told me that he had walked all around the show, and that he thought I was the only one who could help him out. He asked if I worked with SGI (yes), did I know Michael T. Jones (yes), did I know Chris Tanner (yes). Then he pulled out a list of people from his binder – most of the names I recognized from SGI and the Performer team. He said that, while he shouldn’t tell me this, the binder was a business plan from Michael and they wanted to go off and create a company to build a tool for the gaming industry. He was with a Venture Capital firm wondering if they should invest. The tool would be like a scene graph, but one that was focused on the mechanics of a game. Combined with OpenGL, this would make porting games easier from one host to another. This was not the first time I had heard this – Michael mentioned this before. I told the gentlemen that all the people on the list that I knew were brilliant – that Michael was brilliant but I wouldn’t do that. That idea was too hard to sell – it’s too abstract to sell in high volumes, and it’s asking people like me to lock into something and not have control over something that I need to optimize and tune day in and day out. And I added that Michael would not deliver this on time – it’s too broad and Michael would always want to add new features. I added that the team needs focus – especially for their first project. He asked “What should they build?” “Something finite. Something concrete.” I pointed over to the light table, with the globe spinning “Something like that – well defined but immensely powerful.”
I met Dan Gordon in August of 1992. Based on previous work I had done, Dan thought I’d be a great asset to his growing team so he brought me in for an interview. He spoke for 15 minutes and never asked me a question. Instead, he told me of his vision – he wanted to create a visual environment where one could fly around above the earth, and then dive on into the streets, and then go into buildings, and back out again. He knew this wasn’t possible yet, but still wanted to run in that direction. And he wanted people around him that wanted to run in the same direction.
The company was Autometric, and it had a very interesting pedigree. Engineers at this small company had begun at Paramount Pictures handling satellite imagery in the 1950s. Eventually, Lou Brown wrangled a deal to stand up this group as an independent company. Early work included the invention of the Chromatron, which Sony purchased prior to developing the Trinitron, and performing photogrammetric analysis of the moon for the Apollo landings.
In any case, by the 1990s Autometric was doing great work in imagery, databases, and satellite orbits. Dan saw all of this and envisioned an environment called EDGE. EDGE stood for several different things, but eventually settled on Enhanced Digital Geographic Environment. We worked on EDGE for several years – it ran on gl, then on OpenGL on SGI workstations. The work we were doing had our software aboard aircraft flying missions over Kosovo, Bosnia, and eventually Iraq. It was a fantastic visualization tool.
He added “Whole Earth” to the name in order to trademark it. And he challenged me to make it apply. Jim Otto had an early version of the globe, with a single texture attached to a wire frame globe and it was compelling. Turning that into a dynamically loaded, infinite scale was my job. Dan told me he wanted to fly “from outer space to in your face.” Once running, we experienced the same oohs and aahs that are referenced in the book. Except this was in 1995, and truly no one had seen anything like it before. While we had a dedicated marketing team, I did get to demo it to some, including Dan Rather at CBS news (“This is something that I’ve always asked for.”). EDGE Whole Earth was used on air several times in 1996 and 1997 for Ron Brown’s crash reenactment in Croatia, earthquakes, the presidential inauguration, etc. I had the same discussions with our data providers about license fees. They thought I was crazy for letting CBS use the software for the tiny amount they were paying.
We worked closely with SGI. At one point, we had submitted the largest order SGI had ever seen.
I also worked with Michael Jones and the Performer team. Performer was a great tool with lots of promise. Unfortunately, early versions had bugs that we couldn’t work around and promised features were always late. Then, when they were released, the APIs for the old features changed enough to make us re-engineer our work.
In 1996 we had a solid version of EDGE that Dan wanted to show off to the folks at SGI. At that point it was a fully functioning globe, with a base map containing an elevation point every 100 meters, and a base image of 10m per pixel, provided by NASA. Into that globe, we inserted arbitrary imagery and additional elevation points dynamically as the user moved around. In the audience for that demo were 100 or so SGI engineers, including Michael Jones, Chris Tanner, and the Performer team. After the demo, Michael came up to us and exclaimed that he “had never thought of the difficulties of rendering a 3D globe before.” We talked about how EDGE was able to get around the inaccuracies of using a floating point gl pipeline to render the globe accurate enough to show features on the ground, while still rendering satellites in space. I had no doubt that Michael was very sharp – he immediately focused on the challenges. “How fine a resolution can you go?” EDGE could accurately go to 0.5 meter square and maintain absolute accuracy, but relative accuracy was good much further down. “How much imagery would you need to cover the globe at that resolution?” If we’re talking 3 bytes / pixel, then that’d be about 1.5 Petabytes for the land. So you could do all the land at 1 square meter for less than a petabyte. Michael finished the conversation by promising to get Performer deliveries on schedule, and also to add features to it that would support a globe. He handed me a tape with the very latest development build of Performer for me to try.
Over the next couple years, EDGE had continued success, with a port to Sun and then to PCs, culminating with a deal with NIMA (now NGA) to be the visualization tool for imagery. It was free to download, and the data would be streamed to the user from NIMA servers.
Autometric continued to demo EDGE, and on one such occasion I was demoing the latest version at SIGGRAPH on an immersive table – a projector mounted across the room bounced the image off of mirrors under a table, bouncing the image to the translucent tabletop. People standing around the table could look down and see the Earth while satellites zoomed around and US fighters flew a sortie over Iraq. I also had some weather feeds showing a cold front over the US. Zooming in to particular spot in Montana brought up a picture of one of the interns on the project, who had eventually become one of the key developers. And if the viewer donned special glasses, the whole scene popped up out of the table in 3D.
SIGGRAPH participants come in from all backgrounds. And over the years, the diversity greatly increased. But all were impressed. Some with the imagery, some with the table, some with the 3D effect, some with the satellites. One gentleman, however, came in and while keenly attentive, did not seem enthusiastic about any particular element. Instead, after the demo concluded, he waited for others to leave and pulled me aside where we could talk in private. He had a binder with a lot of info in it. He told me that he had walked all around the show, and that he thought I was the only one who could help him out. He asked if I worked with SGI (yes), did I know Michael T. Jones (yes), did I know Chris Tanner (yes). Then he pulled out a list of people from his binder – most of the names I recognized from SGI and the Performer team. He said that, while he shouldn’t tell me this, the binder was a business plan from Michael and they wanted to go off and create a company to build a tool for the gaming industry. He was with a Venture Capital firm wondering if they should invest. The tool would be like a scene graph, but one that was focused on the mechanics of a game. Combined with OpenGL, this would make porting games easier from one host to another. This was not the first time I had heard this – Michael mentioned this before. I told the gentlemen that all the people on the list that I knew were brilliant – that Michael was brilliant but I wouldn’t do that. That idea was too hard to sell – it’s too abstract to sell in high volumes, and it’s asking people like me to lock into something and not have control over something that I need to optimize and tune day in and day out. And I added that Michael would not deliver this on time – it’s too broad and Michael would always want to add new features. I added that the team needs focus – especially for their first project. He asked “What should they build?” “Something finite. Something concrete.” I pointed over to the light table, with the globe spinning “Something like that – well defined but immensely powerful.”
February 3, 2020
Never lost again tells the story of how Google Maps came to be. Bill Kilday does a good job of narrating this story in a way that's engaging and interesting.
The book takes us through how Keyhole started as a start up, their struggles with funding and hiring resources, and then later getting acquired by Google and the politics they are thrown into within Google.
I found myself craving for technical details as Bill explained the different revolutionary ideas and implementation methadologies. I remember downloading Google Earth and scouring my neighborhood when it first came out. I remember being astounded with the visuals and noted how easy it was for me to use. I quickly shared with my family and friends. Reading through how they launched it and realizing what went into producing this piece of software was riveting.
The book takes us through how Keyhole started as a start up, their struggles with funding and hiring resources, and then later getting acquired by Google and the politics they are thrown into within Google.
I found myself craving for technical details as Bill explained the different revolutionary ideas and implementation methadologies. I remember downloading Google Earth and scouring my neighborhood when it first came out. I remember being astounded with the visuals and noted how easy it was for me to use. I quickly shared with my family and friends. Reading through how they launched it and realizing what went into producing this piece of software was riveting.
February 5, 2021
Unputdownable. Being severely directionally challenged I have always been fascinated by google maps and it’s impact. This book gives a peek into what went into creating an app with a billion downloads - it’s humble beginnings, the challenges and finally the glory! :) it also touches upon corporate politics in google, who knew ;)
August 31, 2018
This is a fascinating look inside the development of one of the most transformative technologies to ever come along. Bill Kilday and John Hanke were college friends from Texas. John went on to start Keyhole and brought Bill on as the marketing manager. This book is an inside look from Bill's perspective of that time. It was a completely entertaining and informative look at its subject.
Keyhole developed what would become Google Earth. Google bought Keyhole and helped bring Google Earth to what it is today. Google used the Keyhole team and technology to develop Google Maps. As someone who uses Google Earth professionally nearly on a daily basis, there is no other program that can do what Google Earth can do while scaling as easily as it scales, since it is a free program. I often comment that my company would spend a lot of money for Google Earth, but they give it away for free!
Bill also gives his inside perspective of his time at Google, which was really interesting as well. We heard about Larry and Sergey and Marissa Mayer, and Bill seemed to be mostly unfiltered and honest. John ended up starting another company called Niantic, which is the augmented reality company behind Pokemon Go. Bill followed John there as well.
Keyhole developed what would become Google Earth. Google bought Keyhole and helped bring Google Earth to what it is today. Google used the Keyhole team and technology to develop Google Maps. As someone who uses Google Earth professionally nearly on a daily basis, there is no other program that can do what Google Earth can do while scaling as easily as it scales, since it is a free program. I often comment that my company would spend a lot of money for Google Earth, but they give it away for free!
Bill also gives his inside perspective of his time at Google, which was really interesting as well. We heard about Larry and Sergey and Marissa Mayer, and Bill seemed to be mostly unfiltered and honest. John ended up starting another company called Niantic, which is the augmented reality company behind Pokemon Go. Bill followed John there as well.
March 14, 2020
I'm really happy a friend recommended this book to me. I flew through it in less than 2 weeks.
When you really think about it, fewer tools have changed our lives more in the last few decades than Google Maps/Google Earth. I loved getting to hear about their beginnings as a floundering startup that nearly went under multiple times.
Bill kept the pace at a fast clip and had a fun vibe. He introduced me to characters as Google (Sergey, Larry and Marissa) that I had never read about in much detail. I already have and will continue recommending this book to friends.
When you really think about it, fewer tools have changed our lives more in the last few decades than Google Maps/Google Earth. I loved getting to hear about their beginnings as a floundering startup that nearly went under multiple times.
Bill kept the pace at a fast clip and had a fun vibe. He introduced me to characters as Google (Sergey, Larry and Marissa) that I had never read about in much detail. I already have and will continue recommending this book to friends.
June 1, 2019
I'm not one for writing reviews but this one does compel me to write a commendatory note. Bill takes us through a rollercoaster of a ride starting from his college till the advent of Pokémon Go. It sure seems like we're there with him witnessing the struggle, this is a great indicator for any book.
March 17, 2022
Probably more like a 3.5. This is about the development of Google Earth and Google Maps. The author was part of the team who launched these products, and although he wrote this book in a way that made it as entertaining as possible, it was still a bit tech-y for me. I did learn a lot though!
August 17, 2018
Highly recommend this book. It’s well written, offered detailed view of how the google map and earth product is built , how features such as points of interests, street view, ocean view etc, are added, how the data behind the scene is acquired through third party, then their own satellite and through self driving cars and project ground truth. It also provides glimpses of google campus, culture, cofounders, googles meeting and funding styles . Also how the map product has helped in war, natural disasters, environmental issues and many more business use cases. Finally, John Hanke, who is the guy behind google maps and earth, also founded Nintendo later and is behind Ingres and Pokémon go , although there aren’t much stories being told about this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2018
This is a book that tells a good story and tells it well. It’s a fascinating history into how we got to today where we pull out our phone and use Google Maps to do, well, just about everything. The story is very readable, reading more like a novel than a history book.
One of the things I liked the best was that while the author had business rivals, he does not tell the story in an us-vs-them way. While he does not gloss over disagreements, he also gives credit to his rivals for accomplished.
One of the things I liked the best was that while the author had business rivals, he does not tell the story in an us-vs-them way. While he does not gloss over disagreements, he also gives credit to his rivals for accomplished.
December 27, 2021
Yeah nonfiction books aren't supposed to be this addictive.
January 11, 2019
I was really looking for something more technical when I selected this book to read. Specifically, I was looking for the answers to two questions that have perplexed my programming-experienced mind for over 20 years. How can all the millions of roads in the U.S. be represented in 1 GB of memory and how can a $60 device (my first TomTom) be programmed to quickly find the best route between point A and point B? Unfortunately for my quest, this book is written by a marketing professional who did no research into the technology behind the products he was pitching. I don't say this judgmentally, the author pretty much admits the same in the final chapters of the book. He just reported what he experienced.
What mislead me was the title. I thought the book would be about navigation, where really the author was most involved with imagery (what we'd call "Satellite View"). Despite my disappointment, it's still a fun read about a company (Google) with a unique culture that affects us all. And the story of imaging, such as how they get the images, is interesting. I always wondered how the resolution was so high since satellites are too far above the earth to proved that kind of precision. (The answer is they use images from airplanes.) And there was one chapter, "Project Ground Truth" that met my needs by telling the story of how Google managed to divorce itself from the two companies that provided all the maps for navigators and built their own database. It just irks me that the author writes as if Google invented navigation when in truth there were companies doing it a decade or more earlier.
What mislead me was the title. I thought the book would be about navigation, where really the author was most involved with imagery (what we'd call "Satellite View"). Despite my disappointment, it's still a fun read about a company (Google) with a unique culture that affects us all. And the story of imaging, such as how they get the images, is interesting. I always wondered how the resolution was so high since satellites are too far above the earth to proved that kind of precision. (The answer is they use images from airplanes.) And there was one chapter, "Project Ground Truth" that met my needs by telling the story of how Google managed to divorce itself from the two companies that provided all the maps for navigators and built their own database. It just irks me that the author writes as if Google invented navigation when in truth there were companies doing it a decade or more earlier.
March 6, 2019
If you can wade through the Google worship/cheerleading, (and you really can without too much effort), this is a fascinating book that is both well written and compelling. It provides a history of what has become Google Maps from the perspective of one of the individuals who saw the evolution and the mapping revolution. Kilday describes his work with a small startup that wowed the real estate world with software that provided detailed imagery of the Earth. He details the company's scraping scrapping days when it begged for space on exhibit floors and when its employees had to take pay cuts just to keep the company from collapse. He shows you how CNN used the company's software, agreeing as part of the deal to verbally reference the name of the software whenever reporters used it. He describes the company's acquisition by Google and the changes that occurred as a result. This is a fascinating look at the Google culture and what happens when a small startup gets swallowed by the bigger company.
I enjoyed this because Kilday is particularly skilled at showing the birth and maturity of a concept that became a way of life for us all.
If you read this, you'll get a glimpse into how Ingress and similar apps came into being. It will be well worth your time, and you'll come away wondering what lies ahead for a mapped globe. This can only be good news for blind and visually impaired travelers who must navigate both indoor and outdoor situations. The audiobook is brilliantly narrated, and Kilday's writing style is informative and highly appealing.
I enjoyed this because Kilday is particularly skilled at showing the birth and maturity of a concept that became a way of life for us all.
If you read this, you'll get a glimpse into how Ingress and similar apps came into being. It will be well worth your time, and you'll come away wondering what lies ahead for a mapped globe. This can only be good news for blind and visually impaired travelers who must navigate both indoor and outdoor situations. The audiobook is brilliantly narrated, and Kilday's writing style is informative and highly appealing.
June 4, 2019
Never Lost Again was a most enjoyable book. Author Bill Kilday fairly describes it as "one person's perspective" that opens "mainly nontechnical window into the mapping revolution that happened all around me." The revolution resulted in the mapping software startup company, Keyhole, being acquired by Google then playing a major role in the making and marketing of Google Earth. That fantastic computer program allows a viewer to fly virtually to any place on the planet and view it in satellite or map mode. This became the basis for mobile direction finding that millions of people use to get to where they want to go. The author played roles in both product development and marketing during this process. The book is often funny, always informative, and at times even exciting.
The story details how a gritty startup company struggled through financial and legal difficulties to achieve financial and technical success. It also shows the intense internal competition found in the social media companies. At times, there are reminders of the corporate structures and culture chillingly portrayed in David Eggers novel, The Circle. Nonetheless, individual effort, personal friendship, and loyalty are essential elements in this highly readable account of the corporate world.
The book is highly recommended for both general and technical audiences because it is fun and it is informative.
The story details how a gritty startup company struggled through financial and legal difficulties to achieve financial and technical success. It also shows the intense internal competition found in the social media companies. At times, there are reminders of the corporate structures and culture chillingly portrayed in David Eggers novel, The Circle. Nonetheless, individual effort, personal friendship, and loyalty are essential elements in this highly readable account of the corporate world.
The book is highly recommended for both general and technical audiences because it is fun and it is informative.
February 7, 2021
Google maps changed my life. Having traveled quite a bit and lived abroad, I used many GPS services. Google Maps is most accurate. I like it more than Garmin and Apple Maps. I moved on from Waze and even map-quest after having the Google Map app. I use it almost daily. I didn’t know a lot of what this book revealed. “Google Earth and Google Maps have their origins in a little Californian tech start-up called Keyhole. After making it through the dot-com bubble, the company found fame with CNN’s adoption of its EarthViewer program during the Iraq War. After being acquired by Google in 2005, the Keyhole team continued to develop its mapping program, which led to Google Maps and Google Earth. These programs have changed the world, from the way we do business to how we combat natural disasters – and everything in between.”
October 1, 2019
This is why mapquest is a relic and no longer a verb. Why high-quality worldwide imagery is at your fingertips. Why people run for their horseheads when they see a Google Streetview car. Why kmls start with k. Why Apple Maps bombed. Why UBERers UBER and Yelpers Yelp. And why we share virtual space with so many Pokemon. This is how and why geo technology that was unfathomable not all that long ago became such a critical part of our daily lives, along with some hints about where it might go next.
=======================
Some quotes:
p. 13 "In the fall of 2004, Google combined those two teams with a small group of existing Google employees ... gave them zero direction, unlimited resources, and presented the teams with a secret problem: Twenty-five percent of all queries being typed into the simple white Google search box were looking for a map. And guess what? Google had no map."
p. 275 "I couldn't believe it. I still didn't fully understand the scope of what Larry and Sergey had planned for Keyhole and Google's mapping initiatives. It didn't appear to be grounded in any economic reality that I was capable of grasping. Where, exactly, are the planning to take this whole thing? ... Have they lost their collective mind? Are we supposed to lose ours?"
=======================
Some quotes:
p. 13 "In the fall of 2004, Google combined those two teams with a small group of existing Google employees ... gave them zero direction, unlimited resources, and presented the teams with a secret problem: Twenty-five percent of all queries being typed into the simple white Google search box were looking for a map. And guess what? Google had no map."
p. 275 "I couldn't believe it. I still didn't fully understand the scope of what Larry and Sergey had planned for Keyhole and Google's mapping initiatives. It didn't appear to be grounded in any economic reality that I was capable of grasping. Where, exactly, are the planning to take this whole thing? ... Have they lost their collective mind? Are we supposed to lose ours?"
June 22, 2019
Very good book
The story is fantastic
This book is the story of how google maps and google earth came about
From two friends meeting in college
To a start up company with a great product and vision
To almost bankruptcy, to profit, to buy out, to corporate politics, to working on the google team on arguably the most important app ever created, google maps
The best thing I learned from this book is how one person can lead a team to victory
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an inside look at start ups in silicone valley
The story is fantastic
This book is the story of how google maps and google earth came about
From two friends meeting in college
To a start up company with a great product and vision
To almost bankruptcy, to profit, to buy out, to corporate politics, to working on the google team on arguably the most important app ever created, google maps
The best thing I learned from this book is how one person can lead a team to victory
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an inside look at start ups in silicone valley
February 6, 2021
Google Earth and Google Maps have their origins in a small Californian tech start-up called Keyhole. The company found fame with CNN's adoption of its EarthViewer program during the Iraq War, after making it through the dot-com bubble. After being acquired by Google in 2005, the Keyhole team continued developing its mapping program, which led to Google Maps and Google Earth. This book reminds us that these programs have changed the world, from how we do business to how we combat natural disasters- and everything in between.
June 13, 2022
This book provides such an invaluable insight into this vital and essential cog in our everyday tech lives. We often fail to fathom the effort gone into creating this tech marvel. However the reality is full of hard work over the years, Giant data processing pipelines and billions of dollars spent to make this product.
This is a must read for everyone. It's such a detailed account of the birth, struggle and glory days of this one product that has forever changed how we view maps and spawned a whole industry on the back of its success.
This is a must read for everyone. It's such a detailed account of the birth, struggle and glory days of this one product that has forever changed how we view maps and spawned a whole industry on the back of its success.
August 30, 2018
This book is an excellent read. It is a nice combination of a story about (i) silicon valley; (ii) a start-up; (iii) an application you yourself use very often; and (iv) insights in Google’s growth-strategy of the past decade-plus.
I should note that I am a bit biased in scoring this book;) This since I am a telecom engineer having worked in location based services over the past few years... I however decided to rate this a five-star read:) I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I should note that I am a bit biased in scoring this book;) This since I am a telecom engineer having worked in location based services over the past few years... I however decided to rate this a five-star read:) I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
October 23, 2018
Bill has told a story which sounds too good to be true, until you have seen it unfold. Google maps, arguably a technology which changed the world forever- what went behind its making, from a lot of stakeholders. A book which does not shy away from bringing out real challenges and people issues. And at the same time, a book which talks about 10X thinking at google and how it led to Keyhole becoming massive. Loved Bill’s style of narration.
April 30, 2020
A really awesome, fun book about how Google Maps came to be, starting from the early days of Keyhole (the startup that created what would eventually be Google Earth). Google Maps is not often recognized or remembered as one of the greatest technological advances of our time (perhaps overshadowed by the headliners - Google Search, Apple, FB, Uber, Airbnb, etc.). Keyhole's founder, John Hanke, is even less recognized as a peer to people like Gates and Zuckerberg, despite leading Google Maps AND Niantic (aka Pokemon Go) to the successes they are today.
Kilday does a great job of telling their stories. It's incredibly inspiring and truly makes you appreciate the immense work, vision, and technological innovation that made ubiquitous mapping possible.
Kilday does a great job of telling their stories. It's incredibly inspiring and truly makes you appreciate the immense work, vision, and technological innovation that made ubiquitous mapping possible.
November 5, 2018
Good insight into how Google maps and Google Earth came about. The drive of John Hanke who went on to create Pokemon Go in Niantic is worth noting. How use of Maps for applications beyond the normal is a lesson on out of the box thinking. Finally the ambitions of Google to think big without considerations to ROI is an eye opener.
November 29, 2018
This book did a good job of almost convincing me that a cut-throat business actually did something just for the benefit of the humanity, good job by Bill Kilday on pushing big business benevolent intentions propaganda on us. Just remember you are getting screwed no matter what Google does and enjoy this nicely packaged marketing campaign, the author made a career as a VP of Marketing after all.
January 4, 2020
Pretty interesting stories about how Google maps became the Google maps today, the grinding of keyhole team in the early days, numerous political games, the author's take on marissa mayer etc. Those stories also provided a different angel of how tech industry has evolved during the last few years.
Thougu this book was written by a marketing person, so take it with a grain of salt.
Thougu this book was written by a marketing person, so take it with a grain of salt.
November 20, 2022
Enjoyed this one having lived through some of these times (on the periphery) and also comparing to Google Maps today and seeing names that I recognize. A bit annoyed that they got the name wrong of one of the women engineering leads (c'mon you couldn't have done better fact checking to get people's names right?).
We take it for granted but maps are hard!
We take it for granted but maps are hard!
March 16, 2019
Fascinating book.
Learned a lot about mapping.
Particularly interesting that a lot of the historical photos we see were taken by Russian spy satellites who sold us the pictures after the end of the cold war.
Learned a lot about mapping.
Particularly interesting that a lot of the historical photos we see were taken by Russian spy satellites who sold us the pictures after the end of the cold war.
November 25, 2018
Read if you're a fan of the technology that changed the way we look at the world - Google maps!
August 6, 2019
Amazing story about how a company revolutionised the way we view the world, literally and digitally.
August 15, 2019
Wonderful read for those of you interested in knowing the trials and tribulations behind a massive moon shot project. Thanks to the author in saying the story in a very engrossing manner.
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