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

by Steven Levy

He believed that the only true failure was not attempting the audacious. “Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it’s very hard to fail completely,”

The Psychology of Everyday Things, the bible of a religion whose first, and arguably only, commandment is “The user is always right.”

“There’s definitely an obsession with speed here,”

By the time Google finished with its fiber push, it was in a unique situation. “We owned the fiber. It was ours. Pushing the traffic was nothing,” says Sacca. How much fiber did Google own? “More than anyone else on the planet.” (In 2012, Google’s fiber czar, Tom Donahue, shared a number: “Thirty to forty thousand kilometers that we either lease or own.”)

What it didn’t say was what outside observers had already concluded: that by perfecting its software, owning its own fiber, and innovating in conservation techniques, Google was able to run its computers spending only a third of what its competitors paid. “Our true advantage was actually the fact that we had this massive parallelized redundant computer network, probably more than anyone in the world, including governments,” says Jim Reese. “And we realized that maybe it’s not in our best interests to let our competitors know.”

Rubin asked Eustace about the process Google used to improve itself. He expected to hear about quality assurance teams and focus groups. Instead Eustace explained that Google’s brain was like a baby’s, an omnivorous sponge that was always getting smarter from the information it soaked up. When a Google user searched for Nike shoes, he was told, there were sets of algorithms that determined search results and another set that figured out which ad should appear alongside the results; then another set of algorithms would run an instant auction. But the system was always learning. Rubin liked hearing that; his own companies had evolved from protean ideas. Danger had originally been centered on digital cameras before becoming a cell phone company.

“We monetize the people that use it. The more people that use our products, the more opportunity we have to advertise to them.”

We monetize the people that use it. The more people that use our products, the more opportunity we have to advertise to them.”

By removing nasty impediments, Google would be encouraging more phones, more phone uses, more mobile searching, and more ads. What was good for mobility was good for Google.

“There’s a very strong belief at Google that if the product is better, people will use it anyway,” says Griffin. “You might not like not having support; you might want to talk to somebody. But are you going to stop using it? If we create better products, support isn’t a differentiating factor.”

Since its earliest days, Brin and Page have been consistent in framing Google as an artificial intelligence company—one that gathers massive amounts of data and processes that information with learning algorithms to create a machinelike intelligence that augments the collective brain of humanity.