Ingles

What Would Google Do?
Jeff Jarvis

For Tammy, Jake, and Julia

Contents

WWGD? Google Rules
New Relationship • Give the people control and we will use it • Dell hell • Your worst customer is your best friend • Your best customer is your partner New Architecture • The link changes everything • Do what you do best and link to the rest • Join a network • Be a platform • Think distributedNew Publicness • If you’re not searchable, you won’t be found • Everybody needs Googlejuice • Life is public, so is business • Your customers are your ad agency New Society • Elegant organization New Economy • Small is the new big • The post-scarcity economy • Join the open-source, gift economy • The mass market is dead—long live the mass of niches

1 9 11

24

40

48 54

ivContents • Google commodifies everything • Welcome to the Google economy New Business Reality • Atoms are a drag • Middlemen are doomed • Free is a business model • Decide what business you’re in New Attitude • There is an inverse relationship between control and trust • Trust the people • Listen New Ethic • Make mistakes well • Life is a beta • Be honest • Be transparent • Collaborate • Don’t be evil NewSpeed • Answers are instantaneous • Life is live • Mobs form in a flash New Imperatives • Beware the cash cow in the coal mine • Encourage, enable, and protect innovation • Simplify, simplify • Get out of the way 70

82

91

103

109

If Google Ruled the World
Media • The Google Times: Newspapers, post-paper • Googlewood: Entertainment, opened up • GoogleCollins: Killing the book tosave it

119 123

Contents Advertising • And now, a word from Google’s sponsors Retail • Google Eats: A business built on openness • Google Shops: A company built on people Utilities • Google Power & Light: What Google would do • GT&T: What Google should do Manufacturing • The Googlemobile: From secrecy to sharing • Google Cola: We’re more than consumers Ser vice • Google Air: A socialmarketplace of customers • Google Real Estate: Information is power Money • Google Capital: Money makes networks • The First Bank of Google: Markets minus middlemen Public Welfare • St. Google’s Hospital: The benefits of publicness • Google Mutual Insurance: The business of cooperation Public Institutions • Google U: Opening education • The United States of Google: Geeks rule Exceptions • PR and lawyers:Hopeless • God and Apple: Beyond Google? 145 153

v

162

172

182

189

199

210

222

Generation G
Continuing the conversation Acknowledgments and disclosures Index

229

243 245 247

About the Author Credits Cover Copyright About the Publisher

WWGD?

It seems as if no company, executive, or institution truly understands how to survive and prosper in the internetage. Except Google. So, faced with most any challenge today, it makes sense to ask: WWGD? What would Google do? In management, commerce, news, media, manufacturing, marketing, service industries, investing, politics, government, and even education and religion, answering that question is a key to navigating a world that has changed radically and forever. That world is upside-down, inside-out,counterintuitive, and confusing. Who could have imagined that a free classified service could have had a profound and permanent effect on the entire newspaper industry, that kids with cameras and internet connections could gather larger audiences than cable networks could, that loners with keyboards could bring down politicians and companies, and that dropouts could build companies worth billions? Theydidn’t do it by breaking rules. They operate by new rules of a new age, among them: • Customers are now in charge. They can be heard around the globe and have an impact on huge institutions in an instant. • People can find each other anywhere and coalesce around you—or against you. • The mass market is dead, replaced by the mass of niches. • “Markets are conversations,” decreed The Cluetrain...