What Would Google Do? - Jarvis

I’ll admit I have Jeff Jarvis envy.  His new book, “What Would Google Do?” must prompt envy in many circles. He’s written if not the definitive, certainly the most accessible text on what it means to be Googlely.  I’ve been under the impression I was a Googlely person…heck I’ve been using Google as my homepage since it first showed its simple uncluttered face in the mid ’90’s.  I’m also well versed in many Google Lab applications and I have a Google Voice number.  I also have a blog, a FaceBook, and I am LinkedIn.  But that doesn’t mean I am Googlely…not by a wide margin.  What Would Google Do? as Jarvis defines it for us is in fact a state of mind.  It’s the state of mind our children, the “G Generation” have been born under…born with a “Silver G” in their mouths, so to speak…my words not Jarvis’s.

In the first half of the book Jarvis defines this new mindset…what is new and how it has changed almost everything.  If I didn’t like what he was saying and agree with his observations at times I might have thought he, Jeff Jarvis, invented the internet.  Pushing past that very minor annoyance he clearly has a command of what Google would, in fact, do.  I do not, as much as I hate to say it.  I learned something on almost every page.

In the second half of the book he breaks down chapter by chapter how industries can become Googlely.  What benefits they will reap by becoming networked, transparent, and click accessible and what’s in store for them if they refuse to obey the new world order.  Many industry pundits and observers have this knowledge and speak at length about pieces and parts.  Jarvis has placed it all under one roof.  Easily at text book to be studied for many years, or simply read to further your enjoyment of the Internet and the accessible world around us it has created. Five Stars.

Thanks for looking into the true story behind the FaceBook burglaries…coming to an Urban Legend near you.  Don’t tell people on FaceBook you are on vacation, don’t blink your high beams at another car, and don’t eat the candy on Halloween. When I first heard this story I told my wife the criminals were friends, not random perpetrators.  How do you make a boring B&E interesting? Mention something popular. I’m not sure why FaceBook was even mentioned other than to bash the internet (which I doubt was their intention) or to fan publicity for the news story that evening…other than that who cares?  Right the legions of individuals in the security business that make it their job to create our insecurities so we will spend money on their products.  Now Jarvis must rise to defend something that cannot be defended…millions of FaceBook users, two burglaries.  With those odds I’m going to keep my FaceBook and continue to lock my doors and windows when I’m away from home.  But I bet there is a business waiting out there somewhere for someone to sell some sort of social network badge that says, “I’m Out of Town But My Home is Protected by ADT”, “Beware of Dog”, or my favorite, “Member- NRA”.