Steven Levy is editor at large at Wired magazine. The Washington Post has called him “America’s premier technology journalist.” His was previously founder of Backchannel and chief technology writer and senior editor for Newsweek. Levy has written seven previous books and his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, Macworld, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, The New Yorker, and Premiere. Levy has also won several awards during his thirty-plus years of writing about technology and is the author of several previous books including Facebook: The Inside Story; Insanely Great; The Perfect Thing; and In the Plex. He lives in New York City.
"Levy is America’s premier technology journalist. . . . He has
produced the most interesting book ever written about Google. He
makes the biggest intellectual challenges of computer science seem
endlessly fun and fascinating. . . . We can expect many more books
about Google. But few will deliver the lively, idea-based
journalism of In the Plex.”
—Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Washington Post
"Almost nothing can stop a remarkable idea executed well at the
right time, as Steven Levy's brisk-but-detailed history of Google,
In the Plex, convincingly proves. . . . makes obsolete previous
books on the company."
—Jack Shafer, The San Francisco Chronicle
"The rise of Google is an engrossing story, and nobody's ever
related it in such depth."
—Hiawatha Bray, The Boston Globe
"Dense, driven examination of the pioneering search engine that
changed the face of the Internet.
Thoroughly versed in technology reporting, Wired senior writer Levy
deliberates at great length about online behemoth Google and
creatively documents the company’s genesis from a 'feisty start-up
to a market-dominating giant.' The author capably describes
Google’s founders, Stanford grads Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as
sharp, user-focused and steadfastly intent on 'organizing all the
world’s information.' Levy traces how Google’s intricately
developed, intrepid beginnings and gradual ascent over a
competitive marketplace birthed an advertising-fueled 'money
machine' (especially following its IPO in 2004), and he follows the
expansion and operation of the company’s liberal work campus
('Googleplex') and its distinctively selective hiring process (Page
still signs off on every new hire). The author was afforded an
opportunity to observe the company’s operations, development,
culture and advertising model from within the infrastructure for
two years with full managerial cooperation. From there, he
performed hundreds of interviews with past and current employees
and discovered the type of 'creative disorganization' that can
either make or break a business. Though clearly in awe of Google’s
crowning significance, Levy evenhandedly notes the company’s more
glaring deficiencies, like the 2004 cyber-attack that forced the
removal of the search engine from mainland China, a decision
vehemently unsupported by co-founder Brin. Though the author offers
plenty of well-known information, it’s his catbird-seat vantage
point that really gets to the good stuff.
Outstanding reportage delivered in the upbeat, informative fashion
for which Levy is well known."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"An instructive primer on how the minds behind the world's most
influential internet company function."
—Richard Waters, The Wall Street Journal
"[Steven Levy] spent much of the past three years playing
anthropologist at one of the Internet's most interesting villages
and set of inhabitants -- the Googleplex and the tribue of Googlers
who inhabit it. . . . A deep dive into Google's culture, history
and technology."
--Mike Swift, San Jose Mercury News
"The wizards of Silicon Valley often hype their hardware/software
breakthroughs as 'magical' for the products' ability to pull off
dazzling stunts in the blink of an eye. And true to the magicians'
code, these tech talents rarely let mere mortals peer behind the
curtains. . . . That's what makes Levy's just-out tome so
valuable."
—Jonathan Takiff, The Philadelphia Daily News
"The most comprehensive, intelligent and readable analysis of
Google to date. Levy is particularly good on how those behind
Google think and work. . . . What's more, his lucid introductions
to Google's core technologies - the search engine and the company's
data centres - are written in non-geek English and are rich with
anecdotes and analysis. . . . In The Plex teems with original
insight into Google's most controversial affairs."
—Andrew Keen, New Scientist
"Steven Levy's new account [of Google], In the Plex, is the most
authoritative to date and in many ways the most entertaining."
—James Gleick, The New York Review of Books
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