Steven Levy

Szokująca. Szczera. Prawdziwa. Zakulisowa historia jednej z najpotężniejszych i najbardziej kontrowersyjnych amerykańskich firm – Facebooka. Jako student drugiego roku Mark Zuckerberg stworzył prostą stronę internetową, która miała służyć jako kampusowa sieć społecznościowa. Dziś Facebook jest największą platformą społecznościową na świecie skupiającą prawie trzy miliardy użytkowników, a jej wartość rośnie z dnia na dzień. Facebook to nie tylko niewinna sieć do publikowania postów. To potężne narzędzie, które niewłaściwie używane może przynieść fatalne skutki. Wycieki danych, manipulacja użytkownikami, rozpowszechnianie nieprawdziwych informacji... Czy Zuckerberg to komputerowy geniusz rzucony w świat polityki, czy wyrachowany biznesmen? Jak firma radzi sobie ze zmianami i kolejnymi skandalami? Jaka przyszłość czeka sieci społecznościowe? Oparta na setkach wywiadów książka stanowi zapis niesamowitego sukcesu oraz licznych porażek imperium Zuckerberga. Facebook. A miało być tak pięknie to opowieść o firmie oraz o ludziach, którzy ją tworzą. To wnikliwy i fascynujący obraz globalnej korporacji, która realnie wpływa na każdy aspekt naszego życia.

A mere fifteen years ago, computer nerds were seen as marginal weirdos, outsiders whose world would never resonate with the mainstream. That was before one pioneering work documented the underground computer revolution that was about to change our world forever. With groundbreaking profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, and more, Steven Levy's Hackers brilliantly captured a seminal moment when the risk-takers and explorers were poised to conquer twentieth-century America's last great frontier. And in the Internet age, the hacker ethic-first espoused here-is alive and well.

The creation of the Mac in 1984 catapulted America into the digital millennium, captured a fanatic cult audience, and transformed the computer industry into an unprecedented mix of technology, economics, and show business. Now veteran technology writer and Newsweek senior editor Steven Levy zooms in on the great machine and the fortunes of the unique company responsible for its evolution. Loaded with anecdote and insight, and peppered with sharp commentary, Insanely Great is the definitive book on the most important computer ever made. It is a must-have for anyone curious about how we got to the interactive age.

Written with full cooperation from top management, including cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, this is the inside story behind Google, the most successful and most admired technology company of our time, told by one of our best technology writers. Few companies in history have ever been as successful and as admired as Google, the company that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes readers inside Google headquarters—the Googleplex—to show how Google works. While they were still students at Stanford, Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin revolutionized Internet search. They followed this brilliant innovation with another, as two of Google’s earliest employees found a way to do what no one else had: make billions of dollars from Internet advertising. With this cash cow, Google was able to expand dramatically and take on other transformative projects: more efficient data centers, open-source cell phones, free Internet video (YouTube), cloud computing, digitizing books, and much more. The key to Google’s success in all these businesses, Levy reveals, is its engineering mind-set and adoption of such Internet values as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk taking. After its unapologetically elitist approach to hiring, Google pampers its engineers—free food and dry cleaning, on-site doctors and masseuses—and gives them all the resources they need to succeed. Even today, with a workforce of more than 23,000, Larry Page signs off on every hire. But has Google lost its innovative edge? With its newest initiative, social networking, Google is chasing a successful competitor for the first time. Some employees are leaving the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups. Can the company that famously decided not to be evil still compete? No other book has ever turned Google inside out as Levy does with In the Plex.