February 29, 2012

What Would Google Do?

Jeff Jarvis

©2009 by Jeff Jarvis

Adapted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 978-0061709715

Introduction
Google’s founders and executives understand how
the introduction of Internet technology has changed
the way business is conducted and how people inter-
act with enterprises. This knowledge has made them
successful and powerful, running what The Times of
London named as “the fastest growing company in
the history of the world.” The same could be said
about the founders of Facebook, Craigslist, Wikipe-
dia, Amazon, and Digg. According to Jeff Jarvis in
What Would Google Do?, these business leaders see
the world differently, and therefore are completely
transforming all old ways of thinking. Jarvis proposes
that the best way to respond to the vast changes hap-
pening in the business world is to ask what these
new leaders would do. By analyzing the way Google
would respond to situations, Jarvis offers a set of
Google rules that businesses can use to operate—new
rules for a new age. Next, he proposes ideas about
Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved
how various enterprises would be transformed if they
applied the Google rules to their industries. Lastly,
he discusses how Googlethink is affecting society
and future generations. When faced with a challenge,
business leaders should ask themselves: WWGD? By
answering, organizations can begin to better navigate
a world that has been changed radically and forever
by Internet technology.
Analyzing Google
Since its origins in 1998, Google has become a model
for success in the Internet age. It has gained over two-
thirds share of all Internet searches, running millions
of servers, tracking over a billion Web pages, and
following over a trillion Web addresses. It would be
difficult to imagine a situation where Google could
fail—but it is possible. It could grow too big to be
handled efficiently or too big to grow any further. Its
dominance in the industry might be challenged by
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis
government regulators. Google could lose its users’
trust if it somehow misuses user data or takes advan-
tage of users’ dependency to start charging fees for
its services. Like any business, Google could just
make wrong choices. So in What Would Google Do?,
Jeff Jarvis is not suggesting that business leaders try
to mimic what Google does step by step, but rather
try to look at the world as Google sees it, locate new
worldviews, and use the Google rules to interpret the
wisdom of Google’s ways as a set of rules to live and
do business by—in any sector of society.
Google Rules
New Relationship
One of the most important rules for business leaders
to remember in the Internet age is that companies are
better off when they cede control to their customers. If
a company does not give them control, it will lose cus-
tomers. Previously, companies and other institutions
could stay in control of the information about their
organizations. Now the Internet allows customers to
speak to each other, become organized, spread infor-
mation, and take control of the message to challenge
the old ways. These newly empowered customers
easily lash out when they are disgruntled, but they
can be surprisingly generous and helpful when com-
panies treat them with respect and give them control.
Jarvis illustrates this rule with his own experience
with the computer company Dell. He experienced
several technical problems with his Dell laptop. Not
getting the in-home service he needed (and had
already purchased) he vented his anger in his blog.
Soon, thousands of others responded and a broader
discussion about Dell’s customer service ensued on
the Web. He suggested that Dell’s customer service
start reaching out to complaining customers, offer
advice, and help them fix their problems. Dell even-
tually started efforts that Jarvis had recommended
and realized some spectacular results, turning angry
customers into Dell advocates. Jarvis suggests other
businesses can respond the same way, starting blogs
and reaching out to angry, blogging customers to
develop new relationships with them and listen to
their suggestions for improving the product. Business
leaders would do well to follow Dell’s lead: they can
start blogs, interact with bloggers, enable customers
to critique their products, enable customers to share
Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved
Key Concepts
• Google is successful because its leaders see
the world differently than other leaders, and
therefore make non-typical decisions.
• In the Google age, business leaders must see
things differently, understand the fundamen-
tal changes of the Internet age, ask hard ques-
tions, and grasp new opportunities.
• In the Internet age, newly empowered cus-
tomers easily lash out when they are dis-
gruntled, but they can be surprisingly gener-
ous and helpful when companies treat them
with respect and give them control.
• Businesses are moving away from selling
“stuff” and finding more value in what they
know, how they serve customers, and how
they anticipate their needs.
• The Internet has caused businesses to lose
control of their brand, message, pricing, com-
petition, and secrecy—but most importantly,
companies have lost control of timing. When
customers talk about a company in public, its
business leaders should have the means to
hear and respond.
• The values, ethics, mores, and models that
are implicit in Google and how people use
it might be making deep impressions on the
next generation. Thinking differently is the
key product and skill of the Google age.
g g g g
Information about the author and subject:
www.whatwouldgoogledobook.com
Information about this book and other business titles:
www.harpercollins.com
Related summaries in the BBS Library:
The Innovator’s Way
Essential Practices for Successful Innovation
By Peter J. Denning and Robert Dunham
Page 2
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

ideas, and even involve customers in the design pro-
cess of their products. Jarvis contends that the single
greatest transformative power of
the Internet and Google is about
[I]t comes down to relationships—relationships that are lived
making new connections with in public. Every time someone says something good about you
customers and developing new online because of your product, service, reputation, honesty,
relationships. openness, or helpfulness, you should knock another dollar off
New Architecture your advertising budget.
The Internet introduced a two-
way, collaborative format through which people and
enterprises communicate. This new system requires
that everything about a business—its products, its
processes, and its message—has a place online with
a permanent address so people can search and find
information, point to it, respond to it, and even
distribute the information to others. Through the
information that a business puts online, it will join
with customers in networks directly without middle-
About the Author
Jeff Jarvis is the proprietor of one of the Web’s
most popular and respected blogs about the
Internet and media, Buzzmachine.com. He is a
consulting editor for Daylife, a news start-up,
and he writes the new media column for The
Guardian in London. He consults for media com-
panies, and he was named one of 100 worldwide
media leaders by the World Economic Forum at
Davos in 2007 and 2008. Jarvis was the creator
and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly.
Until 2005, he was president and creative direc-
tor of Advance.net, the online arm of Advance
Publications. Prior to that role, he held the roles
of Sunday editor and associate publisher of the
New York Daily News, TV critic for TV Guide and
People, a columnist on the San Francisco Exam-
iner, and assistant city editor and reporter for
the Chicago Tribune. He is on the faculty of the
City University of New York Graduate School
of Journalism in New York City.
men, made possible by a web of links.
The Internet is a network of networks, each creating a
web of links over the structure of society, connecting
people with information and each other. In those con-
nections, value is created, efficiencies are discovered,
knowledge is fostered, and relationships are formed.
Google is the chief agent of value creation, using its
search capabilities to help make connections. Net-
works are built on top of platforms that enable others
to build value. Google is a platform, as are many
others: Home Depot is a platform for contractors, and
Continental Airlines is a platform for booking tours.
Platforms help users create products, businesses,
communities, and networks of their own. Jarvis asks
businesses to look at how they can act as platforms by
adding value that other businesses can build upon. To
do so, organizations need to stop thinking in a central-
ized manner and start thinking “distributed.” Just as
YouTube allows users to embed videos into their own
websites and blogs, businesses need to learn how to
allow their content to be distributed onto other plat-
forms. However, Jarvis argues that not everything
online should remain distributed. For example, his
company, Daylife, collects and organizes news head-
lines from around the world, allowing users to find all
the latest news from anywhere. In turn, users link to
Daylife pages and distribute them again. This cycle of
distribution, aggregation, then distribution character-
izes the distributed Web.
New Publicness
Businesses must keep in mind that most users will
access information on their websites by linking
from somewhere else, and not by coming through
their home pages. Website owners need to produce
a series of answers that are clear and simple so that
Google can easily find them and use them. The most
important benefit that an organization receives is
what Jarvis calls Googlejuice—the value that Google

Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved Page 3
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

places on a business’s content. The more links, clicks, millions of tiny competitors. Society is entering an
and mentions that a business gets online, the higher economy in which Google is teaching how to manage
its webpages rise in Google’s search results, adding abundance: the law of supply and demand. Using an
the potential to receive even more clicks. If a business older business model, companies built their value on
does not format its online content for easy searching, scarcity. By providing a limited amount of products
it loses the benefits of Googlejuice. and services, the company could build demand and
charge what it wanted. However,
I suggest you start a blog… I see no reason why a CEO should that model has been turned on its
not open a direct conversation with the public. What’s to fear head by the Internet. A company
from your own customers? Having set that example, the CEO selling a product is no longer lim-
ited by the amount of shelf space
can expect other executives and employees down the ranks to in its retailers’ stores. Instead, it
enter into the same conversation and learn from it. can sell to anyone in the world
who is online. Google’s business
Customers now expect any information in the world to
model, based on creating, exploiting, and manag-
be available with a quick search on the Internet. A key
ing abundance, succeeds when there is more content
attribute of business and society in the Internet age is
to organize and when there are more places for it to
that information is readily available to the public—a
embed its advertisements.
situation called publicness that is about organizations
taking actions in public so customers can see what Mass markets have given way to niche markets. The
the companies are doing and react to it, make sug- Internet has given people the ability to gravitate
gestions, and tell their friends. Every time a company toward their own interests, even create their own
decides not make something public, it creates the risk content. Google has figured out how to navigate the
of a customer not finding the company online or not world of niches and profit from it. It created a new
trusting the company because it is keeping secrets. way for advertisers to reach highly targeted audiences
Publicness therefore also becomes an ethic. as they search for and read relevant content. It also
let the marketplace set the price of advertisements.
New Society
Like Google and similar businesses, companies must
The Internet allows people to self-organize. They discover how to make the transition from mass to
no longer need businesses and institutions to help niche, and effectively exploit it. The shift away from
organize communities of customers, constituents, or the mass market is really a shift of power from top to
members. However, the Internet also opens up so bottom, from company to customer, and from busi-
many new paths for information that people need nesses to people.
help making sense of it all. The next generation of
New Business Reality
organizations enterprises, like Facebook, Flickr, or
Wikipedia, does not organize people. Instead, these The Internet has generated a new business reality.
enterprises provide platforms that help people Amazon, for example, has no retail store expenses
organize themselves. Businesses cannot create com- and hires no sales clerks. It is a business of efficien-
munities; those communities already exist. People cies, volume, turnover, and tight margins. Businesses
now have the tools to organize, find each other, and are finding more value in what they know, how they
share knowledge. They are reorganizing society. serve customers, and how they anticipate their needs.
Middlemen are finding that they are quickly becom-
New Economy
ing obsolete as companies increasing interact directly
Small is the new big. A small start-up company can with suppliers and customers.
become a manufacturer using another company’s fac-
Google and the Internet have created a new model
tory and distribution while selling to a world-wide
for making money. Google does not own the con-
market that finds its products with Google searches.
tent it searches; it provides the online knowledge for
Big companies are getting “nipped at the heels” by

Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved Page 4
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

free and displays advertisements to pay for the ser- a key to innovation, because the company is willing
vice. Google understands the value of “free” better to accept risk. When a company seeks perfection, it
than anyone. It provides free services and charges for puts itself on a pedestal—a position from which it can
the advertising that it displays on the content pages. be easily toppled when hidden mistakes are revealed
Businesses, in this new era, must determine what over the Internet. In order to combat this, Google
type of business they subscribe to. Google is in the issues what is called a “beta” product, or a product
organization and knowledge business; however, its that is being tested. In reality, it is admitting that there
profits do not come from that effort. Its profit comes are mistakes in the product and is asking users to
from advertising, which it dominates, because it is so find them and make suggestions for enhancements.
good at providing search services and has so many The Internet allows Google to easily issue changes
users. Many businesses worry that they cannot make and improvements. Businesses can follow Google’s
the transition to the new world of the Internet, when approach by offering products and services, allowing
really they should be asking if they are a knowledge customers react to them, and making adjustments.
company, a data company, a community-enabling
Collaboration with customers is the highest and most
company, a platform, a network, or other service.
rewarding form of interactivity. To get customers to
New Attitude collaborate, a company must open up and share infor-
mation, designs, goals, and aspirations. A company’s
One of the counterintuitive lessons of the Google age
competitive advantage is not derived from its secret
is that the more businesses try to control things, the
designs; it comes from a strong relationship with its
less they are trusted; however, the more they hand
community of customers. However, companies are
over control, the more trust they will earn. This
not democracies. Business leaders should not turn
phenomenon is the opposite of how companies and
over the leadership to a committee of customers. The
institutions operated before the onset of the Internet.
company is still responsible to come up with good
Before the public learns to trust the powerful, the
ideas and inventions and execute plans well.
powerful must learn to trust the
people. Google’s business model
In every interaction you have with your constituents [or cus-
works because Google trusts its
users. Google builds on that trust, tomers], speak with a human voice as if you were speaking
realizing that trust is something face-to-face. Be boldly, bluntly honest when admitting your
its users share with each other. mistakes—and when disagreeing with the public.
Sometimes, users will abuse that
trust. When users post a few bad comments, hoaxes, New Speed
or ill-founded rumors, businesses should not retreat
Google has made Internet users an impatient people.
to pre-Internet approaches. People will misuse the
If they can obtain any bit of information in a blink
Internet, but businesses should seek the opportunity
of an eye, why would they want to wait on hold or
in that challenge. Because Google trusts its users, it
in line until a company is open for business? Every
believes its users collectively have great wisdom.
industry is now affected by this new speed. Those
Business leaders should ask themselves whether their
companies that are still burdened with physical pro-
companies have cultures that are built on trust, and
cesses and complexities find that their lack of speed
whether they have the processes in place that are
has become a strategic disadvantage. The need for
needed to capture and act on the wisdom of its cus-
speed is affecting even the Internet. As Web speeds
tomers and suppliers.
increase, users are no longer content with reading
New Ethic recent information; instead, they want live broadcasts
of information, witnessing events as they happen.
When a business leader stands up and admits mis-
Social media is bursting with live information about
takes, it gives customers faith that future wrongs also
what is happening in and around peoples’ lives. This
will be corrected. Being willing to make mistakes is
ability to transmit live information makes the Internet

Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved Page 5
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

wholly interactive. It also makes it perilous for busi- people with the skills needed to solve the problem.
nesses being discussed, unless they have the facility to In addition, it has acquired other products and ideas
listen to and join the conversation as it happens. The to solve problems, leading to new platforms for blog-
Internet has caused businesses to lose control of their ging, feeds, advertising systems, and other services.
brand, message, pricing, competition, and secrecy— In the end, Google’s lesson here is simple: companies
but most importantly, companies have lost control of must make innovation their business.
timing. Businesses no longer have the luxury of decid-
Along with innovation, Google strives for simplic-
ing when to put out their story or respond to critics.
ity. More than just a design aesthetic, simplification
Customers no longer will wait “on hold” without
is a design ethic that is infused into all of Google’s
complaining, revolting, and leaving quickly and pub-
products and services. Simple functions and design
licly. In short, when customers talk about a company
are more honest and empower the user. Google, and
in public, its business leaders better have the means
other platforms like craigslist, strive to empower
to hear and respond. Otherwise, competitors with the
their users and “get out of the way.” They do not try
ability to answer customer problems better and faster
to over-research or over-design their platforms to set
will steal away the customers in a flash.
up all kinds of rules, restrictions,

[No] amount of advertising will make up for a bad product… navigation, instruction, or fees.
Instead, they realize that “free” is
Make absolutely certain that you have a great product or service. a business model, and they allow
Make absolutely certain that you have great customer service. their users to build upon their
Those are the first two rules of so-called advertising in this platforms without limits, creating
world. If you don’t have those, don’t pay any money to anyone businesses and services that go far
beyond what the platform origina-
to do [any marketing]. tors could have predicted.

If Google Ruled the World

New Imperatives
Too often, companies and industries fail to heed the
warning signs that their businesses are failing. Their
products are “cash cows,” currently successfully
bringing in the profits, while the companies are not
taking seriously the changes occurring in the market.
Google requires its technical employees to innovate,
requiring them to use 20 percent of their time to work
on new ideas, new products, and new businesses. Not
every business can afford to implement such a pro-
gram, but its organization must have processes and
communication channels in place to hear new and
brilliant ideas that anyone and anywhere in the com-
pany might propose. Companies need to encourage
employees to suggest new ideas—even rethink their
businesses.
Innovation and ideas come not only from within an
organization. Companies can get good ideas from
customers and suppliers. Google’s founders approach
innovation by first finding the problem, then creating
a solution. When Google identifies a problem, it finds
Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved
Google’s ambition is not to take over the world—only
to organize it. Jarvis applies the laws and lessons he
has distilled from his analysis of how Google operates
to a number of industries and institutions.
If Google Ruled Media
Google’s impact has been felt more in media than
in any other industry. Newspapers operate on the
assumption that their competitive advantage is in
owning the means of mass production and distri-
bution. Now that newspapers cannot hold local
monopolies in the Internet age, they should use
their current print platforms to promote their shift to
digital or niche markets. These companies must can-
nibalize themselves, throwing off extra cost structures
and restructuring staff to convince their audiences
and advertisers to move with them into the future.
Newspapers should consider themselves as services,
pushing out news feeds, offering content to other net-
works and sites, and getting the news to the people
through various channels.
The entertainment industry is also changing due to the
Page 6
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

impact of the Internet age. Traditionally, the industry Other retail businesses can respond to the Internet in
was built on scarcity—only so many screens to show a similar manner. Retail stores can become a commu-
movies on, only a few channels on television, and nity built around particular needs, tastes, or passions.
limited shelf space to sell records, videos, and CDs. Retailers can start direct conversations among these
Now, the economics of abundance has opened up people, who in turn can become like sales agents as
the industry’s business models. Niche marketing has they share information and recommendations. Rather
had enormous growth. Control is no longer centered than treating the Internet as a competitor, retailers
among a few companies. Film and video has exploded should use it as a platform that will enable customers
over the Internet, providing news content, entertain- to help the businesses stand out from the crowd. Busi-
ment, and information to millions without being ness leaders should look at their customers as their
filtered or censored through large media conglomer- brands.
ates. The key for businesses is to
realize that the Internet is a new The best way to burnish a brand is no longer to rub it up against
medium entirely. Building rela- media properties like Vogue or the Super Bowl. The best way
tionships with audience members today is to rub up again people: Sally the blogger or Joe the
and collaborating to develop con-
Facebook friend. The medium is the message and the customer
tent is how businesses can use the
new medium to their advantage. is the medium. Sally in the new Vogue.
If Google Ruled Advertising If Google Ruled Utilities
Google is in the advertising business and has changed In this case, Google is actually making an effort to
advertising more than any other industry. It has remake an industry. Google.org, the company’s phil-
revolutionized the advertising economy, enabling anthropic wing, hopes to reinvent the energy industry
marketers to pay for performance rather than space, by funding ways to make power that will cost less
time, or number of readers. In the Google age, com- than that generated with coal. Their effort is an exer-
panies should focus on the customer first, and all else cise in enlightened self-interest, because Google’s
will follow. Jarvis imagines a day when marketers server farms are gigantic consumers of electricity.
will fire their advertising agencies, throw out their Jarvis imagines that a power company run by Google
traditional advertisements, and start over by building would give people power at the cheapest price pos-
relationships with customers. sible, and then find ways to take advantage of that. It
would give each business and household a webpage
Marketing is evolving into a field about developing
that would document power usage by device and
relationships, not messages. Google’s technology
encourage users to conserve. It would provide a plat-
enables and fosters these relationships. As relation-
form for people to generate electricity themselves and
ships replace advertising, spending will decrease.
feed it back into the Google grid.
Google’s system will target advertising more effi-
ciently. Google has ventured into the cable and phone indus-
try. It gives away free Internet service to the entire
If Google Ruled Retail
town where it is headquartered. It created a mobile
Jarvis speculates how Googlethink would transform a operating system, which any phone manufacturer
restaurant. Diners could provide feedback about their may use. If Google could achieve free or nearly free
meals, and unpopular items on the menu would be connectivity for most citizens, then Google would
quickly changed. Recipes could be posted online and have more users, and have more people creating
customers could make suggestions about alternatives content for the Internet. The business models of the
or enhancements. The best advertisement for a restau- telecommunications industry are ripe for disruption
rant is a happy customer—truer for restaurants than from technologies like Google. Jarvis posits that an
other business. ideal telecommunications company in the Google age
would help users do more than making calls and con-

Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved Page 7
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

suming content; it would help users create, share, and to capture knowledge from savvy travelers and turn
sell. it into value. The strategy for remaking an airline in
this way would be for their business leaders to give
If Google Ruled Manufacturing
control, respect, and organization to their customers;
Jarvis believes that manufacturers in the Google age help them find each other; and let them organize into
must allow customers to become collaborators in conversations and networks.
the design of products by suggesting features and
Jarvis believes that the real-estate business is ripe
enhancements. For example, automobile manufactur-
for disruption from Internet technologies, breaking
ers would evolve from car makers to facilitators of
their hold on the market and threatening their typi-
navigation and entertainment as users helped design
cal six percent fees. Real estate companies control the
ways to enhance the ability of cars to get them around
multiple-listing service that is necessary for having a
and entertain themselves while driving. Soft drink
house seen by buyers. Now, alternative databases are
manufacturers could let users design and market
emerging on the Internet, allowing homeowners to
their own niche recipes. Jarvis sees a time when
by-pass the fees charged by real estate companies and
Google might propose open standards for hardware
list their homes on the Internet themselves. Sellers and
devices that connect to the internet. Refrigerators
buyers still need services. Jarvis envisions a scenario
would tell homeowners by e-mail when supplies are
where sellers can list their homes online along with
low or provide recipes based on what is available
information about their neighborhoods, places where
inside. Other manufacturers are starting to create
the kids like to play, their favorite nearby shops and
platforms that allow consumers to create the products
restaurants, and other details that make their home
they want. CafePress, for example, allows people to
listing more appealing to buyers.
upload a design that can be printed on t-shirts, mugs,
baby clothing, pillows, or any number of products. If Google Ruled Money
Opening up conversations with customers and prod-
Venture capitalists traffic in innovation, change,
uct users could really help build product loyalty and
and risk. They watch Google carefully, covet its suc-
brand awareness.
cess, and take the lead from its
Who needs a university when we have Google? All the world’s investors. New Web technologies
make it easy and inexpensive for
digital knowledge is available at a search. We can connect those
entrepreneurs to start new sites,
who want to know with those who know. We can link students services, products, or companies,
to the best teachers for them (who may be fellow students). We and this presents both opportuni-
can find experts on any topic. ties and challenges for investors.
Many entrepreneurs no longer
If Google Ruled Service need vast infusions of funds from venture capitalists
to start businesses and succeed. Those that do need
Jarvis dreams about how the airline and travel indus-
funding are asking for less, so investors must fund
tries could be transformed by Google rules. He
lots of smaller companies to achieve their financial
suggests that airlines could help travelers become
goals. As investments are getting smaller, entrepre-
networked. Providing wi-fi in the plane cabins would
neurs are getting younger. Investors are using the
allow travelers to have alternative entertainment and
Internet to reach college students who are hatching
activities to do while traveling. They could connect
new ideas. Jarvis suggests that a venture capitalist
with each other, organize to share cabs, and help
who wants to think like Google would build a plat-
each other with tips about restaurants and activities
form for entrepreneurship, be open with ideas, and
to do at their destinations. Socialization would allow
use new technologies to establish direct connections
passengers to choose to fly on one airline versus
between other investors and start-ups. A Google-like
another because of the kind of people they would
venture capitalist would create networks of start-ups
meet there. Airlines could tap into these networks
so they could help each other and spin off other ven-

Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved Page 8
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

tures. researching, and socializing components, then each of

these elements can be easily distributed, enabled, and
The Internet is already removing the middle man in
enhanced with Internet capabilities. New models of
the banking industry. New websites allow members
education and certification can emerge to meet the
to borrow and lend money to each other for various
requirements of the new age.
purposes. The Internet also has opened up opportuni-
ties for financial markets. By going online, investors Jarvis fantasizes about how government might be
can find other sources of finance data and analysis, changed by thinking like Google. Google and the
rather than relying on analysts who work for financial Internet will open up government, making every
institutions. action transparent, searchable, and linkable. As
members of linked communities, citizens can make
If Google Ruled Public Welfare
suggestions, share ideas, discuss policy, and help
Healthcare has seen some benefits already from the their favorite politicians to campaign for election.
advances in the Google age.
Some websites provide platforms Is there any entity that is untouched [by the power and influ-
for people with similar health ence of Google]? Is there an anti-Google, one institution that
problems to build communi-
ties and share information about
has become successful in violating the rules in this book? I could
their treatments and methods of think of one: Apple…Apple is the opposite of collaborative…[It]
coping with their disease. Jarvis is a cult company and its customers are its best marketers—that
suggests that an openness of much is Googley.
information, which is currently
not the norm in the industry, would allow health-
Exceptions that Google Cannot Rule
care practitioners to gather and share more data, link
patients to better treatment and information, and use Public relations (PR) people and lawyers cannot be
collaborative tools to advance medical science. transparent or consistent, because their clients’ needs
are confidential and could change periodically. In the
The insurance industry might find itself disrupted
medium of the Internet, which treasures facts and
by Internet capabilities. Using the advances of Web-
data, they cannot always let the facts win; they must
based technologies, an innovative company could
spin the data to craft a victory. It is not their job to help
empower a community of Web users by handing over
others, only their clients, which also makes them poor
the control of insurance to the members themselves.
at collaborative efforts. Despite these conditions, these
If the members of the community keep themselves
middlemen can use Internet technologies to their own
healthy and lower the cost of their own care, the cost
benefit. Lawyers are already getting familiar with
of insurance would fall. The community could offer
blogging to offer advice, attract business, lobby for
classes and information to its members to learn more
causes, and create their brand. Some lawyers have
about healthy lifestyles and encourage each other to
created virtual law firms with the networking capa-
reach the community’s goals.
bilities of the Internet, thereby eliminating costs of
If Google Ruled Public Institutions offices and overhead.
Education, like other institutions, is facing fundamen- PR people also are getting accustomed to using
tal challenges to its very existence in the Google age. advanced technologies on the Internet. They use
Jarvis imagines a scenario where students could take blogs, Twitter, and social media to become very famil-
courses from anywhere and instructors could select iar so they can keep track of what is being said online
any students, where courses become collaborative about their clients.
and public, where education continues long past age
Other industries that might be immune from Google-
21, and where anyone can become a teacher. If the role
think could be construction, packaging, furniture
of a university can be abstracted into teaching, testing,
building, mining, and other companies that rely heav-

Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved Page 9
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

ily on physical products. Jarvis believes even these of how everyone and everything—from corpora-
businesses can be greatly impacted by the technolo- tions to governments, nations to individuals—must
gies and capabilities of the Google age. evolve in the Google era. The book will be beneficial
to leaders in all sectors of industry and in various
Generation G
institutions. Jarvis helps the reader see the world as
Google is making changes in society, lives, relation-
Google sees it. In that sense, the book is less about
ships, and worldviews. Because of its ability to keep
Google and more about how the world is changing
people connected, Google has changed the meaning
for business leaders, and what they can gain from a
of relationships, probably allowing people to stay
changed worldview. The extensive index and detailed
connected for a lifetime. The ethics and expectations
table of contents helps the reader use this book as a
about privacy have changed radically for the genera-
reference after completing a cover-to-cover reading.
tion coming into adulthood in the Google age. Privacy
is less of an issue; people need the ability to control Contents
their personal information, whether it is made public WWGD?
and to whom, and how it is used. People will be iden-
Google Rules
tified more by their accomplishments and creations,
the things that they are known for that narrow a New Relationship
Google search. • Give the people control and we will use it
The Internet and Google change the way people are • Dell hell
behaving. The values, ethics, customs, and models
• Your worst customer is your best friend
that are implicit in Google and how people use it
might be making deep impressions on the genera- • Your best customer is your partner
tion of users who are immersed in that environment. New Architecture
Some behavior changes might be short-lived fads;
• The link changes everything
others might have a longer-term influence on societal
norms. People are becoming accustomed to think- • Do what you do best and link to the rest
ing that most problems can be solved with machines • Join a network
and software. They are becoming very reliant on the
• Be a platform
belief that data and numbers reveal truth. In Jarvis’s
own experience, he knows that he now learns dif- • Think distributed
ferently, discusses differently, sees things differently, New Publicness
and thinks differently. Thinking differently is the key
• If you’re not searchable, you won’t be found
product and skill of the Google age.
• Everybody needs Googlejuice
g g g g • Life is public, so is business
• Your customers are your ad agency
Features of the Book New Society
Reading Time: 4.5 hours, 268 pages
• Elegant organization
In What Would Google Do?, Jeff Jarvis reverse- New Economy
engineers Google to discover forty clear and
straightforward rules to manage and live by. He offers • Small is the new big
one part prophecy, one part thought experiment, one • The post-scarcity economy
part manifesto, and one part survival manual to illu- • Join the open-source, gift economy
minate the new worldview of the internet generation.
His findings are counterintuitive, imaginative, practi- • The mass market is dead—long live the mass of
cal, and above all visionary, giving readers a glimpse niches

Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved Page 10
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

• Google commodifies everything • Google Eats: A business built on openness

• Welcome to the Google economy • Google Shops: A company built on people
New Business Reality Utilities
• Atoms are a drag • Google Power & Light: What Google would do
• Middlemen are doomed • GT&T: What Google would do
• Free is a business model Manufacturing
• Decide what business you’re in • The Googlemobile: From secrecy to sharing
New Attitude • Google Cola: We’re more than customers
• There is an inverse relationship between control Service
and trust
• Google Air: A social marketplace of customers
• Trust the people
• Google Real Estate: Information is power
• Listen
Money
New Ethic
• Google Capital: Money makes networks
• Make mistakes well
• The First Bank of Google: Markets minus middle-
• Life is a beta men
• Be honest Public Welfare
• Be transparent • St. Google’s Hospital: The benefits of publicness
• Collaborate • Google Mutual Insurance: The business of coop-
• Don’t be evil eration
New Speed Public Institutions
• Answers are instantaneous • Google U: Opening education
• Life is live • The United States of Google: Geeks rule
• Mobs form in a flash Exceptions
New Imperatives • PR and lawyers: Hopeless
• Beware the cash cow in the coal mine • God and Apple: Beyond Google?
• Encourage, enable, and protect innovation Generation G
• Simplify, simplify Continuing the conversation
• Get out of the way Acknowledgments and disclosures
If Google Ruled the World
Index
Media
• The Google Time: Newspapers, post-paper
• Googlewood: Entertainment, opened up
• GoogleCollins: Killing the book to save it
Advertising
• And now, a word from Google’s sponsors
Retail

Business Book Summaries® February 29, 2012 • Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • All Rights Reserved Page 11
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis

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