Google It by Anna Crowley Redding

GOOGLE IT by Anna Crowley Redding is an easy to read, but detail-filled, positive summary of the history of Google. It begins with some surprising facts about the childhoods and Stanford years of founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. And I especially loved the idea that citation in academic papers is what prompted Page to consider using backlinks to develop PageRank.  As an early internet user, it was also fun to reflect upon descriptions that Redding shares about internet download speeds (0.056 megabytes per second) of twenty years or so ago versus today’s expectations (20 Mbps). School Library Journal recommends this book for grades 6 and up – I agree, although I also feel that our high school students could use this for background and as an interesting and very basic start to a paper that would evolve into a discussion of one or more of the many controversies which Google has faced.

Upon reflection, not providing a more thorough review of these issues is a missed opportunity and therefore a weakness of GOOGLE IT. Redding mentions the concerns about censorship in China, for example, but she could have included more recent events related to that idea versus just explaining that the Chinese mainland based search engine was shut down by Google in 2010.  Instead, she truly is focused on providing a very accessible history with chapters on older topics like Y2K and creation of the Google logo. Again, she mentions hiring the first female engineer (Marissa Mayer, Google employee #20) in 1999, but that is the only time the word female appears in the book and the word women does not appear at all, despite a history of concerns about prejudices, James Damore’s viral memo and subsequent firing, and the macho Silicon Valley culture in general. Redding does comment briefly about recent (2017) efforts to establish “Howard West” and thereby support and increase the percentage of African American employees (2.5% in most recent Google report).  Likewise, she writes about privacy, but does not really address employee concerns about Defense Department contracts and she seems more interested in the possibility of bringing search to remote locations rather than issues with tracking users who may have switched off “location services.” In addition, there is no explanation of antitrust or the record five billion dollar European fine. Sadly, the word “ethics” appears only once in Redding’s text although she, like Christopher Mims’ article in today's Wall Street Journal, refers to Google’s motto (“Don’t be evil”) and its stated mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” 

Technology .... looking at Global Positioning System and Paper ...

These two non-fiction books deal with some amazing technologies: one developed in the last 50 years and one developed over thousands of years. 

Pinpoint by Greg Milner relates the relatively recent but very interesting history of GPS (Global Positioning System).  He notes, for example, that “although it is less visible, GPS’s influence on the world equals or exceeds that of the Internet… This seems odd because while the internet is a vast database … GPS is just a radio pulse, a descendant of the rhythmic blip emitted by Sputnik. But this whisper is so dependable, so ordered and clean, that GPS has become our heartbeat.” 

In fact, he cites numerous statistics like the estimate of roughly 5 billion GPS receivers. Milner also notes varied examples of applications like fleet management whether monitoring rickshaws in India, garbage trucks in China or taxis worldwide.  Inextricably related to military issues like terrorism and privacy concerns for parolees and the rest of us, the development and maintenance of GPS is a topic sure to fascinate our students and teachers.  Pinpoint by Greg Milner received a starred review from Booklist.

Paper by Mark Kurlansky (author of Salt and Cod) is subtitled “paging through history.” Kurlansky discusses details of paper invention and use first in China, then Korea, later in the Arab world and in Europe roughly a thousand years after the Chinese invented it; noting how “paper came into use at very different times in very different cultures as societies evolved and developed a need for it and circumstances required a cheap and easy writing material.” 

Throughout, Kurlansky argues that technology does not change society, but is a response to it.  Referring to inventors like Cai Lun, Gutenberg, or Edison, Kurlansky says, “these were people who took existing ideas or machines that were not suiting society’s needs and reworked them into technologies that did.”  Paper by Mark Kurlansky received a starred review from Booklist.