I just finished reading "The Search" by John Battelle, a book that outlines how Google and its rivals rewrote the rules of business and transformed our culture, and I found it to be a great read! Seriously... its amazing! While many authors and industry publications have focused on Google exclusively for the past few years, Battelle brilliantly lays out the history of search engines and explores the reality that exists behind Google and others.

This book highlights how Google and its competition were able to find the formula to make money and still provide the world with free search listings, and how so many companies, both small and large, actually depend on search in order to be successful. To think that search engines, like Google and Yahoo!, can actually make or break a company pending on their latest algorithmic update is truly amazing.

Battelle also touches on security issues, the Patriot Act and how it can and possibly will impact us, and his opinions of how search will affect the world around us in the not-to-distant future. In fact, he shared a very interesting idea in which he believes could prove to be true as search continues to be intertwined with other technologies.

Battelle believes that one day, through a combination of cell phone and search technology, a shopper maybe able to compare prices with other area merchants while standing in an isle at a supermarket or retail store. The shopper will have the ability to scan the products information using a built in (to a cell phone) bar-code scanner and perform various local search options to determine if they can find that same product cheaper just down the road. How cool would that be?

With such technology so readily available, I immediately think of how much cheaper merchants will have to go with their products for fear of being over-priced. Either that or they'll have to start banning cell phones at supermarkets and retail stores.

Kid Disco once asked me how I would compare "The Google Story," written by David Vise, to John Battelle's "The Search". Obviously at the time I could not answer, however, after now reading both books I would say that they are indeed very similar. In fact, it was really interesting to read Battelle's views of specific events relating to Google's success, and then to have also read how Google itself viewed those same events.

I wouldn't recommend either book over the other as I feel they are both great stories. The biggest difference between the two is that "The Google Story" relates only to Google and events seen through Google's eyes, where as "The Search" touches on all search engines, the evolution of the Internet, and is written from an "outsider-looking-in" point-of-view.

Here is an excerpt from "The Search" regarding John Battelle's view on the power and everyday use of search:

So, there you have it. If you're looking for a good read and are somewhat interested in understanding how the search engine industry and the Internet has evolved to where it is today, and thoughts of how it may continue to evolve... be sure to check-out John Battelle's "The Search". Please note that no where within this book does the secret of attaining top search engine positioning exist or even how to better your search engine marketing efforts.