The Search : John Battelle

Hi,

This week, Google celebrates its 9th birthday.
Rise of every company spawns a number of books written about it. First it was IBM, then Microsoft and Apple... and now it's time of Google. Earlier, I had written about The Google Story. Last week, I read another book related to same subject.

The SearchBy: John BattelleNicholas Brealley Publishing

This book is not just about Google, but about the search economy at large. Nevertheless, Google features in each and every chapter and most of the discussion revolves around the rise of company so far and its future prospects. Battelle begins with a background of search before Google. Next, he describes the lives of Google founders: Larry Page & Sergey Brin and their days at Stanford and the first days of the company. This is followed by rise of Google rise and its historic IPO. The book concludes with a discussion about the search in future, and the impact it would have on our day-to-day lives.

The book is certainly worth a read because unlike other books, it dares to ask some uncomfortable questions about the most-loved company of our age. It is ironical that Google hoards information about the world is very reticent when it comes to sharing details about itself. Also, the way Google compromised its search results to exclude the links that offended Chinese govt has not gone down well with many of industry experts.

[Book] The Google Story

Well, in the week beofre last I did a cumulative travel of 2500 kms, in 60 hours. The journey would have been lonesome, if not for a couple of books. Here are my comments abt one of them.

The Google Story
By David A ViseMacMillan Publication

Google is something that each one of us uses extensively. But how many of us have ever paused a bit to wonder about the search engine itself? if you have, then this book is for you.

It begins with some concise background info abt the Google founders, Larry Page & Sergey Brin; their camradierie at Stanford, the founding of Google in a garage and its rise to a $80-billion behemoth. The book ends at August 2005.

It makes for a fairly interesting read.... I say "fairly"interesting, and not "highly" interesting, because I am not quite happy with the writing style of author. It is something like those history textbooks that we survived in our school-days.. there are no dialogues and very few exciting moments. In short, the book lacks the passion, the intensity which is associated with anything that is Google.

Still, I would recommend the book as it does provide some little-known facts about this highly reclusive company.

[Instrumentals] Gaata Rahe Mera Violin : Prabhakar Jog

Violin happens to be a favourite instrument of mine... no! I can't play it, but yes.. I love to listen. In India, it is not as commonly popular as other instruments.

Gaata Rahe Mera Violin by Prabhakar Jog would rank one of the best pieces available. The pack contains six CDs, each costing Rs.100/- if purchased individually. Out of six, four CDs are of Marathi songs and 2 are Hindi film instrumentals.

The CDs are good music companions for long stretches of lonely travels, or to listen to while working. Just push in a CD, and you find yourself humming a tune without getting distracted from the task at hand.

The only drawback I can say is, in Hindi songs, all are only of Lata Mangeshkar. No complaints about that, all the songs are my favourites; nevertheless, it would have been great to have an assortment of songs by Asha, Rafi, Kishore and Manna De as well.

[Music] Classical Songs from Films: HMV

HMV has a huge collection of melodies recorded during the Golden Era of Hindi Film music. No wonder that it keeps on churning out compilations of these songs in various categories. Recently, I chanced to have a valuable piece of the same.

Classical Songs from Films is a pack of 2 CDs, costing Rs. 250/-. A look at the contents is enough to justify the price. It has most of the popular favourites such as:

• Madhuban Me Radhika-Rafi
• Bole re papihara-Vani Jairam
• Ajahu Na aaye-Rafi/Suman
• Sawan aaye na aaye-Rafi/Asha
• Naino mein badra chhaye-Lata
• Rasik Balma-Lata
• Aayo Kahan Ghanashyaam-Manna De
• Puchcho na kaise maine-Manna De
• Biti na bitai raina-Lata
• Hume tumse pyar kitna-Parveen Sultana

It also has some songs that are quite unheard of... My personal favourites among these are:

• Ja Re Badra bairi ja: Lata
• Tere Naina Talaash Karein: Manna De
• Garjat Barsat Sawan Aayo Re: Suman
• Re mann sur mein gaa: Manna De-Asha
• Ketaki Gulab Juhi: Manna De-Bhimsen Joshi

As someone who has grown on MP3s, buying this pack was in itself was a major milestone for me. Indeed, why buy 25 songs for Rs. 250/- when you can get nearly 100-130 songs for something like 30/-? However, since I have been harping a lot about protecting my own IPR (An Open Letter to Forward Enthusiasts) , the realization has been that I must respect the same in others too! MP3s clearly do not achieve this. Moreover, an original CD definitely has much better sound quality!

Do get this pack in your collection. Nothing can match the pleasure of listening to "Ja re badra bairi ja" on a cloudy evening, or listening to Manna De and Asha Bhonsle match each other note for note in "Re mann sur me gaa"...

Welcome to G Reviewz!

Well, I scratched my head quite a lot to come up with a better, "heavy" title for the blog, but just couldn’t think of any... and so ended up with this. Come to think of it...Does it really matter?

Now, to what I shall be scribbling here... It would mostly be my thoughts and reactions towards books that I read, moviews that I watch, software applications that I use, places that I occasionally visit, so on and so forth...

Since these are "G-Reviews", they are entirely personal in nature. I make no claims of any authority on any of the topics I may venture to comment on.

Just a minute... did I just write "moviews"? I meant movies... Seems the strain of coming up with a suitable title is getting on my nerves. So I had better sign off for now, heh heh..

See you soon.

-GS.

07-07-07