Book Review: In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy

By Steven Levy
Simon & Schuster; 432 pp; $26

It's of some interest that, in his own acknowledgments, Steven Levy thanks his subject for creating a "technological and cultural marvel" which helped him research his book. Yet it's more interesting that the book, written with his subject's cooperation, didn't turn out exactly as either the author or the company probably intended. While offers a diligently reported look at a company with $169 billion in market capitalization, it inadvertently tells the story of how an audacious business became a corporate behemoth. Levy's subtitle isn't "Microsoft, the Later Years." It's "How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives."