Google began from the search engine of the same name created in 1997 by the company’s two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. At a time of intensifying competition amongst the major search engines, Google transformed the industry with propriety technology that made its search engine more useful than any that had come before it. Guided by the motto “Don’t be Evil,” Google has since launched Android, Chrome, YouTube, and many other products around the world. Now, Google continues to build new paradigms in the market as a leader in IT industry business management.
Welcome to the 28th issue of B.
Each month, B has introduced a brand selected on the basis of four values: practicality, beauty, price, and philosophy. All those brands had one thing in common, and that was a three-way relationship formed between the management, workers, and consumers. This relationship creates a “virtuous circle” in which management is rewarded with good results for their endeavors and investments; the success of management then inspires workers in turn by increasing their trust and pride in the company; and then, finally, this leads consumers to anticipate continued growth and even makes them thankful the brand is there for them.
Through the media, we can see numerous examples of companies in which relations between management and workers are rife with distrust, and companies who pursue profits through clever manipulation of consumers. But we can also see that in good brands, management, workers, and consumers become trusted friends that you might see in a fairytale.
No explanation is needed for this month’s brand, Google. We’re already very familiar with it through our computer screens and smartphones. But I’d like to look at Google from the perspective of the relationship that I’ve just mentioned. Google’s success in business and the unusual pride its workers feel deserve special attention. The company’s executives and employees (known as “Googlers”) are objects of public interest, and asked to lecture based on nothing more than the fact that they have worked at Google. The lives of the company’s users and customers are also continually transformed, becoming more and more convenient thanks to the various innovative services offered by Google. Users eagerly await the launch of new services and even study up on them, all wanting to be the first to try those new services out.
The Google motto is “Don’t be evil.” And for the company’s staff members and a majority of users, Google may appear angelic. Its competitors, however, are unlikely to view the company as munificently. Perhaps the same is true for other brands that have been introduced in B: In order to remain angelic benefactors to workers and consumers, they might need to be unrelentingly savage towards competitors.
When you come across any articles that offer unusually high praise for a certain brand or business—or, conversely, any stories that paint them villainously— I would encourage skepticism. Negative commentary, for example, might be a biased description based on the direct or indirect impressions of defeated competitors or a small number of workers who couldn’t adjust themselves to an organization. In my opinion, if a business continues to make its good workers feel proud and its users appreciate its existence, it is definitely a good brand.
The interviews and analysis in this issue are the result of extended reporting from Google’s headquarters. We hope that through our coverage you will be able to see beyond the services Google offers and share in the realization of what makes the company such an enduring subject of admiration for both employees and customers.
Publisher Suyong Joh
PublisherSuyong Joh
02 Intro
Via Google Earth, B takes a bird’s eye view of Google’s past and the present, from its origins as a startup in a Silicon Valley garage to its current position as an Internet titan and the Valley’s most representative company.
28 Lineup
B takes a look at the services currently offered by Google, from the company’s operating system and web mail, to its entertainment and social network services. Google’s strength can be felt in the way that using one Google service organically leads to using another.
30 Impressions
Everyone uses Google’s services in their own way. These differences in use result in each user gaining a different impression of the company.
36 Symbiosis
B asks frequent Google users about other products they use to supplement gaps in Google’s offerings.
44 Activate Google
B uses Google’s own services to find more information about the company.
Locations / Services / Network / Culture
64 Google Generation
Google, the most powerful player on the Internet, has created a new generation that is influenced by the company either directly or indirectly. It is fair enough to call them the “Google generation.”
90 G-Words
Newly-coined words derived from the company’s name have significant meaning in that they are invented and used by users.
92 Creators
Google’s services are often used as artistic tools. B speaks to the artists behind some of those artworks to find out more about their meaning and creation.
110 Campus
B looks around the Google campus to catch a glimpse of the company’s famously creative work environment. The atmosphere there is cerebral, and not unlike a university campus. The Googlers are engrossed in making the best Internet services in the world.
120 Brand Story
Google started out of a small garage as a search engine developed by two Stanford graduates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google moved to Silicon Valley in 1999 and has progressed dramatically over the last 15 years, offering a diverse range of user-oriented services and reshaping the landscape of the IT ecosystem.
Interviews / Quotes from the Founders / The Google Family / From Noogler to Googler
150 Outro
Google exists everywhere; in many of the things we see and touch every day. In ways both big and small, the company pervades our lives.
PUBLICATION RIGHT
- Publisher
- Suyong Joh
- Editor In Chief
- Taehyuk Choi
- Senior Editor
- Eunsung Park
- Editor
- Heeyoung Yoo, Yunseong Jang, Bora Nam
- Translation Editor
- Heejean Kim
- Translation
- Hyunkyung Yoo, Rancy Kim, Seongae Yang, Soonok Hwang
- Copy Editing
- Eugene Larsen-Hallok, Heeyoung Yoo
- Proofreading
- Simon Chan
- Styling Editor
- Insung Yoo
- Intern Editor
- Jaeeun Shin
- Correspondents
- Hyeseon Jeong (France), Jeewon Lim (Italy), Mihye Nam (Japan), Nari Park (UK)
- Guest Editors
- Eunah Kim, Hyun Son, Jiseon Kim, Kyuyoung Jung, Seungchul Yang, Youngho Jung
- Branding
- JOH & Company
- Senior Designer
- Younghyun Ok
- Designer
- Ayoon Jung
- Film Designer
- Onedoe Jung
- Photographer
- Andrea Scaringello, Minhwa Maeng, Minhyung Kim, Sara Roesink, Sunghoon Park, Tristin Bagot, Woojin Park, Wooyoung Jung, Zai Nomura
- Illustrator
- Inwook Song, Hyekyung Shin
- Marketing
- Sunyoung Park, Inhyub Kang, Nohseon Song, Hyoungjin Choi, Eunyoung Lim, Shinyoung Park
- Publishing
- JOH & Company
- Printing
- Top Process
- Printed in the Republic of Korea
- ISBN
- 978-89-98415-55-6 03050
REFERENCES
- In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
- Googled: The End of the World as We Know it
- The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry)
- Wired February 2012 issue
- “The Internship”