In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives is a 2011 book by American technology reporter Steven Levy

Steven Levy

Steven Levy is an American journalist who has written several books on computers, technology, cryptography, the Internet, cybersecurity, and privacy.-Career:...

. It covers the growth of the Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

 company from its academic project origins at Stanford to the company that is rolling in billions of long-tail

Long tail

Long tail may refer to:*The Long Tail, a consumer demographic in business*Power law's long tail, a statistics term describing certain kinds of distribution*Long-tail boat, a type of watercraft native to Southeast Asia...

 advertising dollars, forms the central exchange for information on the internet, and currently has over 24000 employees.

Contents

• The World According to Google: Biography of a Search Engine
• Googlenomics: Cracking the Code on Internet Profits
• Don’t be Evil: How Google Built Its Culture
• Google’s Cloud: How Google Built Data Centers and Killed the Hard Drive
• Outside the Box: the Google Phone Company. and the Google TV Company
• GuGe: Google's Moral Dilemma in China
• Google.gov: is What’s Good for Google, Good for Government --- or the Public?
• Epilogue: Chasing Tail Lights: Trying to Crack the Social Code

Reception

Siva Vaidhyanathan writes in The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

: "Others have tried to make Google’s problem-solving processes intelligible and gripping. Levy has outdone them all. He has produced the most interesting book ever written about Google. He makes the biggest intellectual challenges of computer science seem endlessly fun and fascinating." Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...

sums up the book as: "Outstanding reportage delivered in the upbeat, informative fashion for which Levy is well known."