Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Print List Price: £9.99
Kindle Price: £5.49

Save £4.50 (45%)

includes VAT*
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
This price was set by the publisher.
* Unlike print books, digital books are subject to VAT.

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by [Edwards, Douglas]
Kindle App Ad

I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 Kindle Edition

by
Douglas Edwards (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Douglas Edwards Page
search results for this author
Douglas Edwards (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 104 customer reviews
See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Amazon Price
New from Used from
Kindle Edition
"Please retry"
£5.49
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
£29.93 £26.38
Paperback
"Please retry"
£9.99
£1.50 £0.01
Audio Download, Unabridged
"Please retry"
£0.00
Free with your Audible trial
MP3 CD
"Please retry"
£6.65
£6.65 £69.84
Length: 406 pages Word Wise: Enabled Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled
Top Deals in Books
See the latest top deals in Books. Shop now
Get a £1 credit for movies or TV
Enjoy £1.00 credit to spend on movies or TV on Amazon Video when you purchase any Amazon Kindle Book from the Kindle Store (excluding Kindle Unlimited, Periodicals and free Kindle Books) offered by Amazon.co.uk. A maximum of 1 credit per customer applies. UK customers only. Offer ends at 23:59 on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. Terms and conditions apply

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 3373 KB
  • Print Length: 406 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (28 July 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0057WLCTO
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray:
  • Word Wise: Enabled
  • Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars 104 customer reviews
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #232,361 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

    •  Would you like to give feedback on images or tell us about a lower price?

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating and hugely enjoyable
By Peter Lee TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 15 July 2011
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I wasn't expecting much from this book, fearing something tedious and overly-technical, dry and dull, but instead I found it was hugely enjoyable, fascinating, and extremely easy to read.

Doug Edwards was Google's 59th employee, joining the company in its infancy when the staff worked in one tiny building, made their own servers out of cork boards with components pinned to them (so they could fit four servers into the space normally occupied by one "proper" server in a rack cabinet) and focused entirely on making searching the internet faster, easier, and better. Doug sees the company grow and evolve, and he finds himself burning the midnight oil, often undermined by his managers, and eventually decides that the time is right to leave (the book ends in 2005.) There is also a fair amount of coverage of Google's battles with the likes of Inktomi, Yahoo and Microsoft, all of which is interesting, sometimes a little shocking.

Some have complained that the book has lots of padding but I didn't think this was the case at all. I actually found it quite riveting, often quite amusing, and surprisingly free of technical jargon, although the glossary of terms at the back is handy if you want to know the difference between a Noogler and a Xoogler for instance. Don't expect to find out the secrets of how Google's software works or what their corporate strategy is, or their future plans. Instead this book is a hugely enjoyable and very human tale of what it is like to work for a high-tech company that grew from nothing extremely quickly, and how they changed the world in their own way.

Quite possibly my favourite book of 2011 so far. I loved it.
Comment 10 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsInside Track of Life in the Googleplex
By Brett H TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 21 Jun. 2011
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Most people know that Google is a bit special. To evolve from a two man operation in 1996 to become one of America's biggest companies, not far short of Microsoft or Apple, is some achievement. Clearly they only did this by breaking the mould in a fairly significant way. It is pretty obvious that they are different. You only have to look at their main webpage to appreciate this. As the book explains, it is not so much what is there, but what is not there. The leading search engine in the late 1990s was Yahoo and their main page was so crammed with facts, adverts, links etc, that it was quite hard to spot the search box. Google decided early on to go in a completely different direction and keep their main page very simple. That is the way it is to this day, mimicked by the likes of Bing, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. They have never been afraid to be different and to think outside of the box.

The author was Google's 59th hire, hence the title of the book and joined the company in 1999. He was employed to head up marketing rather than being a techie in a very tech led company. This book covers his experiences between 1999 and 2005 and is a fascinating insight into how the company was run and what made it different. Google had a very flat management structure so everyone got involved in all aspects of the organisation and you get the inside track from Douglas Edwards on how these decisions were made. Innovation covered every aspect of Google. For example, unlike most start up internet companies, they did not go for state of the art hardware. Instead they put together a huge number of the cheapest servers they could cobble together and did not worry when some of them failed as there was always redundant capacity.Read more ›
Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsPerfect for Googlophiles
By HeavyMetalManitou VINE VOICE on 16 Nov. 2011
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
If you were entranced watching the stratospheric rise of Google from fringe search engine to one of the largest economies on Earth, you'll enjoy many happy hours immersed in the pages of I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59. If you appreciate Google's dogged insistence on creating a search engine that actually works as users want it to (rather than simply looking flashy), this book will resonate with you. If you consider the term 'computer nerd' a compliment rather than a put-down, you'll find nirvana in the pages of this book.

Douglas Edwards's descriptions of Google's key players, especially co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, give unique insights into the people behind one of the the world's biggest brand names. Brin and Page always had a clear vision of what they wanted Google to achieve. The most readable parts of the book are its humanising portraits of the men behind the brand name. For example, one Hallowe'en Sergey Brin conducted an interview wearing a full cow suit. As a nervous young prospective Google employee stuttered and stammered his way through the interview, Brin sat back on his chair and played with his rubber udders. Many such entertaining stories are peppered throughout the book, making it a must-have item for any Google aficionados. By reducing the amount of technical data included (about server sizes, speeds, etc.), Douglas Edwards could have increased the book's readability while cutting down its length, thereby helping his book to appeal to a wider market. As it stands, the lengthy tome is for hardcore Googlophiles only.
Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
3.0 out of 5 starsA good story of Google in the early days
By Evan VINE VOICE on 23 Nov. 2011
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I found this book tedious and a little bit dull.

As interesting as the story of Google is, this account doesn't hold my interest. In fact my interest started to wane when I got a few pages in. The authors accounts and exaggerated or should I say enthusiastic descriptions all start to sound the same and get a tad boring. It's interesting enough if you're die hard about this stuff but for me, an I imagine most people, it's just a bit tedious.

But I guess as one other reviewer wrote, if someone wrote an account of AlstaVista, it wouldn't be as interesting, or at least relevant, to most people. Google is Google, everyone has heard of them but not many people will care about the detailed accounts this book goes into.
Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great behind the scene insights

Published 7 months ago by Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 starsNothing special....

The book gives an account of Google growth, politics and personalities in its early days. Little if any technical content. Read more

Published 9 months ago by RolyM
4.0 out of 5 starsLooking at Google homepage will never be the same again!

Very good book
Ten years ago I was a computer nerd/engineer, so the descriptions of the techie/business decisions were wonderful to me! Read more

Published 17 months ago by Ellie
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great Item ★ Well Packaged ★ Super Fast Delivery ★ Would Buy From Again!! - A***

Published 21 months ago by KAYSAN FOTOVAT
4.0 out of 5 starswell worth sticking with

You would have to be very interested in the early days of Google, the search giant, to know who Douglas Edwards is. Read more

Published on 9 Oct. 2014 by tallmanbaby
4.0 out of 5 starsAn intersting look at the early years of Google

This book is the first book I have read about the early years of Google and as expected from a company that has done so much in so little time, it is a truly interesting read. Read more

Published on 25 Sept. 2014 by GOTTON
4.0 out of 5 starsEnjoyable read

I enjoyed this book and liked the insight it gave into Google although it's obviously a personal opinion by the author.

Published on 25 May 2014 by slavender
4.0 out of 5 starsInteresting reading

This was an excellent insight into beginnings of Google from the early days. Only really appeals I think if you are interested in start ups and/or technology. Read more

Published on 20 Nov. 2013 by Chris
1.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, but...

Interesting but the narrative is disrupted by the author using obscure words unnecessarily in order to appear smart. E.g. "... Read more

Published on 25 Jun. 2013 by Matt Whitby
4.0 out of 5 starsAn excellent portrait into the role of words in google

just writing to say i disagree with the early reviews that don't show what a good book this is. it is a very interesting account of the most interesting period of the most... Read more

Published on 1 May 2013 by David McNeil
click to open popover

Look for similar items by category

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

 
Feedback
If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
Would you like to report poor quality or formatting in this book? Click here
Would you like to report this content as inappropriate? Click here
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright? Click here