I recently recieved the book What Would Google Do as a graduation present, and after a few days I managed to read through it. The book is by author/journalist/internet-guy Jeff Jarvis, who brings up several thought-provoking ideas on how the internet is basically taking the entire economy and throwing it up on its head.

In the book Jeff shows, through example and statistics, how companies will have to start acting differently if they want to stay afloat during the Internet (or “Google”) age. He cites the “Dell sucks” phenomenon, which he helped cause, as an example of how Dell felt the sting that the internet could bring to a company who is not open, and how that company reconciled with its customer base, talking on their terms, and speaking to them as another person, not as a corporate entity.

Jarvis then goes on throughout the rest of the book and shows the reader how other companies could follow Google’s policies and ideals in order to help them succeed in the information age. He gives models of restaurants, manufacturers, cable/phone providers, utilities companies, and even health care and government agencies.

Overall it’s a well-written book, and it explains internet concepts in simple, plain terms. If you’ve ever used the internet before, you will understand what Jarvis is saying, because he “gets it”, just as Google has “got it”. You can order this book off Amazon.com, and you can read more about Jeff Jarvis on his blog, Buzzmachine.com.