Hi Steve, My PhD research is about search engines. To my knowledge, there is not yet an in-depth history of Google or the industry as a whole (next chapter), but here are some references you may find helpful: http://battellemedia.com/- John Battelle, former editor of Wired Magazine, is writing a book and blogs his research to date. He isn't talking so much about the business structure, but there are lots of Google anecdotes. Also, I wrote a paper that covers the industrial dynamics of the industry, still waiting for word back from the journal I submitted to, but here's the draft I presented at the IAMCR last year (and also in modified form at AoIR): http://personal.lse.ac.uk/vancouve/research.htm (under the 'conferences' section). This talks about who the major players are, what their revenue streams are, how advertising on search differs from other media advertising and how it is the same, and whether the current level of search provision serves the public good. The analysis is derived primarily from financial statements supplemented by interviews I've done with search engine engineers, search engine optimisers, and search distributors. I have loads of other references if you want to follow up other aspects. Regards, Elizabeth -----Original Message----- From: Steve Jones [mailto:sjones@uic.edu] Sent: 04 March 2005 19:05 To: air-l Subject: [Air-l] Business history of Google? Does anyone know of any histories of Google that focus on its business and the economics of search/search engines? Thank you in advance, Sj _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org/airjoin.html