WHAT WOULD GOOGLE DO?

Jeff Jarvis writes well enough, and he narrates in a pleasant, businesslike tone. He has the the kind of friendly, authoritative voice popular in podcasting. But this is one audiobook that would benefit from abridgment. So many of the points—for example, that Google listens to its customers—are easily grasped yet overexplained, tempting one to skip over them. Other sections sound self-serving, for example, the discourse on the author's battle with Dell's Customer Service department. In the end, audio listeners are left wondering whether they're hearing a series of entries from Jarvis's popular blog. R.W.S. 2010 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2009]