Moving as quick as a mouse-click from Tokyo to New York City, from Silicon Valley to Sydney, from Nantucket to Amsterdam, Eyeball Wars spans cultures and continents, giving the insider's perspective on the struggles of dot-com start-ups and the clash between old media and new.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A fun retro flashback...
Comment: OK... time for a "retro flash-back"... Back to those heady days of dot.coms with no revenue, few business plans, and dreams of striking it rich with an IPO. The novel is called Eyeball Wars : a novel of dot-com intrigue by David Meerman Scott, and I had a ball reading it. What's best is that it was published in January 2001 when all this stuff *was* reality.

The story-line is familiar for those who followed the Internet craze, the rush to make your fortune in the brave new dot.com world. Richard Williams is the son of a newspaper magnate, one who is as ruthless as they come. Richard is more inclined to want to party than take over for his dad, and his work ethic reflects it. Pierce (the father) decides to put him into a sink-or-swim position of heading up an internet division of the company, while also hiring a hotshot Net leader (Jason Carpenter) to make it successful. Richard and Jason clash immediately, and Richard has to decide what he wants most in life... the trappings of wealth, or the chance to make it on his own without the money and influence of his father. He chooses the latter, and sets up the conflict between old and new media. Meanwhile, a second story-line involving a Japanese company looking to invest in an Internet firm starts to merge into the plot. Richard needs the venture capital for his site, Freshspot.com, to survive, and it's a down-to-the-wire situation which could mean life or death for his popular newssite.

The term "eyeball wars" refers to the notion that it wasn't so important to make money as it was to get people to visit and return to your site. If you build it and people come, then profits would somehow magically appear "later". In retrospect, very few dot.com sites were able to pull off this magical act. Written in 2000/2001, this novel was created in the midst of the excitement, and the story of concept-to-IPO-to-riches was accepted as fact. I think that's why I enjoyed the book so much. The search for the next big idea and someone to fund it was a big deal, and everyone wanted in on it. I enjoyed watching Richard change from a party animal with no responsibilities to someone who finally believed in something and had dreams. And it also took me back to my own work environment during those crazy years. Expectations to be retired by 40... :)

For those who were caught up in the Internet mania of the time, this is a fun way to scroll back a few years and kill an afternoon or two. Just don't ask yourself too often... "Were we really that naive?"

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Customer Rating:
Summary: How Exciting It Was!
Comment: I recently picked the book up for a second time and read it again. What a refreshing stroll down memory lane! Things were simpler, faster and there was no end to the bubble in site. And to think that it was only a short time ago!

David Scott has put together a witty and fast-paced literary dessert. A great summer read -- and the book's size doesn't require much beach bag real estate.

A RETRO-rush!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Dot.True
Comment: Unlike so many internet-related books, this one has a readable, commercial, accessible pace. While some authors seem to say "the inner workings of the Web is only for techno-insiders," Scott welcomes readers of all kinds to a fast-paced read. It is very much a picture of a time... and worth a read.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: What was the dot-com boom really like?
Comment: Like most people, I watched the dot-com boom and bust as an intrigued outsider without any real understanding of what was going on from the inside. Similarly, I'm vaguely aware of Japanese corporate culture -- I've been exposed to the same cliches as everyone else -- but had no real insight into what it is and how it works.

Eyeball Wars gave me the inside perspective on both. As a novel, it's a mad rush that's part romance, part adventure, part cloak and dagger intrigue. Sure, that's all fun. But what I really love about this book is its insider's point of view, the mountains of convincing detail about two important, yet obscure, cultural phenomenon. By the time I finished, I gained a whole new (and deeper) understanding of the Internet "Tulip Mania" and of the Tokyo corporate mindset.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: engaging and fun thriller for a long airplane ride
Comment: Eyeball Wars is an engaging and fun thriller that keeps the pages turning throughout. But there are also many funny parts. The Japan scenes and characters are very realistic.

I can recommend Eyeball Wars as a perfect book if you are on a long plane ride, such as between the USA and Japan or maybe between Silicon Valley and NYC.

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