The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet’s Rise

The early days of the internet, often called the Wild Wild West, were very wild. Before many people saw the potential of the internet, many people were registering domain names. One of those domain names, sex.com, went on to define what the internet was and what it could become as two men, Kreman and Cohen, fought over it. This book tells the story of Kreman, the founder of Match.com, and Cohen, a con artist who was never satisfied, as they fought over the domain name sex.com all throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. This is an interesting book for those who were heavy internet users back then and knew what was happening. This is also an insightful read for young readers, who will learn how crazy everything was.

This book really feels like a major journalistic piece, something one could read in GQ or Rolling Stone. It definitely has that journalistic feel to it, as Mr. Kushner knows how to keep things moving even with multiple players on the board. My only issue is that there is no bibliography at the end; I am dying to know where he got his information from.