Today, Google is a tech giant seeing remarkable success with its latest attempt at social networking, Google+. Back in 1999, Google was a startup company with assorted successes and failures in its future.

In Part I of this week’s Media Beat interview, Doug Edwards, Google’s first director of consumer marketing and brand management and author of the book I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 talks with us about what it was like working at Google during those early days. Though the company has gone on to an incredible number of wins, there have been a few losses along the way, including Google’s first stab at social networking, Orkut.

“I think Google looks at failure like a data point,” Edwards says. “It’s a learning opportunity.”

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