Customer Reviews

Google Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Few of today's web-savvy would contest Google's superiority among search engines. Behind the austere and simple interface lies a wealth of information just waiting to be tapped. Until now however, tapping all that information and power would likely require scanning dozens of websites hunting down tips for making the most out of Google. Fortunately, Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest and their colleagues have done most of the legwork for us in O'Reilly's Google Hacks.

Google Hacks is another in O'Reilly's Hacks series, "Industrial Strength Tips and Tools". In this case, 100 recipes for just about every imaginable use for Google. O'Reilly uses the term 'hack' in a positive way, meaning a clever technical feat or trick, as opposed to the negative connotation associated with those blackhats who break into computer systems for fun and for profit. Each "hack" is a stand-alone recipe demonstrating some aspect of using Google to find just what you're looking for. Most hacks also contain cross-references to other relevant hacks in the book, so you really don't have to read it from cover to cover. You could start with whatever interests you, and go from there.

The book is divided into several chapters, each of which contains several hacks. The first few chapters are targeted at the general end-user, describing in detail all of the various syntaxes you can use when searching with Google, as well as introducing the various topical collections (U.S. government, Linux, Mac, etc.), and other tools (Google Groups, Google News, etc.,) available. The authors are careful to point out where the various syntax pieces are incompatible, and which syntax features are available with which services. Also covered are various tools you can use to (legally) 'scrape' Google search results for further analysis. These chapters will be useful for just about anyone who uses Google. Some of the material (such as directly manipulating URLS to tweak search results and custom HTML forms) may be beyond the reach of some newbies. A general understanding of URLs, HTML and CGI scripting will be helpful in making use of most of the book.

The next few chapters are targeted more to developers and propeller-heads, describing the Google Web Service API, as well as providing dozens of scripts (mostly in Perl) for manipulating Google's index via its XML interface. Newbies and the casual user might find all this a bit overwhelming, but anyone with a Perl interpreter could potentially use these scripts to their advantage. One chapter also provides examples of using the API in various other languages including PHP, Java, Python, C#/.NET, and VB.NET. There are enough examples here of using the API in various fashions to get anyone with a sense of programming plenty of starting off points for whatever project they may imagine with Google's wealth of information.

The next to last chapter involves a handful of pranks, games, other oddities you can do with Google. Fool your friends with 0-result searches, let Google write poetry or a recipe for you. Draw pictures with Google Groups, or see just how good you are at Google-Whacking. This is the chapter for all of you who have way too much time on your hands ;-).

The last chapter in the book is targeted towards webmasters and offers several tips not only on getting your website well-placed in Google's search rankings, but also general help on getting traffic to your site in the first place. The authors also discuss strategies for using Google's AdWords system to the advantage of your business.

Overall, the book is very readable, and easy to move through (well, for a geek anyways). Each hack is self-contained, and can be read in a few minutes. Read it near your computer, as you'll likely be wanting to try some of these hacks out as you read them. As for its usefulness, I'm already using things I learned in the book on a regular basis to my daily advantage. However, if you're not more than a casual user of Google, all the scripts and API-speak might be overkill for your needs. The first few and last chapters probably justify the Amazon price for most users, however.

The book isn't perfect, though. I did find a few typographical errors scattered through the text, but they weren't prevalent enough to be too distracting. Also, with coverage of such a moving target as a major Internet property like Google, there will likely be links and even certain hacks that may not work, and features that change with time. Finally, the idea of narrowing down your search results to a manageable number surfaces often. In my opinion, what's important is not so much how many search results are found, but rather, whether or not Google can get me what I'm looking for within the first page or two of results, which it usually does, and which is why I use Google in the first place. The real value of the book shows itself on those occasions where Google doesn't necessarily get you where you want to be on the first shot.

In summary, true to its cover graphic, Google Hacks will provide you with a large number of tools to get the most out of Google, whether for serious research, casual browsing, procrastination activities, or just plain old fun.

First off, I have to admit: I fell in love with this book while looking at the description at ora.com before it was ever published. I'm a geek. I've used Google for years. I live and breathe this stuff. I know the high editorial and production quality that O'Reilly puts into their technical books. But the pre-publication descriptions left an open question for me: just how useful would this book be for normal people?

To those who know nothing about programming/scripting, fear not. About half of this book is stuff that anyone anywhere can use with no programming skills whatsoever. And if the hacks described in the other half of the book sound useful, sufficiently-motivated people will find a way to use them: talk to their technical friends, their children, or (heaven forbid!) teach themselves how to use Perl/Python/etc. And even that's kind of missing the point: the book is about giving you a taste of what is possible to do with Google. You will get an education simply by leafing through the examples.

How do the authors get so good? Clearly, they're smart folk. But they have a much more important quality: a sense of adventure and, at times, a giddy quality of fun in what they do. Chapter 7 -- Google Pranks and Games -- is as good a place to start reading this book as any. And a non-technical person who reads and tries the examples in Chapter 1 will have a far better working knowledge of google than 99.5% of the technical types out there. Finally, Chapter 8 is an excellent intro to webmasters to understand how google picks which pages rank higher for any particular search. It gives valuable advice on how to get a good rank for your website. This book should be a good antidote for small-time operators who are currently getting hustled by "rank booster" con artists and other snake-oil salesmen.

One side comment: hacking is a good thing. In the past two decades, the word has been co-opted to mean a dubious or possibly-illegal activity. Nonsense. Hacking is a most honorable activity; it's part of what makes the world works. Kudos to O'Reilly for starting their "Hacks" book series.

Google is an Internet search engine database, but it's far more than that. It's existence has begun to shape the very fabric of the Internet. Anyone wishing to be literate on the Internet would be wise to understand quite a bit about it.

I'm buying a copy of this book for my mother tonight.

Google Hacks is a fascinating book that catalogs pretty much anything you ever wanted to know about Google. But, the book really consists of two broad sections: One for searchers and researchers; and one for web developers.

While there is much to like about the book, there is also much to ignore. I think at times, the authors emulate the writing style of programming books too closely. That's a problem for all the non-technical people who likely bought the book. As it stands now, the book seems terribly unfocused. Still the authors do an admirable job of trying to tie everything together for their unique audiences.

As a developer, I found the "Google API hacks" to be useful, but the vast majority of the readers probably will not. And the programming tips take up almost half the book.

This is not the only reason I gave Google Hacks three stars. In addition to the problem with focus, the section for webmasters is laughable. Brett Tabke of WembasterWorld, a supposed search engine marketing expert, contributes several of the webmaster "hacks." His sections are perhaps the weakest parts of the book. He tries to explain how to make sure your site ranks highly in Google's search results, but his advice should be ignored.

He makes all sorts of proclamations that have no basis in reality; most of his tips are simply his own personal opinion masquerading as fact. It would be nice if he were to cite his sources, but unfortunately for us readers, he does not.

On the other hand, the guest section written by Andrew Goodman about Google AdWords tips is top-notch and reason enough for buying the book.

All in all, if you're remotely interested in Google, definitely buy this book. But be forewarned about the lackluster guest authors and lack of focus. Who knows? Maybe version two will be better. Keep in mind, also, that this is a book about the Web, so many of the tips contained in the book may be obsolete by the time you read it!

It has been quite a while since I have come across a book I'd label `essential.' The last for non-programming computer users was Robin Williams' `The Mac Is Not A Typewriter' which I bought for a number of new Macintosh users. `Google Hacks' by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest and published by O'Reilly will appeal to an even wider audience, I can imagine buying this for friends who haven't cottoned on to `net searching at all and friends who complain "Google returns too many sites." People who are afraid to code shouldn't be put off by the "Hacks" in the title: O'Reilly have obviously taken a wider meaning of "hack" than just a neat piece of code. This book is a marvelous compendium of tips and tricks for Google, ranging from simple ways of getting the search results you want, through using Google's newer services such as phone books and image search, all the way to advanced ways of using scrapers and the Google API.

The book demonstrates 100 hacks, of which close to half are useful for everyone -- newbie, programmer and non-programmer alike. The first 35 hacks, in chapters one and two, will educate you about the intricacies of getting the best out of searching both Google's main web catalog and the newer `Special Services and Collections.' This is the part of the book that should be essential reading for Google users -- in the two days I've had this book these have proved invaluable. The rest are for those who are either looking for extremely advanced search tips, increasing their web site's Google page rank, or programming an application to use the Google data -- all topics well covered in this volume.

What's Good In This Book

To start, it is well written, well laid out with a good contents section, good index, and some appropriate introductory material before getting down to the first hack. Each of the hacks are numbered and a single hack will often cross-reference other hacks that add information relevant to it. The hacks in each chapter nicely add on each other in both complexity and function.

The hacks themselves seem to cover every area of Google that you might want. They range from the downright frivolous (there is a chapter "Google Pranks and Games") to serious ways of improving your search results and excellent examples of good ways to use the Google API.

Most of the code fragments are in Perl, and among the hacks are ways of getting the job done without over extensive use of extra modules such as XML Parsers and SOAP::Lite (including a hack that uses regular expressions to parse the XML).

What's Bad In This Book

It's hard to find anything bad to say, apart from some frustration that a couple of the hacks that interested me used ASP or VB rather than a more portable language.

Oh, another minor quibble, the allied web site O'Reilly Hacks Series has been slow and has none of the code in the book or any of the URLs mentioned listed anywhere -- it seems more geared towards marketing the books than helping the readers.

Google is powerful for basic searches, which most people conduct by entering a few keywords and letting Google do the rest. Imagine the possibilities especially researchers, students, writers, professionals, and anyone who need to find specific or obscure information just by learning a few tricks. Entering _book reviews_ pulls out any resource having both words in it, not necessarily together as a phrase. Add quotes to "book reviews" and the results display sites with book reviews together as a phrase. This hardly unleashes Google's power. Even entering the keywords in a specific order can affect the results.

You can search around Google's Web site to learn lesser known tips and tricks, but you won't find most of the hacks on the Internet without, ironically, hard searching. As a fervent reader, too often I read well-written books and never take the time to apply the tools and techniques. While reading this one, I immediately put the newfound knowledge to use with cool results and still use it though it's been a few weeks since I opened the book.

You may be aware Google offers Google News, which searches and provides the latest news (http://news.google.com/). But did you know Google News supports two syntaxes? They are "intitle" and "site." "Intitle" searches for keywords within the headline or new item's title while "site" looks for the keyword in a specific site. The authors are straightforward when they mention Google News is not one of the best places for news.

Non-techies, don't let the fact that O'Reilly and Associates is the publisher scare you away because the company's books are often synonymous with high tech topics and the name "hacks" in its title. It doesn't mean "bad" as a hack is also known as a trick or add-on for adding more power to a program or system. The tech-speak is kept to a minimum, which makes the hacks easy to read and reference. The book has tips for beginners, moderate users, and experts and each hack is represented by thermometer's temperature (high for expert and low for easy) for easy reference.

Techies and programmers have nothing to fear as the book covers APIs (Application Programming Interface), which provide a basic building block for building software applications. In other words, Google Web APIs (http://www.google.com/apis/api_faq.html) allow developers to query Google's search tool for use in developing software that accesses the many Web sites through Google. For example, a Web site providing the latest news on books and the book industry could use the Google API to regularly update the site with any new news relating to books. APIs for PHP, Python, ASP, C#, .NET, VB, and Java are included.

Try out some of the hacks and get tips from other readers from the O'Reilly's Hacks Web site (http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/ht/2) and Tara Calishain's ResearchBuzz buzztoolbox (http://www.buzztoolbox.com/google/). Reduce the time you spend sifting through garbage by hacking your way with Google using this book.

Google.com is a search engine that came onto the web in 1998. Since then it has grown to be one of the more used search engines on the web. In April of 2002 , the Google Engineering Team released an API to their search engine technology. Google Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools (Google Hacks) gives the reader a background on how to use google effectively, a detailed listing of google's services, and many ways to access google.com.

I like the new Hacks series of books from O'Reilly. Each title in this series gives the reader 100 tips and tools on the topic at hand. Each tip includes a brief description of the hack and a complexity rating. In Google Hacks the authors give each tip a complete walk through, with many including a full code listing.

The two chapters on Third-Party and Non-API google introduces the reader to new ways to get at google data that many users may not have thought of before. Hack 37 is an explanation of how to get google web searches via email. There are six hacks that if used and abused will get your IP address banned from google, so use at your own risk.

The chapters on the google API make up the meat of the book. The API is used to offer ideas to show the reader what is possible with the API. For those that are more visually minded, hack #64 is about the TouchGraph Google Browser. TouchGraph is a Java applet allows the user to start with a page and then it graphically shows pages that are similar to it. For the non-perl inclined, hacks are included, with full source code, for Python, Java, C#, and PHP.

Anyone who programs web applications and manages websites needs to get this book, if only for the final eight hacks in the book. One hack (#95) delves into the PageRank algorithm that google uses to rank web pages. Hack 96, 26 Step to 15K hits a day, should be required reading for anyone wanting to start a web site and have it take off.

At [the price], this book is a great buy. It doesn't suffer from any glaring editing problems, and is very useful to anyone using google.com.

Google is one of the (if not the foremost) most well-known search engines on the 'Net and this book of 100 "Google Hacks" makes anyone's forays into searching on Google much easier and fun. Among the hacks listed in Chapter 1 include "getting around Google's 10 Word Search Limit," Mixing Syntaxes, Date-Range Searching, Using Full-Word Wildcards, Tracking Stocks, and searching article archives. Perfect for "non-geeky types like me. But wait, there's much more! Chapter 2 discusses Google's Special Services and Collections, like the Google Directory, newsgroups and images. There's a chapter explaining the Google Web API and another chapter listing hacks for Google Web API programs. Chapter 7 lists a few hacks (ie. "pranks") you can pull on your friends if you're in a playful mood.

The authors have put the usual excellent and thorough job into this book that I've known to love and appreciate about all O'Reilly books. Not only do they take the time to thoroughly explain Google and topics related to Google, they also with a number of hacks show code examples, making it easy to implement them.

Hacks (and hackers, not crackers) in recent times have gotten a bad name as another reviewer pointed out. The 100 hacks this book lists are ones that are of benefit to all who use Google as their primary search engine.

In a smoke-filled darkened room the faceless, nameless young man sits silently pouring over screens and screens of data. Reading the scrolling text that flies across the screen searching for that one magic phrase. Is it day or night? Is it Monday or Wednesday? He hasn't a clue; all he cares about is one thing -- hacking.

If this is what you expect the newly released O'Reilly book Google Hacks to be about, well, I am afraid that you need to mosey on over to the fiction section. This book is a collection of tips, trips, workaround and "not-so-secret" techniques that you can use to enrich your Google experience.

Now, I know what most of you are saying -- it's JUST a search engine. I type in what I want to find and see what it spits out. If this is your attitude about Google, then this book is one of the must have's you should add to your library. You will never think of Google as "just a search engine" again.

Through step-by-step examples, and visual examples, the author takes you through how to use Google to its full extent. He shows you how to narrow searches and get those 2,500,000 results page down to something more manageable and more relevant to you. In essence, he shows you how to make Google work for your benefit.

There is also considerable coverage given to third-party Google tools and toys -- such as Google Whacking, Google Blogging and many others. He shows you how others have taken what Google provides and expanded upon it to make games, research tools and interactive applications. You will find yourself immersed in the world of Google Whacking -- the search for the magic combination of search words that give you one, precise result!

This book is geared towards those who use Google for searching and research purposes as well as those who want to incorporate Google's tools into their own sites. The author goes into detail about the newly released Google API for incorporating content into your site and other programs. Novice users should not be afraid of the technical complexity this book has in some places; they can simply skip over the more technical parts without fear of missing out on the important details.

Overall, this is the perfect companion book for those who find themselves using Google as their main research tool. It will help you become a better Google user, and help you to use the power of Google to further your research along and give you the precise information you need.

If you are looking for a compilation of googling tips and tricks in a neatly bound format, with a useful index and great visuals, this little collection is as good as it gets. The book is expected O'Reilly cadre -- crisply written by pros who aren't winging it.

Yet, it still puzzles me why this info was necessary in a book form, particularly given the most likely intended audience. Most or even ALL of this info is available either on Google itself, especially on "Google Labs", or on frequently read websites such as Slashdot or Kuro5hin.

Recommended if you want to skip some on-computer reading, but I am still waiting to find tricks here that I haven't found elsewhere on the net for a whopping $0.00.

Google entered the world of search engines in 1998. It was a second incarnation of a search engine service known as BackRub. The name Google was a play on the word googol: a one followed by a hundred zeros. From the beginning, Google was different from the other major search engines online, winning converts with its friendly presentation and constantly expanding set of options.

In April 2002, Google began offering the Google API, which gives programmers a way to access the Google search results with automated queries. While you can still do all the searching, sifting, and sorting by hand, these queries can now be programmatically automated. This book is dedicated to showing Google users all of the tips and tricks that will make you a power user of this very advanced search engine. There have been lots of changes to Google since the 2nd edition of this book, so a new 3rd edition was really quite necessary. The table of contents is as follows:

Chapter 1, Web - This chapter describes the fundamentals of how Google's search works. You'll find tips and tricks for Google's special syntax; specialty searches such as the phonebook, calculator, package, and stock tracking; the Google cache; related links; and more. This chapter shows how to squeeze out every last bit of searching power from each syntax--and how to mix and match for some truly powerful searches.
Hack 1. Browse the Google Directory
Hack 2. Glean a Snapshot of Google in Time
Hack 3. Visualize Google Results
Hack 4. Check Your Spelling
Hack 5. Google Phonebook: Let Google's Fingers Do the Walking
Hack 6. Look Up Definitions
Hack 7. Find Directories of Information
Hack 8. Cover Your Bases
Hack 9. Hack Your Own Google Search Form
Hack 10. Compare Google and Yahoo! Search Results
Hack 11. Cover Your Tracks
Hack 12. Improve Google's Memory
Hack 13. Find Out What Google Thinks ___ Is
Hack 14. Browse the World Wide Photo Album
Hack 15. Find Similar Images
Hack 16. Track Stocks

Chapter 2, Advanced Web - Shows how to automate your web trawling, crawling, and recombination by hacking Google programmatically. Assumes you already have a programming background.
Hack 17. Assemble Advanced Search Queries
Hack 18. Search with Synonyms
Hack 19. Capture Google Results in a Google Box
Hack 20. Cook with Google
Hack 21. Permute a Query
Hack 22. Summarize Results by Domain
Hack 23. Measure Google Mindshare
Hack 24. SafeSearch Certify URLs
Hack 25. Search Google Topics
Hack 26. Run a Google Popularity Contest
Hack 27. Scrape Yahoo! Buzz for a Google Search
Hack 28. Compare Google's Results with Other Search Engines
Hack 29. Scattersearch with Yahoo! and Google
Hack 30. Yahoo! Directory Mindshare in Google
Hack 31. Spot Trends with Geotargeting
Hack 32. Bring the Google Calculator to the Command Line
Hack 33. Build Your Own Google Search Feeds
Hack 34. Search Google by Link Graph
Hack 35. Download Google Videos as AVI Files

Chapter 3, News and Blogs - Find out how to use a combination of Google tools to gather the latest news and opinions from across the Web. Search the media, casual conversations, and commentary by millions of people on their personal blogs. Get involved in a group discussion or start a blog of your own.
Hack 36. Scrape Google News
Hack 37. Visualize Google News
Hack 38. Map Google News
Hack 39. Track Your Favorite Sites
Hack 40. Scrape Google Groups
Hack 41. Seek Out Blog Commentary
Hack 42. Glean Blog-Free Google Results
Hack 43. Find Blog Commentary for Any URL with a Single Click
Hack 44. Track Topics on Blogs over Time
Hack 45. Blog from Your Desktop
Hack 46. Program Blogger with PHP

Chapter 4, Extending Google - Shows you how to go beyond the web browser, integrating Google into your toolbar, desktop, and browser. Take advantage of some of the services modeled on Google. Search on the go via instant messenger or from your phone or PDA.
Hack 47. Keep Tabs on Your Searches with Google Alerts
Hack 48. Google Your Desktop
Hack 49. Google with Bookmarklets
Hack 50. Google from IRC
Hack 51. Google on the Go
Hack 52. Google over IM
Hack 53. Googlify Your Browser
Hack 54. Search with Google from Any Web Page
Hack 55. Customize the Firefox Quick Search Box
Hack 56. Build a Google Screensaver
Hack 57. Add a Feed to Google Quickly
Hack 58. Tame Long Google URLs
Hack 59. Autocomplete Search Terms as You Type
Hack 60. Refine Your Google Search
Hack 61. Make Google More Accessible for Low-Vision Users
Hack 62. Search for Lyrics on Google

Chapter 5, Google Maps - Google Maps has changed the way people interact with geographic information with its clean, immersive interface for maps. Take a look at how you can use Google Maps to learn about your neighborhood and your world. And then find out how to mash-up your own data with Google Maps using the Google Maps API.
Hack 63. Think Global, Google Local
Hack 64. Get Around Google Maps
Hack 65. Find Yourself (and Others) on Google Maps
Hack 66. Build Your Own Google Map
Hack 67. Add a Google Map to Your Web Site
Hack 68. Map Flickr Contacts
Hack 69. Fly Across the Earth

Chapter 6, Gmail - Google's Gmail isn't your average, ordinary web mail service. This section delves deeply into its capabilities.
Hack 70. Create and Use Custom Addresses
Hack 71. Import Your Contacts into Gmail
Hack 72. Import Mail into Gmail
Hack 73. Export Your Gmail
Hack 74. Gmail on the Go
Hack 75. Use Gmail as a Linux Filesystem
Hack 76. Use Gmail as a Hard Drive
Hack 77. Program Gmail
Hack 78. Force Gmail to Use a Secure Connection

Chapter 7, Webmastering - If you're a web wrangler, you see Google from two sides: from the searcher side and from the side of those who want to get the best possible search ranking for their web sites. In this chapter, you'll learn about Google's PageRank, how to clean up for a Google visit, how to make money with your pages, and how to make sure your pages aren't indexed by Google if you don't want them to be.
Hack 79. A Webmaster's Introduction to Google
Hack 80. Get Inside the PageRank Algorithm
Hack 81. 26 Steps to 15 KB a Day
Hack 82. Be a Good Search Engine Citizen
Hack 83. Clean Up for a Google Visit
Hack 84. Remove Your Materials from Google
Hack 85. Get the Most Out of AdWords
Hack 86. Generate Google AdWords
Hack 87. Scrape Google AdWords
Hack 88. Add Search to Your Site
Hack 89. Feed News to Your Web Site

Chapter 8, Programming Google - This chapter introduces you to the Google Search Application Programming Interface (API), which underlies many of the hacks in this book. If you've ever wanted to begin programming, this is as good a place as any to find inspiration for doing so. Although most hacks in this book rely heavily on PERL, this chapter shows you how to program in Google using a multitude of languages.
Hack 90. Program Google in Perl
Hack 91. Install the SOAP::Lite Perl Module
Hack 92. Program Google with the Net::Google Perl Module
Hack 93. Loop Around the 10-Result Limit
Hack 94. Program Google in Java
Hack 95. Program Google in Python
Hack 96. Program Google in C# and .NET
Hack 97. Program Google in VB.NET
Hack 98. Program Google with ColdFusion
Hack 99. Program Google with PHP 5
Hack 100. Program Google with VBScript

Appendix - Keep tabs on what Google is doing and where it might be headed. This appendix provides a list of news sources and feeds that can keep you up to date with Google happenings. Once you subscribe to a few Google-related feeds, you won't have any trouble keeping up with the latest news.

You can read this book from beginning to end if desired, but for the most part, each hack stands on its own. Thus the book isn't any less comprehensible if you flip around to whatever sections interest you most. If you're a PERL newbie, you might want to try some of the easier hacks, and then tackle the more extensive ones as you get more confident, since the programmatic hacks make heavy use of PERL. The programmatic hacks in this book run either on the command line (that's Terminal for Mac OS X users and the DOS command window for Windows users) or as CGI scripts. I highly recommend this book to anybody who uses Google with any regularity.