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Google: The Missing Manual [Paperback]

Rael Dornfest , Sarah Milstein
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 2004 0596006136 978-0596006136 1st

Google is the planet's most popular program for finding stuff on the Web. Millions of people a day use it to search for everything from apple pie recipes to high school sweethearts to Zimbabwean bus schedules--but it has no manual.

And who needs help for such an easy to use program? As it turns out, Google has many hidden tricks and tools that can turn your simple searching into powerful--and successful--discoveries. But you have to know where to look. Google: The Missing Manual is your guide, covering:

  • Search techniques and tricks. If you know which search words to choose and how to ask for the special things Google lets you look for--like phone numbers, definitions, stock quotes, pictures, and other goodies--you'll get more of what you want, more often. This book helps you search more effectively.
  • Must-have tools. Why head to Google's home page 80 times a day when toolbars, buttons and other widgets can help you search more efficiently? Use this book to find out how the pros achieve greater Google efficiency.
  • Little-known corners of Google. From the "Similar pages" links in your Google results to the mysterious Groups and Directory tabs on the home page, down-to-earth discussions throughout this book explain what these odd items are and when you should use them.
Whether you're new to the Web or an Internet aficionado, Google: The Missing Manual is a friendly deskside companion, brimming with tips for getting more out of the world's favorite search program.


Editorial Reviews

Review

"Even if you think that you know all you need to about Web searching, this book will amaze you." - John Bryant, BJHCandIM, September "Even if you think that you know all you need to about Web searching, this book will amaze you." - John Bryant, BJHC&IM, September 2004

About the Author

Sarah Milstein writes, speaks and consults frequently on Twitter. A Web 2.0 strategist and co-founder of 20slides.com, a site for lively, work-related workshops, she is the author of "Twitter and the Micromessaging Revolution," an O'Reilly Media research report. Previously, she was on the senior editorial staff at O'Reilly, where she founded the Tools of Change for Publishing conference (TOC) and led the development of the Missing Manuals, a best-selling series of computer books for non-geeks. She's also written for the series, co-authoring "Google: The Missing Manual."

Before joining O'Reilly, Sarah was a freelance writer and editor, and a regular contributor to The New York Times. She was also a program founder for Just Food, a local-food-and-farms non-profit, and co-founder of Two Tomatoes Records, a label that distributes and promotes the work of children's musician Laurie Berkner.



Rael Dornfest is Chief Technology Officer at O'Reilly Media. He assesses, experiments, programs, fiddles, fidgets, and writes for the O'Reilly Network and various O'Reilly publications. Rael is Series Editor of the O'Reilly Hacks series and has edited, contributed to, and coauthored various O'Reilly books, including Mac OS X Panther Hacks, Mac OS X Hacks, Google Hacks, Essential Blogging, and Peer to Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies. He is also Program Chair for the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. In his copious free time, Rael develops bits and bobs of freeware, particularly the Blosxom weblog application, is Editor in Chief of MobileWhack, and (more often than not) maintains his Raelity Bytes weblog.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 311 pages
  • Publisher: Pogue Press; 1st edition (May 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0596006136
  • ISBN-13: 978-0596006136
  • Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.8 x 9.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,163,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
79 of 82 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
[Edited review for 2nd edition - 05/20/2006]

Every time I read a book on Google, I find new stuff to get excited about (and get reminded about stuff I need to use more). This one is no different... Google: The Missing Manual (2nd Edition) by Sarah Milstein, J. D. Biersdorfer, and Matthew MacDonald.

Contents:
Part 1 - Searching with Google: Google 101; Superior Searching
Part 2 - Google Tools: Googling Further - Images, News, Maps, and More; Googling with Others - Groups and Answers; Shopping with Google; The Google Toolbar; More Cool Google Tools
Part 3 - Google for Webmasters: Becoming a Search Result; Making Money with Google; Google Analytics
Part 4 - Gmail: Gmail
Part 5 - Appendix: The Google Wide Web
Index

The book starts out with the requisite coverage on the search syntax of Google. For those who have never gone beyond a basic search, this will be an eye-opener. For people like me who have tried some of the other options, this serves as a good refresher for some techniques I may have forgotten. The book really becomes valuable to me once it gets into the second part. That's where I'm reminded about and exposed to the other features of Google that fall outside the normal searching. For instance, I didn't know that you could do a personalized homepage using Google (much like MyYahoo). I have that going on now. Google Desktop? I'm inclined to try it again after having dropped it during the initial download frenzy. And using SMS and my cell phone to get Google information like driving directions might become a regular part of my techie toolbox. While it's true you can dig around on the Google site and find all this stuff ("why buy a book for it?"), I much prefer to have that type of information packaged up for me.
... Read more ›
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38 of 40 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Make the most of Google July 28, 2004
Format:Paperback
This missing manual is O'Reilly version of Google Hacks for normal people. Where Google Hacks gives Perl scripts for bending and twisting the Google API at the code level, the Missing Manual covers how to use Google from the web site to find the information, news or images you are looking for. if you don't know that the word Perl is spelled correctly, and you are having trouble finding what you are looking for on Google, this is the book for you.

That's not to say that there isn't some high end stuff. Part four has useful information for web professionals looking to optimize their presence on Google and even to make money from it.

So if all you know about Google is what you see on your browser, and you think you could be getting more out of Google, this book is worth the look. I gave this book five stars because the overall construction of the book is focused, and the content is useful and well written.
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Obscure but useful abilities of Google May 29, 2004
Format:Paperback
You use Google, don't you? With the plethora of print spilled about it, can anything useful be added? Well, Milstein and Dornfest have. They show many options that most users are simply unaware of.

Nifty capabilities that deserve wider knowledge. Perhaps the best is that you can search for an essentially arbitrary alphanumeric string. How is this useful? The string may be an ISBN. The results will often show the book listed under major booksellers like BookFinder, Booksmatter, eCampus and Amazon. Or the string might be a tracking number issued by USPS, DHL, Fedex or UPS. Or course, you could go to those websites and type it there. But if you are a heavy Google user, it may be quicker to start in it. Other useful cases are where that string is a US Patent Number or a Universal Product Code or a Vehicle Id.

But this book is independent of, and not endorsed by, Google. The authors demonstrate this by describing contexts where Google might not be suitable, and other search engines might be more fruitful. Like, if you want to see clustering of results, Google leaves you out of luck. Try Vivisimo instead. In this case, I don't know why Google doesn't offer this capability. Altavista had it in 1998. It surely can't be a technical limitation of Google.

Such examples of when to look elsewhere are reassuring. The authors DO recommend Google. After all, that is what this book is all about. But they are not bedazzled, and readily share with you its boundaries.

A crucial minority of you (Web administrators) may be intensely attracted to the discussion at the end of the book. AnSense and Adwords. These are ways to put ads on your website and (hopefully) derive revenue, and how to advertise on Google, respectively. For some merchants, the latter has lead to heavy sales to a global audience.

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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Another great Missing Manual August 1, 2004
Format:Paperback
A 299-page manual for Google? You've got to be kidding! C'mon, how hard is it to type a word or phrase, hit a button, and get almost instantaneous and nearly always satisfactory results? But I'm a big fan of the Missing Manual series, and have several on my shelf. So I decided to check out "Google - The Missing Manual", and was won over once again after reading only the first few pages. Like every other one I've looked at, this Missing Manual is very well-written. It's logically organized, informative and at the same time entertaining to read

Sure, a simple Google search is easy. But as this manual says (p. 18), performing a simple search is using only 1% of Google's power (and that's as much as 99% of us ever use). If you'd rather be one of the 1% of the people that know how to use 99% of its power, this manual is for you.

Since I rarely read a manual cover-to-cover (and wouldn't remember everything I'd read if I did), two of the first things I check are the Table of Contents and the Index. At first blush, both appear to be complete and easy to use. But beware if you bought an early copy of this book. Due to a printer's error, the first print run went out with "an incomplete and unpleasantly weird index." If you got one of these, go to [...] to download a copy of the correct index.

The book is logically divided into four parts:

Part 1 deals with searches, from simple to complex. If you read this section only, you will learn much. Did you know that Google only recognizes the first ten words when you do a search? So don't bother typing any more than that (the manual has suggestions for how to maximize your use of words in a search).
... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars waste of money
Did not help much in understanding Google - Google seems to be something you have to learn about through its own 'help' button
Published 5 months ago by pauline Dawson
4.0 out of 5 stars Learn more
Google Apps: The Missing Manual be ready to hunker down and study...for a greenhorn, such as me,
this book is work to understand... Read more
Published on May 4, 2011 by readaholic
5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive
This book does a great job of covering topics ranging from how to use Google (and Gmail), how to be recognized by Google, and how to utilize Google offerings such as adwords and... Read more
Published on May 21, 2009 by J. Druin
3.0 out of 5 stars OK Book
I ordered this book because I needed to add a few bucks to my order to get free shipping. I would say if a person is new to the Internet or new to Google this is a good book. Read more
Published on February 8, 2008 by D. Houston
5.0 out of 5 stars Like every other Missing Manual I've read
I have maybe 6 or 7 of the Missing Manuals and each and every one of them is extremely well written. These really are the books that should've come with the product. Read more
Published on March 26, 2007 by Stan Dubin
4.0 out of 5 stars Just good
Well, I expected more, may be some new tips, easy to read and some interesting data form google. But definitely didn't improve my search a lot. Read more
Published on March 8, 2007 by Fernando Arteaga Cabello
2.0 out of 5 stars Not very useful
For me, is not a very useful book, because is only a little more of that you can find in the help pages of Google site.
Published on January 9, 2007 by Jose Luis Codina Bonilla
5.0 out of 5 stars All you wanted to know about Google
The problem with Google is that it does not seem to advertise all of its tools, or for that matter, all the functions within their tools. Read more
Published on August 13, 2006 by John C. A. Bambenek
5.0 out of 5 stars Get The Most Out Of Gooooooooooooogle
Without a doubt, Google is the most important and fastest growing software company probably since Microsoft. Read more
Published on May 18, 2006 by Dan McKinnon
5.0 out of 5 stars Second Edition as good as the First
The second edition was only released last month, so all reviews written prior to March 2006 are referring to the first edition. Read more
Published on April 18, 2006 by calvinnme
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