Customer Reviews

How to Do Everything with Google

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Did you know Google can find you best prices, do translations, or even fill out online forms for you?

"How to Do Everything with Google" by Fritz Schneider goes over everything from how to enter a query all the way to configuring your Google toolbar. Whether you are a complete beginner or an advanced web browser, Google will help you use Google to it's fullest capability. The book is very friendly. Has plenty of pictures with notes and does not use technical terms. The chapters were straight to the point and kept short.

To nitpick, the book could have shown examples on some advanced topic such as "advanced operators" to give a better understanding of how to use it. This was probably not included to keep the book beginner friendly.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone that thinks Google is just another good search engine.

Much more than a guide to a user interface, this book increases your internet savvy. Just a few examples: (1) Learn how to browse newsgroups to find the one best suited to your interest; (2) Learn about phonebook and financial information searches; (3) Do unit conversions instantly with Google's calculator. More than anything, this book will make you a more comfortable web searcher. One reading of it is worth hours of experimentation. Go directly to the internet fast lane!

I completely disagreed with the "know it alls" that trash this book. This is in fact the people's "primer" for the 21st Century. In the industrial era one needed to learn reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. Today one needs to know how to find the needle in the haystack. While Google is still in the 4th grade, it will evolve quickly in the next few years, and the Google founders appear well on their way to making all of the world's information available to anyone anywhere. This will itself change the world.

This is a tremendous resource, and I do not consider it outdated because it is still the best available orientation to Google. I do agree that there are online supplements that can update the knowledge in this book and cover emerging capabilities from Google.

Bottom line: Google is central to all our lives now, this book is a useful jump start to anyone who wishes to leverage all of Google, not just the 10% most people see. For advanced IT people, I recommend Stephen Arnold's book, "The Google Legacy," available from Infonortics.co.uk, or at IOP '06 in January 2006.

I've been using Google for years now and I pretty much thought I knew it all. I had the Google Toolbar on my browser and I knew a few shortcuts for some of the more advanced search features. How much more could there be? As it turns out, PLENTY! That simple interface really belies the advanced search machinery behind it!

With the number of pages now indexed by Google exceeding 4 billion, it really helps to understand how the search engine works so you can cut to the chase and find what you're looking for. This book really helps explain just that and it does it in an easy to read, easy to understand way. It also explains many of the lesser know features of Google. It's not just Search anymore! A solid 5 out of 5 stars!

I thought I knew Google moderately well. It turns out, I didn't. I now know it better, and have a book to help me find more information more quickly when I need to. The book covers basic web search, and goes through a number of the more esoteric features (did you know you can do arithmetic in the search bar?) and goes on to discuss the news, Usenet news groups, directory, image search and Froogle, amongst other features. There's a little technical information about how Google does its stuff, but appropriately located in an appendix.

The book is easily understood by anyone who can type 'google' in the search bar of their browser, and it will make you realize what an astounding resource Google is.

It's a comprehensive and well-organized guide to get you quickly and easily through the search basics and onto the essentials to help you get the most from your search efforts. The "How to", "Did You Know?" and "Note" boxes in grey, are great visual cues that make it easy to figure out what to read and what to skip depending on your interest, or level of expertise on any given search topic. And what a great title for the book! Who knew you really could do so much with Google?! While I'm thoroughly impressed with the content, I'm truly amazed that a "How to" book could be such a fun and a compelling read. Being an non-techie-type person, I still can't believe I stayed up late just to learn about the way-cool converter/calculator feature. Now I can't wait to try out all that I've learned!

Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman and Eric Fredricksen did indeed an excellent job with this book.

Every chapter is full of valuable information and has helped me to discover that Google is not just the search engine I had been so used to for many years. Before reading this book I had no idea abouth all the things that can be done with Google. No wonder the authors named this book "How to Do EVERYTHING with Google."

I was particularly surprised by discovering the Google Calculator, and got so exited that decided to write an online keyboard for the calculator (...)

I loved the note at the end of Chapter 3 that says: "The Calculator is even rumored to hold the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Just ask!"

I believe this is a must book in this information era. Don't lose your time trying to use Google to find what Google can do, get the bigger picture first by reading this book, and then start the adventure. You will be surprised.

James Redin

I purchased this book at the recommendation of my grandson, our family's resident hacker and wiz. I have to say I learned quite a bit about google by reading this book. Although I would not call myself a google expert, I will say that I am now a "power user". This books is not only thorough but written well enough that a non technical person such as myself can read it. Excellent job. Well done!

First, this book was published in 2004, so it is current.

Second, the authors are Google insiders, so it is accurate.

Third, "Each of Google's features is explained at a basic level so as to accomodate novices,..."

If you don't search every day, this book will make you better!

Yes, there are many books out there on using Google. Yes, this is a good book for teaching the new user about using Google. But this information can easily be found anywhere on the Internet. The only chapter I found useful was the advanced searching portion. I read that in less than five minutes, however, and I am far from being a speed reader.

Also, it is only a matter of time before the information becomes outdated. It may already be outdated. Google is constantly changing and being updated (Google Labs) and a lot of this book will be useless by next year.

Finally, Google is very easy and simple to learn. Anyone can be a "power searcher" after learning just a few short lessons. You don't have to spend this much money to get a book that you can read in about five minutes.