Customer Reviews

Searching and Researching the Internet & WWW - 2nd Edition (Searching and Researching)

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OK. Here is the problem. The internet is still rapidly changing. What this means is that a book, no matter how well written, about the Internet is doomed for failure.

This book talks about search strategy, websites, tools, software, etc. The problem is by time the book is researched, written, submitted and then published the data is not only useless it is frustrating.

I ended up being exposed to this text for a Graduate class on research methods. I work in IT so the class itself wasn't bad for myself but it was sad to watch the frustration on the part of the other students part in trying to translate the text in the book to the internet of then. The issue was the reality was 3 years apart. That just doesn't work for the Internet.

A text would be fine for top level studies of the Internet. A paper text is not the best format for a true drill down on Internet usage. Periodicals, Internet Sites and Interactive Media seem the best platform for learning the technical aspects of the Internet.

I used this book in a graduate course last summer. Its strength is in the activities that it provides. There are step by step instructions that make it easy to learn how to research. The language is fairly straight-forward. The only drawback is that because of the ever-changing Internet, some of the web links used in the exercises are no longer valid or active. Aside from that, it's a good, solid reference for finding validity and reliability on the Internet.

The book has been adopted by many colleges and universities. It is well organized, has a wonderful index, and many useful activities and samples.