Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An outstanding guide to the Google search engine..., June 6, 2004
[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. Also, since Google changes daily, there's always the issue of things being gone or substantially revised by the time you read about it. Still, *knowing* that a feature exists is the first step in learning how it works...
This is a book that will remain close to my home computer, and one that I'll browse through on a regular basis to get those "I missed that feature!" moments...
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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Make the most of Google, July 28, 2004
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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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Obscure but useful abilities of Google, May 29, 2004
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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