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Title:
Extreme Searcher's Guide to Web Search
Engines
Review:
This recently published guide to internet
search engines by renowned internet information expert Randolph
(Ran) Hock sets a new benchmark for the serious study of searching
the web using both established and lesser known search tools.
Written in a clear and accessible style and making full use of
accompanying illustrations to illustrate many of the search
examples he writes about, this book definitely means business,
containing much that is new and useful to both the web novice and
the more seasoned internet searcher.
The book begins with an overview of the (very
brief) history of internet engines together with an examination of
the various mechanisms that go to make-up a 'typical' search
engine (spider and indexing programmes, retrieval engines, web
interfaces etc.). Also featured is a detailed and very useful
comparison of the features provided by all the major search
engines including boolean capabilities, truncation support, phrase
and proximity searching, field searching, etc., with the salient
points summarised in a series of full page graphs (that seem
clearly designed with the busy searcher in mind).
The following chapters contain detailed studies
of the following major engines: AltaVista, Excite, HotBot,
Infoseek, Lycos, Northern Light, WebCrawler and Yahoo! with a full
and practical review of all the features provided for both Simple
and Advanced interfaces (where provided). A separate (though
brief) chapter is also provided on the use of meta search engines,
which also examines the use of both Simple and more Advanced
features. A 'Further Reading' chapter concludes the book with
links to useful search engine related resources (including of
course Free Pint!).
If there are any omissions (and there are)
concerning for example updated features newly provided by the
search engines but not covered in the book, or additional engines
not featured in the reviews (e.g. my current favourite Google),
these are dealt with in the useful web site intended as a
'companion' to the book at
http://www.onstrat.com/engines
I have no hesitation in recommending this book.
I've picked up many new tricks and tips from reading it and I'm
sure you will too.
Free Pint Reviewer:
Nick Lloyd is an internet consultant with
extensive experience of using and searching the internet including
creating and managing internet and intranet sites for major
government agencies. Recent work includes completion of an
extensive internet training programme for Deutsche Bank
http://www.db.com/ conducting
training and workshop based programmes for staff. His interests
include internet design and 'content creation' with a background
in both information work and art and design. He can be contacted
by e-mail at nickllo@rocketmail.com
or on the Web at http://www.lloy.freeserve.co.uk/.
Readers Comments:
"Very useful book. I read it and now quote from it." Anne Ku
The average customer rating at Amazon for this
book is 5 out of 5, from 1 review.
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