Web Developer.com(r) Guide to Search Engines

Rating:
Summary: A great tool for designing search engines
Review: I used this textbook to implement a search engine for my company's modest intranet. The textbook is direct and straightforward which allowed me to get a search engine operational by the second day of having the book. The chapters are segmented for exactly the information you need. In fact, the author tells you at the beginning of each chapter if you should read the chapter or skip ahead. This allows the book to be useful for the novice to advance programmer. The textbook is also written with a very animated active voice, which makes the reading entertaining. I found this book to be an excellent resource for my needs and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in implementing their own search engine for their inter/intranet. One of the biggest advantages of the text book was the companion website which offered source code and additional help. I was even able to receive direct help from the author, Tim Macinta. I really got my monies worth on this purchase.

Rating:
Summary: A complete rip-off !
Review: The Java search project is not available as the book claims. The Java code in the book is of *lousy* quality. The project's design is so bad that it would require and entire redesign/rewrite to make it work. Publisher claims the author's can't be found. A real piece of work!

Rating:
Summary: Solid information on complex programs
Review: This book has some fun background on Web Searching, though it doesn't give enough credit to the years of research in Information Retrieval.

If you have any of the site search products covered in this book -- AltaVista Intranet, Excite for Web Servers, Harvest, ht://Dig, Phantom or Ultraseek, the book provides excellent and detailed instructions.

Rating:
Summary: A complete rip-off !
Review: Wes Sonnenreich and Tim Macinta have writen a great book (with a web developer's perspective) on internet and intranet search engines. I found the Guide to Search Engines helpful in adding search capability to my own site. I recommened this book to anyone interested in search engines or adding a search engine to their web site or intranet.