Search Engines for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (3rd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent research/academia
Review: A week is a year on the web. A minute is a decade on the internet. A book is your old friend to give inspiration.

Rating:
Summary: Great Search Engine Guide
Review: I spend quite a bit of time (much more than I should) doing web searches, due to the amount of hits I get when I look for a particular subject. This book helps to make web searches much less time-consuming and more efficient. One thing I learned early on in this book is that "not all search egnines are created equal," that some engines are better suited to specific searches than others.

I also liked the chapter of the book that discussed "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Web searchers." Among them being to "use the best tool for the job" (the best search engine for your specific search as there as numerous specific search engiens available), choosing unique keywords, and to use multiple search engines (to increase your chances of finding what you want, especially if your search involves a seemingly obscure topic). Sometimes "metasearch engines" can be helpful as well.

The book concentrates on what it considers the "Big Six Search Engines:" AltaVista, Google, HotBot, Lycos, Northern Light, and Yahoo. Each of these engines have specific chapters devoted to them which explain in step by step instructions how to do a basic search and advanced search to narrow your specific search. There are also "quick-reference tables" for basic and advanced searches for each of these engines.

Subsequent chapters touch upon other search engines, like Excite, Nestcape Search, and "specialized engines, like Deja (now owned by Google), Topica, and a Business search engine called Zip2. The last chapter discusses still more specialized search engines. I never knew so many of them existed!

A very informative book for anyone who "surfs the Web" looking for specific information.

Rating:
Summary: excellent way to find your way around on the web
Review: you will find this book extremely helfpul, even if an experienced user of web search engines . . . glosbrenner delivers--again!!!