Rating: 
Summary: once you know the answer - it was obvious all along
Review: I've read gerry mcgovern's columns on web use for years - he has quite a cult following - and always thought he spoke a lot of sense. I was reluctant to spring for a full price copy, but eventually dug deep.
He talks sense here at greater length and the money was well spent.
The very first of mcgovern's arguments is that almost everywhere but T&A sites (he doesn't say that) people come to the web and read. Calling them users is kind of stupidly non-specific. People use toasters and bicycles and cheese-graters. It is a useless description.
He calls them readers. Once you accept that, all kinds of mysteries of web-design become clear. All the pop-ups, and funny colours and distracting gee-gaws become an obstruction to the purpose of the site - they distract readers from what they are there to read.
Even ads - if they bring in the money to keep the site going, but then stop people from reading it - then what was the point?
McGovern and Norton lay out how you should create a site that has effective content nice and simply.
They don't pretend to be high priests who hold the secret, just people who've looked at what works and they can help you do it too. I made just a couple of changes to my site, dearauntie, after reading the first couple of chapters and I could feel the difference.
Like a lot of plain good sense, once you've read it, it all seems perfectly obvious - it is hard to believe you didn't know that all along. But if it was so obvious, how come you kept littering your site with pop-ups and flash. After all, if they're such a good idea, how come turn-the-pages books outsell pop-ups by about ten million to one.
Go on, buy it, it'll improve your site, and it is a tax deductible after all.
Rating:
Summary: get the basics right for developing a website
Review: If you have to manage a website with a lot of content, say more than 20 or 30 pages, this book will help you a lot. 'Content Critical' brings a publisher's and an editor's view to content for the web. It explains it in a way that makes it simple for people with a managerial or technical point of view to understand. 'Content Critical' talks about topics such as metadata and full-text search, but looks on them from an editorial point of view, rather than a technical point of view. Unlike other books on related topics, this one starts with what your customers want, not with the technical ramifications. As the book says, the main thing people do when they visit a website is read. To make it a pleasant visit, the text has to be readable and it has to be pretty obvious how to find your way around the website. If you already have a journalistic background, you'll find this a useful handbook for website issues, as well as a good reference for colleagues who come from a different worldview. If you don't have a journalistic background, it's an invaluable introduction. You will learn a lot from this book about the basic nuts and bolts of running a big website.
Rating:
Summary: Great insight into Web publishing
Review: In this wonderfully straightforward book, Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton show why the success of your business depends, more and more, on getting "the right content to the right person at the right time." Their book cuts through the dot com hyperbole to show why your content is critical to profit. On the Web, therefore, we are all becoming publishers. With common sense, good humor, and sharp focus, McGovern and Norton give practical step-by-step advice on creating and managing content. I think you'll laugh out loud, as you mark passages to quote to your boss and your team.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a Logical Approach: The Medium is NOT the Message!
Review: The cliched explosion of the web has resulted in a wide spread phenomenon of lousy writing, bad grammar and useless information. With the advent of applications that makes everyone a website publisher, the technology has run away with the cart, leaving behind the entire purpose of the World Wide Web: communication. But communication shouldn't be about "See how I can write kewl code". It should be about COMMUNICATING. And doing that on the web requires an approach that is though out, literal and utilizes an economy of words. For the past year, as Director of Information Services and Web Producer for Drury (I spent 5 years prior to this doing websites for MSN), I have been fortunate to understand this from the get go. But when the Dean of the Evening school approach me and asked me to teach a class, utilizing my approach, I knew I needed a textbook to compliment the material. It was a wonderful surprise to find Content Critical. The book fits the course to a T. The medium (in this case, the Web), is NOT the message and Content Critical does a terrific job of laying out the reasons why content itself must take priority and then even more importantly, the reader is the number one priority. The book has been of great value in getting this vital rule across to the students. I also recommend the companion book: The Content Critical Style Guide. You'll use it for years as a reference book on how to deal with a variety of issues from abbreviations to capitilizations.
Rating: 
Summary: Importance of Content
Review: The importance of this book is that the authors genuinely provide advice that is authoritative and comprehensive. What is pleasantly surprising is their ability to put it in layman terms - this is amazing. It is also suitable as a reference book. I totally agree with the contents of the book as I run a few portals. This book is a must-read for people who have a web presence. Aspiring writers will also find this book very relevant to prepare them to have an online presence. Good work.
Rating:
Summary: Doing it right on the World Wide Web
Review: The World Wide Web is the world's largest publishing medium, and one of the most important. It is a news source, reference tool, sales venue, meeting point, marketplace, exchange, and entertainment center. It is also an information point and service center. The Web connects millions of organizations to many kinds of clients, customers, members, and publics. The Web is one of the great tools of the information society. It is also our greatest source of information overload. Web problems commonly develop because individuals and organizations fail to recognize that using the Web to aggregate and distribute information is publishing. Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton have written this useful book to help those who write, edit, or design Web content to publish effectively. Effective Web publishing involves getting the right content to the right person at the right time. In this useful, well written book, McGovern and Norton explain how to do it. Content Critical book is a how-to-do-it manual. Written in direct, clear language, the book offers systematic explanation for dozens of useful techniques and principles. It is also a primer in the theory of Web publishing. It explains why the techniques and principles work. It encourages readers to develop a useful philosophy and theory of web design. Most web sites do not work well and many do not work at all. McGovern and Norton attribute this to the lack of common publishing standards on the Web, where the libertarian attitude toward freedom of content is mistakenly confused with failure to consider legibility, ease of use, and ease of navigation. According to McGovern and Norton, this confusion is made worse by designers who mistake the web for an extension of MTV and programmers who see the Web as a playground for new technologies. The solution this book offers is a five-stage publishing strategy with usable checklists and serious conceptual tools for analyzing the situation, defining publishing scope, designing information architecture, building a publishing team, and designing appropriate technology. This book is highly recommended. It belongs in every design library. It should be on the reading list of every course in Web design. Any Web designer who plans to be in business five years from now should read this book. KF Ken Friedman. Book review. Design Research News, Volume 7, Number 1, Jan 2002 ISSN 1473-3862.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: There are relatively few books available regarding presenting content on the Internet. This book, Content Critical, not only serves a need but is also a great book for anyone publishing to the Internet. It opened my eyes to so many web content related issues that I had never even considered before. Web content is much different than hard-copy material and the author points this out in the clearest and comprehensive way. For authors, Web content managers, web designers and developers, as well as marketers on the Web, I highly recommend reading this as well as the Style Book by Mr. McGovern.
Rating:
Summary: Gerry is on target.
Review: This book is a must read for those planning, creating or managing websites.
The sub-title of the book captures what it is about, Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content. Gerry McGovern, through his internet newsletter, New Thinking, has been on a consistent crusade to get all of us to recognize the working content of a web site is words (effective messages) and that website visitors are readers. The book examines this reality in considerable detail and contains many helpful suggestions for improving the effectiveness of website investments The writers make the point that a website is essentially a publication, and needs to be managed in the same sense. The site publisher needs an involved editor, and should use skilled writers----and should not leave content to the nearly obsolete "webmaster" The authors make the point that in many cases the words in a web site are not written with needs of the reader in mind and fail to get the desired response. Their message as too "the seven things readers want from your web site" is a real gem. These are: 1.Readers want to be able to find things.
2.Readers want your advice.
3.Readers want up-to-date, quality content
4.Readers want relevant and straightforward content.
5.Readers want to do things
6.Readers want to interact
7.Readers want Privacy. Two passages from the book are effective summaries of its main message, "Remember that the reader is king of the Web, and that everything about your website needs to be done with the reader in mind, is the key to online success.
If you know your readers, know how they behave in our information-literate society, and know the seven things they want from your website, you'll be well on your way to success. Remember the best word that sums up the online reader is - impatient". "Few investments in website design are as critical - and as difficult - as planning, testing and implementing a navigation systems that's simple, intuitive and comprehensive enough to serve readers. ..........Readers like a variety of ways to navigate through a website. Make sure you include a wide enough range of navigation options to account for different readers' habits and tastes". The book is filled with clear thinking, practical advice and suggestions. It is an absorbing read, worth your time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Great ideas, somewhat wordy and repetitive presentation
Review: This book is primarily about web site design, although that may not be very obvious from the title. I wish many more web site authors and publishers would read this sort of book, though. The overall premise is that the job of producing and running a web site has a lot in common with traditional paper publishing. Central to this idea, and the inspiration for the title, is that whatever the site, people actually visit it to read words. Not to look at pictures. Not to admire layout or coo at dynamic navigation menus. To find and read content. Everything else is at best irrelevant, at worst a distracting nuisance or even a reason to leave the site completely. I wholeheartedly agree with this, and generally follow with the recommendations that the author makes about how to encourage and profit from this understanding: keep things simple, short, and fresh; understand your readers; make it easy to find stuff; treat editing and publishing as key business functions and so on. What I find slightly disappointing is that the book itself doesn't entirely embody these values. The style is repetitive and often long-winded. As a well-edited web site or a conference presentation this would pack a much more powerful punch. I felt I understood the essential message quite early in the book, and finished reading it mostly out of duty.
Rating:
Summary: Great ideas, somewhat wordy and repetitive presentation
Review: This book is primarily about web site design, although that may not be very obvious from the title. I wish many more web site authors and publishers would read this sort of book, though. The overall premise is that the job of producing and running a web site has a lot in common with traditional paper publishing. Central to this idea, and the inspiration for the title, is that whatever the site, people actually visit it to read words. Not to look at pictures. Not to admire layout or coo at dynamic navigation menus. To find and read content. Everything else is at best irrelevant, at worst a distracting nuisance or even a reason to leave the site completely. I wholeheartedly agree with this, and generally follow with the recommendations that the author makes about how to encourage and profit from this understanding: keep things simple, short, and fresh; understand your readers; make it easy to find stuff; treat editing and publishing as key business functions and so on. What I find slightly disappointing is that the book itself doesn't entirely embody these values. The style is repetitive and often long-winded. As a well-edited web site or a conference presentation this would pack a much more powerful punch. I felt I understood the essential message quite early in the book, and finished reading it mostly out of duty.
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