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Milstein, Sarah and Dornfest,
Rael Google: the missing
manual Sebastopol, CA:
Pogue Press/O'Reilly, 2004. xii,
299, [1] p. ISBN 0-596-00613-6
£13.95, $19.95
O'Reilly's 'Missing Manual' series is very
useful, given the tendency for software
publishers to rely upon digitised help files.
However, the series' subtitle, The book that
should have been in the box, is hardly
appropriate for a manual on Google, which is
not generally provided in a box, but as a
Website. Nevertheless, a manual is a very good
idea for anyone who wishes to improve his or
her searching skills using this particular search
engine. The resources available at the Google
site are not particularly extensive and are
generally designed to help users who are
experiencing problems with Google.
The skilled information searcher will be aware
of much in this book, but the lay user - that is
the vast majority of users of search engines is
unlikely to be so familiar with the system. It is
possible, perhaps even likely, that a user may
have tried one or other feature of the Advanced
Search, and may have experimented with
searching for images or news items, or have
used the shopping search, Froogle. However,
this is the tip of the iceberg and, in any event,
knowing how to search using each of these
systems is key to success.
The book begins with "Google 101", an
introductory course to searching with Google -
and if someone read only this chapter, their
search strategies and search results would
improve overnight. It introduces phrase
searches, Boolean searching (including the use
of the minus sign for 'NOT') and the use of the
plus sign to force the use of what might
otherwise be a stop word. If you are
responsible for running information skills
courses for students, give them this as essential
reading.
Subsequent chapters deal with other aspects of
searching: Chapter 2, covers various aspects of
the advanced search page; Chapter 3 with
images, news and the directory; Chapter 5,
Froogle; Chapter 6, working with the Google
toolbar; and Chapter 7, 'More cool Google
tools', which covers, among other things,
experimental tools such as WebQuotes. I'll let
you try that one yourself to discover what it
does. Try putting "Information Research: an
international electronic journal" into the box.
Once you've worked your way through all of
that, you are ready to graduate as a Master of
Unparalleled Googling (MUG?), but that's not
all. Other chapters deal with the use of Google
Groups and Google Answers, the fee-based
question-answering service; while Part Four
includes two chapters devoted to Webmasters -
giving information on how to prepare your site
so that Google will find it, or indeed, if you
wish, avoid it; and how to participate in
Google's advertising programmes.
I've already suggested that this book will be of
value in information skills programmes, but
that is too limiting, anyone who searches the
Web regularly needs to read this book - it will
more than repay the relatively modest outlay in
faster and more effective search sessions.
Professor T.D. Wilson
Editor-in-Chief
July 2004
How to cite this review
Wilson, T.D. (2004). Review of: Google: the
missing manual Sebastopol, CA: Pogue
Press/O'Reilly, 2004. Information Research,
9(4), review no. R139 [Available at:
http://informationr.net/ir/reviews/revs139.html]