Google: The Missing Manual

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 463 pages
• Published by: Pogue Press
• Edition: 2nd Edition August 1, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0596100191
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0596100193
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 pounds

Product Description
Google.com is one of the most popular sites on the Internet and is used around the world by millions of people every day. Sure, you know how to "Google it" when you're searching for something--anything!--on the Web. It's plenty fast and easy to use. But did you know how much more you could achieve with the world's best search engine by clicking beyond the "Google Search" button?

While you can interface with Google in 97 languages and glean results in 35, you can't find any kind of instruction manual from Google. Lucky for you, our fully updated and greatly expanded second edition to the bestselling Google: The Missing Manual covers everything you could possibly want to know about Google, including the newest and coolest--and often most underused (what is Froogle, anyway?)--features. There's even a full chapter devoted to Gmail, Google's free email service that includes a whopping 2.5 GB of space).

This wise and witty guide delivers the complete scoop on Google, from how it works to how you can search far more effectively and efficiently (no more scrolling through 168 pages of seemingly irrelevant results); take best advantage of Google's lesser-known features, such as Google Print, Google Desktop, and Google Suggest; get your website listed on Google; track your visitors with Google Analytics; make money with AdWords and AdSense; and much more.

Whether you're new to Google or already a many-times-a-day user, you're sure to find tutorials, tips, tricks, and tools that take you well beyond simple search to Google gurudom.

About The Author
(author and editor) is O'Reilly Media's Managing Editor for Consumer Books. Previously, she was the Missing Manual series editor and a freelance business and technology reporter. She has been a regular contributor to The New York Times and a slew of other publications, most of them now defunct. When not planted at the keyboard, she likes to take epic walks, play poker, watch baseball, and rearrange the furniture.

(author, Chapter 11 and revisions throughout the book) is the author of iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual and The iPod Shuffle Fan Book and sometimes even writes about things other than iPods. She does the weekly computer Q&A column for The New York Times and is equally obsessed with the BBC World News and the banjo in her spare time.

(author, Chapters 8 and 9, previous edition) is O'Reilly Media's Chief Technology Officer. He has co-authored various O'Reilly books, including Mac OS X Hacks, Google Hacks, Essential Blogging, and Peer to Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies, and he's program chair for the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. Email: googlemm@raelity.org.

(author, Chapter ten and revisions in Chapter 9) is an author, educator, and programmer extraordinaire. He's the author of Excel: The Missing Manual, Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual, and over a dozen books about .NET programming.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Google: The Missing Manual (Paperback) [Edited review for 2nd edition - 05/20/2006] Every time I read a book on Google, I find new stuff to get excited about (and get reminded about stuff I need to use more). This one is no different... Google: The Missing Manual (2nd Edition) by Sarah Milstein, J. D. Biersdorfer, and Matthew MacDonald. Contents: Part 1 - Searching with Google: Google 101; Superior Searching Part 2 - Google Tools: Googling Further - Images, News, Maps, and More; Googling with Others - Groups and Answers; Shopping with Google; The Google Toolbar; More Cool Google Tools Part 3 - Google for Webmasters: Becoming a Search Result; Making Money with Google; Google Analytics Part 4 - Gmail: Gmail Part 5 - Appendix: The Google Wide Web Index The book starts out with the requisite coverage on the search syntax of Google. For those who have never gone beyond a basic search, this will be an eye-opener. For people like me who have tried some of the other options, this serves as a good refresher for some techniques I may have forgotten. The book really becomes valuable to me once it gets into the second part. That's where I'm reminded about and exposed to the other features of Google that fall outside the normal searching. For instance, I didn't know that you could do a personalized homepage using Google (much like MyYahoo). I have that going on now. Google Desktop? I'm inclined to try it again after having dropped it during the initial download frenzy. And using SMS and my cell phone to get Google information like driving directions might become a regular part of my techie toolbox. While it's true you can dig around on the Google site and find all this stuff ("why buy a book for it?"), I much prefer to have that type of information packaged up for me. Also, since Google changes daily, there's always the issue of things being gone or substantially revised by the time you read about it. Still, *knowing* that a feature exists is the first step in learning how it works... This is a book that will remain close to my home computer, and one that I'll browse through on a regular basis to get those "I missed that feature!" moments...