Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web Review

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(More customer reviews)In Information Trapping, Tara Calishain does a good job covering the basics of automated searching and information trapping, and even covers more advanced topics like re-publishing the information you find to a blog or Wiki. The writing is clear and concise, and the structure is easy to follow.
Chapters include:
What is Information Trapping
RSS Basics
Page Monitors
Email Alerts
Building Queries
Who's Linking to Your Site?
Trapping Topic-Based Information
Multimedia Trapping
Trapping tags and Conversations
Filtering the Inflow
Case Studies
Organizing What You Find
Publishing Your Information
Throughout the book, the author does a good job of mentioning the best sites you can use today to find and mine information, and explores some advanced search engine query syntax, and methods of emailing, filtering, and organizing the information your search will return.
If you are looking to extract data from the web, Information Trapping is a good primer on using automated methods to find information on the web.

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How many times have you run a Google search that resulted in thousands of results? With over 8 billion pages online and more posted every day, the Web more than likely contains the information you're looking for — if only you could find it. In Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web, Internet-search-engine expert Tara Calishain makes researching more efficient and rewarding for anyone for whom the Web is an indispensable tool — academics, journalists, scientists, and professionals, as well as bloggers, genealogists, and hobbyists. She does so by teaching the latest techniques for building automated information-gathering systems. As an alternative to the typical one-time search for information, Tara demonstrates how readers can use RSS feeds, page monitoring tools, and other software to set up information streams of many different data types — from text to multimedia to conversations — for capture and review.

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Cognitive Interviewing: A Tool for Improving Questionnaire Design Review

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(More customer reviews)After conducting over 100 cognitive interviews I came across this book. Some of the theory I'd read previously suggested I should have been much tighter with the interview protocol.
Willis' book was both reassuring and challenging. He outlines the theoretical background to cognitive interviewing, and talks about the different styles of cognitive interviews that one could do. To my relief, I hadn't done mine wrong, I'd just used a less structured style. On the other hand, it was a challenge to read about how else I could have done them and whether I should be trying a more standardised format in future.
What was best about this book was the practicality of it. Apart from information on the various styles of interviews and the various sorts of probing questions possible, I really appreciated the chapters on the skills a cognitive interviewer needs, how to train and supervise interviewers, how to recruit participants, and various ways to record individual interviews, and best of all how to report the findings from the interviews.
If you actually need to do some cognitive interviews, rather than just write about the theory, this is definitely THE BOOK to have. I've read it from cover to cover, promoted it at a conference, and have referenced it in about four different report in the last three months.

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The design and evaluation of questionnaires-and of other written and oral materials-is a challenging endeavor, fraught with potential pitfalls. Cognitive Interviewing: A Tool for Improving Questionnaire Design describes a means of systematically developing survey questions through investigations that intensively probe the thought processes of individuals who are presented with those inquiries. The work provides general guidance about questionnaire design, development, and pre-testing sequence, with an emphasis on the cognitive interview. In particular, the book gives detailed instructions about the use of verbal probing techniques, and how one can elicit additional information from subjects about their thinking and about the manner in which they react to tested questions. These tools help researchers discover how well their questions are working, where they are failing, and determine what they can do to rectify the wide variety of problems that may surface while working with questionnaires.

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Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online Review

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(More customer reviews)I was sadly disappointed by this book. I expected a book that would tell me about doing netnography using the modern Internet. All the examples used the old Usenet newsgroups. There was no information about doing ethnographic research with blogs. About 95% of the book could have been written 15-years ago and it was applicable then. It lacks awareness of how Web 2.0 changed the face of online communities.

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This exciting new text is the first to explore the discipline of ‘Netnography' - the conduct of ethnography over the internet - a method specifically designed to study cultures and communities online. For the first time, full procedural guidelines for the accurate and ethical conduct of ethnographic research online are set out, with detailed, step-by-step guidance to thoroughly introduce, explain, and illustrate the method to students and researchers. The author also surveys the latest research on online cultures and communities, focusing on the methods used to study them, with examples focusing on the new elements and contingencies of the blogosphere (blogging), microblogging, videocasting, podcasting, social networking sites, virtual worlds, and more.

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Consumerology: The Market Research Myth, the Truth About Consumers, and the Psychology of Shopping Review

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(More customer reviews)If you let market research dictate your business decisions, consumer behavior expert Philip Graves thinks you're making a big mistake. Market research, he says, can't predict customers' buying decisions because it focuses on the wrong criteria - a conscious-mind, logical thinking process. But consumers almost never make buying decisions like that, although they'll insist they do. Instead, they make choices, quickly and efficiently, with their unconscious minds. Business owners who understand this and who apply Graves's criteria to their research will gain valuable insights into what their customers really think and want. While just about anyone who shops can enjoy this entertaining, informative book, getAbstract believes it will help business owners and marketers - if not to read their customers' minds, then at least to understand them better.

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Market research is a myth. Philip Graves, one of the world's leading experts in consumer behaviour, reveals why the findings obtained from most market research are completely unreliable. Whether it is company executives seeking to define their corporate strategy or politicians wanting to understand the electorate, the idea that questions answered on a questionnaire or discussed in a focus group can provide useful insights on which to base business decisions is the cause of product failures, political blunders and wasted billions.Consumer.ology exposes some of the most expensive examples of research-driven thinking clouding judgement, experience and evidence – from New Coke to General Motors, from Mattel to the Millennium Dome – and instances of success through ignoring market research, such as Baileys and Dr Who. It also shows organisations the tools they should be using if they want to understand their customers.Using his unique AFECT approach, a set of five criteria to evaluate the reliability of any consumer insight, Graves asserts that it's time for a fresh approach that embraces this new understanding of human behaviour. Along the way, he reveals why the current practice of market research is a false science, why we often don't buy what we say we will, and how to understand consumers better than they do themselves. After reading Consumer.ology business leaders and politicians will never look at market research in the same way again.

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Successful Business Research: Straight to the Numbers You Need - Fast Review

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(More customer reviews)
I really liked this book a lot. I think there has been a real need for something like this publication for some time now. When I have SCORE clients ask me about what is involved in creating a great business plan for their idea, then this book will be one of the ones I will recommend they read to help. I highly recommend it. It is well organized and well written. And it includes quite a number of computer screen captures to make it easy to follow.
While I couldn't use it to specifically help me use the online research databases my public library subscribes to, I certainly could use it to get a feel for using online research databases and the kind of information to look for at my public library. Keep in mind that Web sites, library subscriptions, and URLs are all subject to change over time. But the process of doing business research remains constant. And you will see and learn about the process by reading this book.
This book is comprised of the following four sections:
1. Research essentials
2. The research process
3. Major resources
4. Straight to the numbers
My favorite was Part II (The research process), but Part III had a goldmine of resources cited. My hunch is that the URLs in the third part will get dated eventually. But as of right now they are all still hot. And I thought chapters 15 (Researching an industry), 16 (Researching a company), and 17 (Researching a target market) were wonderful. The meat of doing research for a business plan has to do with learning about the industry, market, and the main competitors in that business' market. 5 stars!

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Whether you're seeking outside financing for your business or not, you need well-researched, verifiable numbers to support your business plan. But the process of finding that data has been painful and expensive—until now. This one-of-a-kind product will take you step by step through the process of gathering critical, totally customized information and data about your business's industry, target market, and competition. Harnessing the often difficult-to-master power of the nation's leading public and private data sources, this book not only takes you to the information, but shows you how to filter it, interpret it, and use it to your business's advantage.
From the Publisher

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