Searching and Researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)OK. Here is the problem. The internet is still rapidly changing. What this means is that a book, no matter how well written, about the Internet is doomed for failure.
This book talks about search strategy, websites, tools, software, etc. The problem is by time the book is researched, written, submitted and then published the data is not only useless it is frustrating.
I ended up being exposed to this text for a Graduate class on research methods. I work in IT so the class itself wasn't bad for myself but it was sad to watch the frustration on the part of the other students part in trying to translate the text in the book to the internet of then. The issue was the reality was 3 years apart. That just doesn't work for the Internet.
A text would be fine for top level studies of the Internet. A paper text is not the best format for a true drill down on Internet usage. Periodicals, Internet Sites and Interactive Media seem the best platform for learning the technical aspects of the Internet.

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Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been reading sales and prospecting books for 25 years, and this book is in the handful that I have ever recommended to other people that sell for a living. Sam Richter's book describes in specific detail how to use free Internet resources to find out every relevant, timely and sales oriented detail imaginable about every prospect you want to do business with. In your first cold call to that prospect you will know more about the prospect's business problem--and how your product or service can specifically solve that problem--than any other sales person that has ever called that prospect before.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: This book is now in its 8th Edition, published September, 2011, and the content has been updated to accurately reflect current search techniques and websites.If information is power, Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling is ''power on steroids!'' Know more than you ever thought you could (or should) about your clients, prospects, and competition. No more winging it. No more guessing what the other person cares about. Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling is a fascinating journey into the world of information, how to easily find it, and how to apply it to make sure you are offering relevant solutions. By practicing the techniques taught in the book, you will make a great first impression during sales calls and you will provide value and build meaningful and mutually beneficial client relationships. Once you master Warm Call techniques, you win more business, establish deep relationships with clients, and have more fun.In Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling you'll discover the secret world on online information, how to find it, and how to use it. You'll get step-by-step instructions along with real examples. You'll learn...
How to build deep and meaningful relationships with prospect and clients.
Ways to access highly qualified lead lists -- for FREE!
Tips and tricks for popular search engines get it right the first time.
How to use Google like a pro -- it's scary what you can find once you know how to look.
Social networks including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and the secrets on how to use them as amazingly powerful Sales Intelligence engines.
The ''Invisible Web'' -- sites most people and search engines don't know about and can't find.
How to access premium information resources at no or very low cost.
The theory of the ''Fourth R'' and value-based ''warm call selling.''
How to massively increase your credibility with prospects and existing clients.
How to use the ''Customer Data Aggregator'' and expert ''Warm Call Scripts'' to organize information and make a great first impression.
If you are involved in business development, sales, or account management in any way, you've ''cold called.'' Any time you meet with a prospect or existing client without knowing about them, their issues, and how your company is relevant to something they care about, you run the risk of losing credibility and worse, losing the deal. The top 1% of business development pros and sales people understand the value of information, how to access it, and how to apply it and win. With Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling, you'll get the tools and training you need to join the club.The book includes full access to the online Know More! Resource Center and downloadable Toolbar, making it easy (and FUN) to practice what you learn. Awards: Sales Book of the Year Medalist USA Book News Book of the YearAxiom Business Book Awards Medalist

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The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am one who has been very outspoken about the more shady SEO practitioners and about the ridiculously overprices "courses" that are heavily promoted on the Internet. SEO has acquired some of the taint of huckster marketing because of that.
I hope this book helps eliminate some of that. There's no need to pay some self-styled "Internet Guru" hundreds or thousands of dollars for SEO secrets. There are no secrets: every concept, every "trick", every piece of advice is available on the Internet for free. Of course you have to find it all, you have to learn what things are outdated, what advice doesn't work - or you could find 99% here in this book.
Of course it's not for everyone. It assumes some technical knowledge or at least access to someone with that knowledge. As an example, at several points 301 redirects are used as the solution certain SEO issues. Although some minor direction is given about implementing these, you'd need more than is provided here if you were a neophyte - someone using Blogger or [...] isn't going to become proficient with Apache from reading this.
The only small complaint I can make is that sometimes the authors use too many examples, especially for the more basic concepts at the beginning of the book. However, too many is far better than too few, so I won't complain too much. I definitely can't complain that they left anything out: this could serve as a course book for a SEO class.
I'll be recommending this strongly.

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A well-designed, easy-to-navigate website is useless if no one can find it. If your company is going to succeed in the web economy, optimizing your site for search engine visibility is essential. In this book, four of the most noted experts in the field of search engine optimization (SEO) provide you with proven guidelines and cutting-edge techniques for planning and executing a comprehensive SEO strategy. The authors clearly explain SEO fundamentals, while correcting many common misconceptions. If you are new to SEO, you'll get a complete and thorough SEO education, as well as an array of effective tactics, from basic to advanced. Seasoned practitioners will find this book useful as a complete reference to SEO best practices.

Explore the underlying theory behind SEO and how search engines work
Learn the steps you need to prepare for, execute, and evaluate SEO initiatives
Examine a number of advanced strategies and tactics
Understand the intricacies involved in managing complex SEO projects
Learn what's necessary to build a competent SEO team with defined roles
Glimpse the future of search and what lies ahead for the SEO industry

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SEO Warrior Review

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(More customer reviews)I just finished reading SEO Warrior today. I'm a professional developer (mostly systems engineering in C, python, and java), but I dabble in best-practices web design on my spare time for fun. I picked up a copy of this book as I've heard a lot about "SEO" in the industry, but wasn't sure whether or not it was something real, or just a buzz word.
The author of this book, John I. Jerkovic does an excellent job not only detailing exactly how SEO works, but also why it works, what is good, and what is bad. The book starts out by proving certain SEO elements are legitimate, by using some perl program to perform a large amount of searches for popular keywords, then compare HTML elements of the top ranked sites to see what they have in common (keyword density, title element, meta tags, etc.) In my opinion, this alone was worth the money, as it clearly shows by real-world example, that SEO does work, and proves what elements are more important than others.
The material covered is very thorough (and at times, a bit too wordy), and will leave you with no questions unanswered. The author covers:
- tools to help you test your websites for SEO
- how to use google, yahoo, and bing searches to look for competitors
- how to use google, yahoo, and bing optimizations elements in your HTML pages to promote "organic SEO"
- how to avoid search engine spam
- how the nofollow attribute works
- how to create a sitemap
- how to write a robots.txt file
- where to look for relevant information on SEO
- how to use advertising to your advantage
- how to get money by showing ads on your website
- how to find and detect blackhat SEO
- how to use social media sites (twitter, facebook, etc.) to establish your brand
and a good deal of other topic.
The book is a bit thick, coming in at around 400 pages of content, but has quite a few diagrams illustrating google, yahoo, and bing webmaster tools (among other things), which take up ~5 -> 10% of the total pages. It is a very easy read, not very heavy on coding, but also not too high level.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who does web design themselves, and is interested in making their pages popular, but doesn't really know anything about SEO. The book teaches you everything you'll need to know, and takes you from nothing to everything in a few days.


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How can you make it easier for people to find your website? And how can you convert casual visitors into active users? SEO Warrior shows you how it's done through a collection of tried and true techniques, hacks, and best practices. Learn the nuts and bolts of search engine optimization (SEO) theory, the importance of keyword strategy, and how to avoid and remedy search engine traps.

You'll also learn about search engine marketing (SEM) practices, such as Google AdWords, and how you can use social networking to increase your visibility. Ideal for web developers, savvy marketers, webmasters, and anyone else interested in SEO, this book serves not only as an SEO tutorial, but also as a reference for implementing effective SEO techniques.

Create compelling sites with SEO that can stand the test of time
Optimize your site for Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft's Bing, as well as search engines used in different parts of the world
Conduct keyword research to find the best terms to reach your audience--and the related terms they'll respond to
Learn what makes search engines tick by utilizing custom scripts
Analyze your site to see how it measures up to the competition

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Building Research Tools with Google For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a webmaster, and I use Google everyday - both in connection with my sites, and also to research all kinds of things. This book will have you building research tools that extend Google. But more important, it will you teach about how to research, what is Google and what is not, how Google works, how to evaluate the credibility of what you find, and much more. If you teach someone to fish, you feed them for life. This book will help you research for life. It's the best book about Google I've read, and believe me I've read a few. If Google touches your life, get this book.

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Google—a funny name for a fabulous tool. You've already used it to look up all sorts of information on the Web almost instantly. Now what if you could use its amazing abilities to turbo-charge your research on a grand scale?
Building Research Tools With Google For Dummies can help you do just that. In plain English, it shows you easy ways to:
Ask Google exactly what you want to know
Determine whether what you need can actually be found through Google, and where to look if the answer is "no"
Improve your research results
Present your findings in a way that makes sense
Write your own specialized search applications—if you want to

To get the most from Google, you need to understand Google. Building Research Tools With Google For Dummies explains how Google works and how you can build more effective queries (hint: it's a lot more than just using the "Advanced Search" techniques!) It even shows you how to think like a researcher and how to package the results of your research so it means something to your audience. You'll be able to:
Understand Google research techniques and use the custom search-related syntax
Recognize Google's strengths—and limitations
Target your search by using Google operators
Use Google to research photos, or even an entire industry
Improve the effectiveness of your results by understanding Google's comparative methodology
Build custom tools using WDSL and Web Services

You don't have to become a programmer to use Google, but if you know a little about software development and want to explore new, more focused search techniques, Building Research Tools With Google For Dummies has a section just for you. It introduces you to the Google API, shows you how to download a developer key, and leads you through building a C# .Net Google application. On the companion Web site, you'll find the source code and software discussed in the book as well as links to lots of other resources for researchers. Before you know it, you'll be Googling your way to research success!

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Google's PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings Review

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(More customer reviews)Langville and Meyer have done a superb job describing both Google's technical foundations, and the broader subject of how search engines rank pages. Over half the book is devoted to explaining the maths and rationales behind PageRank. The level of maths is understandable to those who have done some university level courses on linear algebra (i.e. matrices).
The book also has considerable value in analysing what other organisations (like search engines) and researchers have cobbled together. It gives a useful summation of the state of the research, circa 2006. Essentially, everyone seems to focus on link analysis, after Google revolutionised the industry in 1998 by using this. It blew away the previous leader, AltaVista.
It is true, as the authors point out, that most of the material here has already been published. But as discrete events, scattered through various scientific journals and websites. You can certainly get explanations of PageRank on several websites. But the mathematical depth and reliability of those discussions can vary with the site. The book is far handier.
It is a good starting point, if you are interesting in devising your own search methods.

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Why doesn't your home page appear on the first page of search results, even when you query your own name? How do other web pages always appear at the top? What creates these powerful rankings? And how? The first book ever about the science of web page rankings, Google's PageRank and Beyond supplies the answers to these and other questions and more.

The book serves two very different audiences: the curious science reader and the technical computational reader. The chapters build in mathematical sophistication, so that the first five are accessible to the general academic reader. While other chapters are much more mathematical in nature, each one contains something for both audiences. For example, the authors include entertaining asides such as how search engines make money and how the Great Firewall of China influences research.

The book includes an extensive background chapter designed to help readers learn more about the mathematics of search engines, and it contains several MATLAB codes and links to sample web data sets. The philosophy throughout is to encourage readers to experiment with the ideas and algorithms in the text.

Any business seriously interested in improving its rankings in the major search engines can benefit from the clear examples, sample code, and list of resources provided.

Many illustrative examples and entertaining asides
MATLAB code
Accessible and informal style
Complete and self-contained section for mathematics review

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The Google Way: How One Company Is Revolutionizing Management as We Know It Review

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(More customer reviews)I usually don't read business books, but I was intrigued by the the subject of this book. Who wouldn't want to know about how Google achieved market domination, became one of the largest companies on the planet, and has vowed to "don't be evil?" (Do other companies say, we won't be evil unless it suits our purposes?)
The book was written by Bernard Girard, a French management consultant who has been observing the Google "phenomenon" for years.
It is divided into an introduction, and three sections. The sections talk about current management, putting users first, and sustainability of the current model. Business history of rife with stories of companies that dominated their market niche, but weren't able to sustain their positions. General Motors is the current example that comes to mind, but there are many.
I work in the medical area, and have run or been involved in small medical businesses for many years. I found the descriptions of the Google way to mesh with what I've have found to work in small businesses of 10 to 20 employees. I was surprised to learn that general management theory subscribes to a different set of rules for larger business. Google hasn't followed many of these bromides.
Here are the author's main points about the current Google business model:
There is a triumvirate management. This provides checks and balances, and a wider, more democratic information flow so that decisions are made on the basis of more information. It doesn't allow one person to go off on a personal tangent and take the company with him.
Every effort is made to recruit the most qualified people, particularly people with graduate degrees.
Google allows employees to spend 20% of their time on a project not approved by the company. They "trust" the employee to do something good for Google with this time, but leave much of the decision making to the employee. I would call this a form of employee empowerment.
Peer review is encouraged (democratization of the work force)
Encourage innovation. Many examples of concrete ways to implement this are given in the chapter.
Be like a Swiss Army knife. Try to make a complete tool set for most jobs that internet savvy folks will pursue.
Measure everything. Development mathematical formulas that model the real activity of the business, and monitor their outcomes on a regular basis.
Keep teams small. This improves intra-team communication, and is more efficient.
Create tools that allow teams and divisions to easily communicate (think blogs, twitter-like apps, etc.)
Learn to use simple tools in concert to accomplish big tasks (think thousands of linux blade servers running custom software to accurately model the internet, and use that model for very quick and accurate searches)The rest of the book talks about more intangible issues, making the users first, various issues related to how the internet functions, copyright issues, sustainability of the enterprise in its current form, and others.
People who run small businesses will recognize most of these principles, and in fact already have implemented many of them. I suspect that Sergey Brin and Larry Page intuitively knew what would work best with the bright people they planned to hire for their company. They created a company that in many ways modeled a graduate school environment. Google has been successful in part because it has empowered (given responsibility to) its employees, creates tools that are used by both employees and customers, and has kept bureaucracy to a minimum. If only our government could learn the same lesson.


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Ranking Number One: 50 Essential SEO Tips To Boost Your Search Engine Results Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is packed with excellent strategies, explained concisely with good examples and screen shots of reports, etc. There are so many good ideas here, it is difficult to figure out which ones to act on first.

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With millions of websites on the Internet, search engine optimization - or SEO - is the difference between ranking one in Google and remaining invisible. This book breaks the latest SEO techniques into 50 tips that can help any website - from a small company to the largest corporation - rank number one in the search engines and boost your visitor traffic and sales.

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Web Dragons: Inside the Myths of Search Engine Technology (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Multimedia Information and Systems) Review

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(More customer reviews)Anyone who has used a search engine - and who hasn't? - should read this book. It's a very approachable and coherent look at how search engines work, and their role in our information society. The theme of the books is sobering: for many people, access to the internet is through one site - a search engine that has become a "dragon" guarding access to a mine of information.
I particularly like the writing style; the (somewhat dry) humour and intriguing stories are engaging, and on-line tools that we use daily are shown in a new light. The book is suitable for the lay person, but is still engaging for the technically inclined. It provides details about how search engines really work using meaningful examples and illustrations, as well as the exposing the social implications.
Some of the important issues covered include the borderline between spam and content-targeted advertising, determining the authority of web pages compared with their popularity, and issues such as censorship, privacy and access to information. Topics range from the great library of Alexander to the most common misspellings of "Britney Spears" typed into Google.
This book looks set to become part of the computing canon, and would sit equally well on a shelf of technical books or a coffee table. You won't be able to use it to implement your next search engine - it doesn't go into that level of detail. But it's a thought-provoking read, and would be a great gift for the curious or technically inclined people in your life.

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SEO Fitness Workbook: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Dominating Google with the Top Ten Free SEO Tools Review

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(More customer reviews)Written in the same inimitable tone as the author's online webinars, this is a quick read, but its scope is extensive, covering steps which should be carefully completed to improve your site's Google search ranking. To some extent, focus on SEO goals forces you to consider larger questions, like what your online presence is trying to achieve.
The text could be tightened up for grammar and style, and formatting could be improved, but this is secondary to the content, which is clearly culled from a practitioner's extensive experience wrestling with SEO.
As someone who's taken the online webinars (to which this guide is a companion) I'd strongly recommend taking them if you want/need more detailed coverage of what's included in the guide since it only scratches the surface of what's covered in the webinars.

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SEO is all about getting to the top of the free listings on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.Thereare many SEO books that wow you with their esoteric jargon, and overwhelm you with too much information.The SEO Fitness Workbook is different!The SEO Fitness Workbook helps you set up a seven step plan to get your company to the top of Google for free.Dr. Jason McDonald has guided hundreds of companies through the process of successful SEO, and he is a master at making the complex simple.How do you define your best keywords?How should you weave those keywords into your HTML page tags?What are links, and how do you get them?Dr. McDonald answers these questions, and more, in a step-by-step system.Moreover, the book relies exclusively on free tools for SEO.The top ten free SEO tools list (provided in the Appendix) is your guide to the best the web has to offer.Getting to the top of Google is critical for your business, and this SEO Fitness Guidebook explains how to do it.Step by step.Simple.Systematic.And using free tools.What could be better?

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Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization: Drive Traffic, Boost Conversion Rates and Make Lots of Money (Entrepreneur Magazine's Ultimate Guides) Review

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(More customer reviews)This SEO guide favors natural search over paid search. And half of the book is devoted to indirect topics.
This guide has some SEO good content but stops short. As Amazon points out, the book is illustrated, but the illustrations are not of SEO examples. And they're so faint and small as to be illegible. The book is missing examples of SEO in general. For example, what's the best way to work meaningful hypertext into a backlinked article? What's the best way to avoid a duplicate content penalty when creating a media room or distributing content?
Another issue with the book is the content which is semi-useful. There are lists and lists of resource links in the back but they have no descriptions. The chapter about psychographics is simplistic to the point of inaccuracy and isn't integrated with the rest of the book. The chapter on black-hat SEO is interesting but not overly useful. And there's a whole chapter devoted to long-tail keywords which combined may not surpass the results of primary keywords. The small chapter on conversion can't do the topic justice. The individual sections on dumping a server log to Excel and outbound links are intriguing but just plain confusing.
One more issue with the book is the lack of information, ex. on important HTML and page layout techniques that can boost SEO, on the fact that many search engines feed each other. Paid search content glosses over ad creation and omits bid strategy. The resource links in the back omit one of the major web analytics firms and all search engine monitoring sites.
While this book has some merit, it should have stuck with SEO specifically (not site development, psychographics, conversion, etc.) and provided more detail. As it is, it cannot be used as a sole reference. And the title's implication that the book can help the reader "make lots of money" is misleading. Even good SEO doesn't guarantee that.

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Turn Your Website into A Marketing Powerhouse!

Author and search engine optimization (SEO) expert, Jon Rognerud unlocks the mystery of SEO and removes the fears of intimidating technology with this step-by-step guide to building a fully optimized web site and a successful, traffic-driving SEO campaign.
Begin by learning how to lay the foundation of your SEO campaign, from building your web site to identifying your market and creating web-savvy content. Next, master the implementation of SEO tools and tactics, including keyword research, linking, and submitting to search engines. Then learn how to apply proven strategies, including using social media, pay-per-click, paid advertising, landing page conversions and much more. This is your guide to gaining exposure and creating a buzz big enough to put a lot of money in your pocket!
Learn how to:
Create an attractive website with SEO-enriched content
Choose the right keywords and create an effective seed list
Use effective tools to identify and attract quality traffic
Safeguard your site from becoming spam
Use cutting-edge tactics to gain exposure and land on page 1 of Google
Create relationships with other sites through linking
Use social media sites within your online marketing plan
Turn traffic into sales

Everything you ever needed to build a website and get results is right here-all in one place!

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Search Engine Marketing Review

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(More customer reviews)I found a number of good references to websites that were useful.
Good general down-to-Earth advice to get you going and maybe 40% of the way along.
In reality the book, if it does nothing else, lets you know that SEO is NOT something that you will master after reading this or any other books. Good SEO comes with practise and more practise and hard work - lots of it. Oh! and more practise.
Don't expect this book to make you good at SEO but expect it to open the door for you and allow you to take the first step along the path.

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Revolutionize Your Internet Marketing

Leverage today's Internet marketing strategies to reach customers, increase sales, and establish performance-based marketing in your organization. Search Engine Marketing explains how to use Web analytics, key performance indicators (KPIs), search engine optimization (SEO), and search marketing-the critical tools for success. Multichannel marketing, which uses radio, TV, and print to broadcast your message, is also covered. The book includes revealing interviews with industry experts as well as valuable tips on vendor selection. Implement an effective, integrated marketing program for your business with help from this definitive guide.

Track and measure both digital and traditional marketing with analytics

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