Book Review: Google Pocket Guide

Tammy Miller
Google Pocket Guide

By Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest, and DJ Adams
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Pages: 129
Price: $9.95 at Amazon.com or O'Reilly


Beyond just going to Google website and performing a search like I normally do, the book itself delves a lot deeper into what Google has to offer and what types tips and tricks can be used to make an effective search on the Internet. The book itself was divided into four parts. Part One, "What Can You Do with Google?" This section explains what Google isn't (Google index is not a snapshot of everything online) and what Google is (Google is a searchable index).

Part Two, "Asking For What You Want". This section shows you how to use phrase searches by surrounding a phrase (roses are red) with quotes to generate results. There were a lot of search features in this section that one can used which included: using the AND or the OR, using the date range, using the minus sign in order not to include that word as part of your search, and many more. As an alternative, they pointed out that a person can use the Advanced Search to pick and choose what they want instead of using Google search.

Part Three, "Understanding What You Get". Okay you know what you want to search and now you have the searches. The question is "What did you get from the search? This section provides a little bit more understanding as to how use the Safe Search to filter out offensive searches, understanding the different part of the search, and checking your spelling. Part Four, "Other Google Services and Features". Google goes beyond just being a search engine. It demonstrates how Google offers other services such as a directory, catalog, image searching, news, shopping, and of course groups. I like the fact that this book summed up all the different searches that can be performed while using Google. I also like the fact that throughout the book, they provided various examples for a person to follow while sitting in front of their computer to practice these searches and to reiterate these searches all together again in one area of the book which was the Appendix. Provided by Google, here is a list of Google shortcuts for searches that you can use.