Ah, but it does so much more! So much that you do need this book to figure them all out. The book's back cover and the online blurbs for the book brag that it will reveal "little-known corners of Google." I decided to test that statement. Armed with a pack of Post-it� Index Flags I began reading. On every page from which I learned something, I stuck a flag there. I quit after accumulating thirty of them in only the first two chapters. Here are some examples:

• Exclude: to find all pages with "MLMUG" but not "Moe" say "MLMUG" -"Moe" That gets you 335 hits, while letting Moe exists costs you 461 hits.
• WayBack Machine: Did you know that there is a site that archives previous versions of your web page? At least it does for 11 billion of them. It's called WebArchive.org. Very handy if your favorite site just updated its homepage before you harvested something important from it.
• Calculator: Type in "8*.63/2*1.29=" and Google spits back "((8 * .63) / 2) * 1.29 = 3.2508". The query may have been ambiguous, but the response is not.
• Dictionary: embedded in your response are links for each key word in your search. Clicking on them brings you to Dictionary.com, complete with that word's definition.
• Spell Checker (sort of): As Marc pointed out in his iEditor Column in July 04, if you misspell (some) words, Google may suggest alternates. Do not expect too much though, the book warns that Google's spell checker is not very robust. Additionally, by intentionally misspelling terms, you can hit upon some interesting pages.
• Synonyms: Put the "~" character in front of a term (with NO space) and Google will automatically include synonyms for that term in its search.

The book's layout is slightly impaired by the design-editing. It has 1-1/4 outside margins for no good reason, and is highly broken up by figures, notes, tips, and what-not. At least they are not overbearing and detract only from the flow, not the information content. Chapter 6 (25 pages), about the Google Toolbar, was particularly useless to me. There is no version available for the Mac, and when I tried to install it on my PeeCee, it said I needed administrator privileges to do that. Sheesh. I must admit I went in with very low expectations when I signed up to do this review. I came away pleasantly surprised. It is a very worthwhile read. I give it 4 Apples out of 5.

Reviewer: Moe Comeau Moe Comeau is an aerospace engineer (but not a rocket scientist) with Lockheed Martin in Valley Forge. He joined the Mainline Macintosh Users Group (MLMUG) in 1980, and served eight consecutive one-year terms as its vice president, followed by three years as its president; followed by one more year as VP again, hopefully his last. He has been the group's Intermediate and Advanced SIG Leader for about ten years, as well. He has also continuously authored "In Moe's Humble Opinion (IMHO)", a curmudgeonly monthly column here and in our newsletter, the MLMUG Journal for about 6 years. In addition, he continues to serve as MLMUG's Webmaster, beginning about 4 years ago. If you are reading this on the Internet, it's "HTML by Moe." He resides in Downingtown, PA, with his wife, Carol; his dog, Honey; a Mac G3 Blue & White; a MacTV; and his original Mac SE, which he won in GE's 1989 United Fund raffle. He has been using search engines since before the Millennium. He learned reading in grammar school, more or less.

This site has many more reviews, all written by MLMUG members.
View all our book reviews. Or, view our
Software, hardware, and game reviews.

[ home | newsletter | past | join | listserve | shareware | directory | links | md9 ]

© 2004 by Moe Comeau & MLMUG
Posted 08/27/04
Updated 08/29/04