Google and Other Search Engines

I am one of those who only use Google for all kind of online search and never go further then the homepage. I am definitely missing out many great features from other search engines; however, I don’t have time to play around with every search engine on the web to find out what each has to offer. Fortunately, Diane Poremsky has done the research for me. Google and Other Search Engines delves into major search engines on the web including: AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Excite, Google, HotBot, Lycos, MSN Search, Yahoo, and many more.

Poremsky starts off with an overview of how search engines work then she breaks down each one to show how you can benefit from using one over the other to make your online search more effective in less amount of time. I didn’t even know that I could type in tracking numbers to find out the status of my UPS package or flight information through Google. I didn’t know how to use the Boolean searching in AltaVista and HotBot to limit my searches for more effective results. Best of all, Poremsky takes us through Advanced Search Options, which I never bother look at. Beside the major search engines, she also touch upon the specialized ones such as searching newsgroups, locating mailing lists, finding people, finding businesses, and many more from A to Z.

Diane Pormsky’s Google and Other Search Engines is a helpful reference for improving your online search. If you’re new to the web, this book is highly beneficial to you. If you’re a veteran, you might pick up some advance features from one search engine over another. From a web designer perspective, reading this book helps me get a good idea of how people would do their searches and how each search engine responses so I can improve my sites’ keywords and meta tags to better accommodate each search engine and my target audience.