Review: The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook

Second Edition, Randolph Hock, Cyber Age Books, 2007

The first six chapters of this book are extremely interesting and useful to anybody with an interest in how information is organised on the Internet, how it can be found or where the services that exist came from. Starting with a history of the Internet and a definition of terms, Randolph goes on to explain the main ways of retrieving information from the Internet: directories, search engines and newgroups.

In each section, he starts with a brief overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the different sources of information, and goes on to describe in detail how some of the most popular examples operate. I found this section extremely useful.

As someone who has not really used directories or portals since before Yahoo! had shifted its focus to running a search engine, I must admit that I had stopped thinking of directories as a way to search the internet for a small selection of specialist information already selected by humans. And while I have used forums as a source of information for years I had no idea that Google was running a connection to usenet, with all its old posts included.

While I think most users of the Internet are most familiar with searching web search engines, I found the overview of the different ways that they rank information to be very useful. Especially on the topic of metasearch engines. In the past I've always felt a bit guilty for not using these services, but I have always found that I get better results from a straight search on Google. Possibly a big reason for this is that metasearch engines tend to give you only 10 to 20 results from each search engine, and I often find very useful information lurking on the third or fourth page of searches.

The issue of syntax was also very interesting. Like most Internet users, I'm aware of some of the syntax you can use on Google, though the range of syntax available surprised me a lot and I had no idea that I was making use of Boolean search terms. The basic Boolean terms are:

I want to search for for this thing AND this thing OR the other thing but NOT something else.

Different search engines use different terms for these, and although I was aware of the basic terms in Google it had never occured to me that there was a basic logic behind it or that terms may differ from site to site. This is a very basic thing to learn, but it is very useful.

The rest of the book was not so great. The second part is mostly a list of websites. This seems like a great idea. The problem is that most of these sites fall into one of three categories: sites I use anyway, sites I don't want to use because I have another site I already know and trust that does the same thing, and sites that I don't need. For this section, thefact that the book was written in 2007 is a big problem. Also, ironically, even though the book is about the World Wide Web it is sometimes obvious that it is mostly aimed at an American audience.

For instance, this books manages to have a section on news without mentioning the fabulous NewsNow site, which is an essential news aggregator for any British person who is going through a phase of being a news junkie. It also mentions a few sites (for instance ThomasNet) which seem to be mostly for an American market.

Facebook and social networking in general is notable by its absence, along with twitter and internet use by smart phone. And the section on Google Earth has been made slighly out of date because Google Street View has become so important. This is the problem with printed books about the internet, I suppose. Thankfully, Randolph Hock has brought out a third edition, although it will probably become obsolete even faster than the second edition did.

Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug, New Riders Publishing, 2006

(Link to Amazon page for book.)

It seems odd to start a new blog with a book review. But, one can do worse than to start a website by reading through Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think". While Krug is definitely writing with far bigger projects than an academic blog in mind, a great deal of his advice is important to everyone publishing on the web:

1. "Don't make me think": This is Steve Krug's single most important design rule. A website should be simple enough to use without thinking. While it is always tempting to attempt something new when trying to set your site apart from others, it is important to make sure that any new features are intuitive. Or at least that they provide some significant service that is missed by the conventional design. For this reason, I plan to keep this blog simple in it's layout, and I will try to keep the design free from unnecessary ornamentation whenever possible.
2. "Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left." People usually scan the internet, therefore finding the shortest way to say something is important. While I would expect that people who read this blog have an interest in web design; long blog posts are still daunting. For this reason, I will try to keep my entries short and to have a good idea what precise point I want to make in each one.
3. Consider accessibility: This is very important because, as Krug puts it, it's just the right thing to do. Making a site accessible for people with disabilities takes relatively little, but could make a hunge difference for someone else.
4. Make sure it's clear what site the user is on and where they can find information.
5. Use simple language: even experts do not understand every single technical term. And, more importantly, experts usually do not feel insulted when information is presented in a way that everyone can understand.
6. Every site should receive some usability testing: for a blog, this is going to be a difficult thing to ensure in a formal way. But hopefully, I'll get some feedback as I go.