Google Search for Dummies

I just picked up the first book that has been published about Google: Google Hacks by Tara Calishain, the editor of Researchbuzz. She did an amazing job in summarizing the undocumented functionality of Google. Most of the tips are very advanced, especially the API functionality. The book is almost a manual for the Google API. Well, after all O’Reilly is a tech book publisher ….

I was amazed to see that there are hardly any books about Google on Amazon. One would think that a site with such a huge audience would get some more attention form publishers. In contrast, there are almost 50 books available for Ebay (on Amazon). Maybe I am missing something, but if I were a publisher, I would be on a mission right now to get a book out the door as soon as possible. But then … Google is kinda easy to use, right? Maybe it is so easy that a ‘manual’ is not needed an no one would buy it anyway…. I don’t think so! Google just launched a page with ‘Google Expert Search Tips’ and there is the ‘Google Advanced Search’ page. But did you know that you can a ‘Google Date Range Search’? See, there is plenty of cool stuff to write a book about.

Well, in any case, I would buy a ‘Google Missing Manual’ or ‘Google Search for Dummies’ - if for nothing else, just to have a piece of Google in my bookshelf :-) .

I remember how excited I was when Altavista’s first book was published in 1996 (the 2nd edition is still available for $1.50). Can someone please write a book about Google search, I promise to be the first customer.

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I just saw this picture on c:\pirillo.exe of Larry Page taking a first look at ‘Google Hacks’.

March 29, 2003 | Filed Under Thoughts 

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