The Internet puts a wealth of information at your fingertips, and all you have to know is how to find it. Google is your ultimate research tool--a search engine that indexes more than 2.4 billion web pages, in more than 30 languages, conducting more than 150 million searches a day. The more you know about Google, the better you are at pulling data off the Web. You've got a cadre of techniques up your sleeve--tricks you've learned from practice, from exchanging ideas with others, and from plain old trial and error--but you're always looking for better ways to search. It's the "hacker" in you: not the troublemaking kind, but the kind who really drives innovation by trying new ways to get things done. If this is you, then you'll find new inspiration (and valuable tools, too) in Google Hacks from O'Reilly's new Hacks Series. Google Hacks is a collection of industrial-strength, real-world, tested solutions to practical problems. The book offers a variety of interesting ways for power users to mine the enormous amount of information that Google has access to, and helps you have fun while doing it. You'll learn clever and powerful methods for using the advanced search interface and the new Google API, including how to build and modify scripts that can become custom business applications based on Google. Google Hacks contains 100 tips, tricks and scripts that you can use to become instantly more effective in your research. Each hack can be read in just a few minutes, but can save hours of searching for the right answers. Written by experts for intelligent, advanced users, O'Reilly's new Hacks Series have begun to reclaim the term "hacking" for the good guys. In recent years the term "hacker" has come to be associated with those nefarious black hats who break into other people's computers to snoop, steal information, or disrupt Internet traffic. But the term originally had a much more benign meaning, and you'll still hear it used this way whenever developers get together. Our new Hacks Series is written in the spirit of true hackers--the people who drive innovation. If you're a Google power user, you'll find the technical edge you're looking for in Google Hacks.

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Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 60 Ratings

GOOGLE HACKS comes packed with usage tips not to be found elsewhere. - 2006-11-07
Reviewer Rating:
Almost anyone who uses a computer knows that Google is a superior search engine - but do you know it also offers ways to organize and manipulate that information? The updated third edition of GOOGLE HACKS: TIPS & TOOLS FOR FINDING AND USING THE WORLD'S INFORMATION tells how, with chapters covering not just search techniques or advanced search strategies, but what to do with the information once it's found. From building a customized Google map for your web site to handling RSS feeds, news listings, blogs, and even using Gmail as an external hard drive, GOOGLE HACKS comes packed with usage tips not to be found elsewhere.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Explanation of the Google Api - 2007-03-29
Reviewer Rating:
1. Word order matters
2. repetition of words ignores the repeating words with no search results

3. inanchor, inurl, intitle, site
inanchor:oreilly -inurl: oreilly -site: edu
oreilly in anchor text
oreilly not in the url
site is not edu (limits to a certain domain)

intitle:OSTEOPOROSIS inurl:links
OSTEOPORSIS in the title
links in the url
OSTEOPOROSIS in the anchor text

intitle:biology inurl:help
Takes you to a manageable size of 602 for help in biology.

4. Google does not support stemming (moon, moonlight, moonshot)
Google does support wild card pattern *
Google does have a ten word limit

three * mice
returns
three Blind mice
three white mice

5. daterange:startdate-enddate
[...]

6. Phonebook searchs:
phonebook: searches the entire google phonebook
rphonebook: searches residental listings only
bphonebook: search business listings only

phonebook:nelson id

7: Finding articles
[...] "ADO" or "ODBC"

Searches the site www.listensoftware for all articles about ADO
"ODBC"

8. Searchable directorys

"what's new" "what's cool" directory SAUERKRAUT
"what's new" categories sauerkraut (recipe)
"what's new" listings sauerkraut (links to recipes)

9. GAPIS
[...]

Standalone application that takes advantage of the Google API search component.

Good resource - 2008-06-14
Reviewer Rating:
Nutshell review - If you want to know the ins and outs of using Google and all the advanced switches, tips, and tricks then this is your book. Good resource to own.

Nice toolkit - 2008-04-06
Reviewer Rating:
We got a used copy of Google Hacks, and my wife studied the searcher's tips for a couple weeks before I got to study the webmaster's guide. Like the Jack Sprats of the nursery rhyme, we licked that platter clean. It's dated now, but that only means there is more on Google than got into the book, I have not found a script or search parameter that was discontinued.

This is not for light reading, it is intended for people who want to get the most out of the web, and are not content with Wizards and auto-pilot.

Detailed Guide to Using Google - 2007-11-06
Reviewer Rating:
While Google is used by a large percentage of the population of internet users today, Google offers a host of additional services and features that may be accessed using the tips and tools found in "Google Hacks".

This is primarily a book for intermediate- to advanced-users, but it offers some easy-to-use and useful tips and tools for all users. For those interested in extended the utility of the powerful Google service, this is a good resource.

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