Google Hacks by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest (Pub O'Reilly) shows there is far more to the web's favourite search engine than many of us realise.
With contributions by such well known names as Andrew Goodman (Traffick.com) and Brett Tabke (Webmasterworld.com) Google Hacks is a collection of 100 tips and tools, that gives individual web searchers, website programmers and website marketers a tremendous amount of searching power and flexibility.
The first four chapters (Searching Google, Google Special Services and Collections, Third-Party Google Services and Non-API Google Applications) are targeted at the end user. They present a wealth of detail about how to access Google features most users don't know about (and explaining in depth even ones you thought you had all sussed out), including esoteric features such as wild cards, date range searches, spell checking, the phone book, translations, and more.
Chapters 5 and 6 (over a third of the book) are aimed at website programmers. They get plenty of tips and tricks about how to incorporate Google search technology into their websites and projects utilizing the Google API. The book contains a number of pre-written scripts that readers can apply themselves.
While many of the tips are not for novice web programmers, most intermediate webmasters can spruce up their sites with the scripts and ideas provided.
Chapter 7, Google Pranks and Games provides a little light relief after the heavier programming-based chapters, describing the art of Google Whacking and describing how to transform a list of random ingredients into a tasty dinner by searching through online cooking sites.
The last chapter is dedicated to Webmasters, and contains much information that can be reverse-engineered to find how Google works. The methods described in this chapter are dedicated to getting as much traffic on Google as possible without spamming.
One particular highlight is "26 Steps to 15k a Day" where Brett Tabke gives an excellent overview of website marketing strategy. This tip is also freely available online in the forums on WebmasterWorld.
If you want to learn how to exploit Google searching, or want to add Google search features to your web site, Google Hacks 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools is a good place to begin the learning process. While more detailed information can be found online (if you know where to look!) having the basics collated into a single book of such consistent quality is not only an inspiration but a real timesaver.
