Introduction
Internet searching can become, as Google has demonstrated, a highly profitable business – in 2012, Google’s profit was $10.74 billion. It is a sign of the dominance of this company that its name has become a verb which is synonymous with Internet searching. In Expert Internet Searching, Phil Bradley, shows that there are a number of other search engines created for specific purposes that people can use to get the information they require.
Phil Bradley is an information specialist and Internet consultant, who has worked in the area of electronic publications for more than 20 years. In this time, he has provided training on Internet searching, written books and columns on the subject and delivered talks at conferences. He is a Microsoft “Search Champ” providing the company with feedback on their developments in search technology. Phil was President of The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) for 2012-2013, and you can follow him on https://twitter.com/Philbradley (or read his blog at www.philbradley.typepad.com/).
This book was first published as The Advanced Internet Searcher’s Handbook in 1999 when Google was in its infancy; the second and third editions were published in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and this fourth edition has been published after a gap of nine years. A lot has changed in the field of information searching during this period. As the author notes, while Google’s dominance has increased, so has the availability of information through social media channels and the use of mobile devices to get information in near real-time.
A significant portion of this book is devoted to “the Google experience”, which provides an overview of Google’s offerings – with the added benefit of the author’s wisdom (e.g. the use of AROUND, Google’s second proximity search syntax). The author also looks at other free-text search engines, including relatively newer ones such as Blekko and Polyfetch. Search pros will be interested in the section on similarity search engines, and will certainly want to read the chapter on multi- and meta-search engines. They will also be interested in the chapter on social media search engines (which includes a section on Twitter-specific search engines) and the chapter on academic and other specialized search engines (which lists a wide variety of search engines, from Factbrowser to 2lingual Google Search). To round it off, there are chapters packed with advice on using visual search engines, multimedia search engines and news-based search engines.
With the Internet facilitating communication between people and mobile devices bringing immediacy to communication, this book provides advice on using tools to find people and lists a selection of people-based resources (e.g. Q&A sites). One of the strengths of this book is a chapter towards the end where the author provides tips on better searching as well as sample searches. Coming from someone referred to as the “UK Search Guru”, this is valuable advice indeed. Phil has also devoted a chapter to search utilities (e.g. tools from antivirus software providers that can help the user gauge the safety of a website) and other resources that can aid searchers (e.g. apps). The final chapter contains the author’s thoughts on the future of Internet searching, which is a daunting topic when one considers the pace at which the landscape is changing.
Other features of this book include Did-you-know boxes that are interspersed among chapters, a summary at the end of each chapter and an index at the end of the book. The summaries read like conclusions to the chapters, and it might have been better to have had bullet-point summaries of the main ideas covered in each chapter. Overall, this is a book that deserves a wider audience than professionals in information management – it is a book that anyone who needs to search for information on the Internet should read, for it teaches how to find information effectively and efficiently. Phil Bradley has included a quote attributed to the author Neil Gaiman, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one”. This is a book for anyone who considers that a Google search is all that is required to locate information. There is a world beyond Google, and in this book, Phil Bradley introduces the reader to it.
