Google: The Missing Manual by Sarah Milstein and Rael Dornfest Published by Pogue Press, O'Reilly, $19.95. (Discounts available to MUG members) Reviewed by Myron Chapman

Google is the planet's most popular program for finding stuff on the Web. Millions of people a day use it to search for everything from apple pie recipes to high school sweethearts. But it has no manual.

Google has many hidden tricks and tools that can turn your simple searching into powerful and successful-discoveries. But you have to know where to look. Google: The Missing Manual covers search techniques and tricks-like phone numbers, definitions, pictures, and other goodies, This book helps you search more effectively.

Google runs full-text search engines, using computers to record the words on Web pages by using spiders that go out and methodically trawl the Web, and a program called an indexer to record the text and other important information encoded on the pages.

Google is the current reigning index champ, with the largest database, more than 4.2 billion Web pages. Their technology evaluates a site primarily on how many other sites linked to it. Google's computers handle more search requests than anyone else's-over 250 million per day. It is the reigning search champ because it is easy to use and effective.

We have all used Google, but many of us haven't used an image search or clicked the "Similar pages" link. Google accepts up to ten words in its search box; it ignores the words after 10. After we have done a search and received a page of results, we can either explore one, and then go back to the list of other links by way of the Back button, or we can Command-click to open it in a new window, and preserve the list of results for further exploration.

The book describes other specific ways to search more effectively:

• Since we want Google to find answers, put your search in the form of an answer: an apple has * calories (the asterisk stands in for the word you don't know).
• The order of words matters. Google considers the first word most important, the second word next, and so on.
• Google ignores most little words.
• Google ignores most punctuation except apostrophes, hyphens, and quote marks.
• For a phrase search, enter the complete phrase in quotes.
• To narrow your results, use the "Search within results" link at the bottom of any results page.
• Google doesn't understand NOT, but it does let you use a minus sign or dash to indicate that you don't want a certain term to appear in your results.
• To include a word in the search, place a plus sign directly in front of the term, or use quotes.
• Google does let you use full-word wildcards, using an asterisk for the unknown word.
• The book also describes how to get around its 10 word limit by using the asterisk in place of words less important to the search.
• Google's reference to a cache indicates that it has older versions of the web page available if you want an older page that might have the information that you want.
• The "Similar pages" link is a good way to find pages in a category, including those that don't necessarily contain your original keywords.
• If you want to view a document in a file type that will require opening another program, you may save time by using the "View as HTML" link that will open immediately.

Google also includes a dictionary, calculator, and phonebook.

• Type in define sedulous, press Enter, and you have your definition. Enter an equation and it solves it. Use + to add, * to multiply, /to divide, and = at the end.
• To obtain a phone number, type in first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional), or one of 5 other variations. Or, use phonebook followed by a colon, then a space, and then the name and state you want to look up.
• Maps by area code - Type in an area code, and the top of your Google results will include a link for a Mapquest map of that region.
• For images, click on Images above the Google search box, then type in a keyword or two into the blank Images search box. For News, click on that link above the Search box.

Other chapters include the Google Toolbar, and More Cool Google Tools.

The book contains many simple methods to make a search more effective on first reading, and more methods to refer back to for a more specific need. I enjoyed reading it to see the many ways that are available to get the specific information that I want.

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Google: The Missing Manual

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