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The Pandia Post Newsletter No. 17, May 2003

///Searching for books

We all remember the buzz about the paperless society. Given that all information would be available by the touch of a button, the book seemed somewhat passé. In practice, of course, we print out more documents than ever.

Still it is hard to read longer texts on a small screen. Hence, until we get high resolution tablets we can snuggle up with in bed, the book remains the most efficient user interface available.

In the pre-Web days finding books could represent quite some challenge, especially if you lived in a place without a major bookstore. Today, however, the Web presents a large number of bookstores and databases that can help you find what you are looking for – especially if you read one of the major languages.

In the following we will concentrate on English language sites and books.

There are two kinds of online shopping sites for books: Bookstores and sites for comparison shopping. If you know what you are looking for, comparison shopping sites may help you find the lowest prices.

Here are some examples of comparison shopping sites:

• My Simon: http://www.mysimon.com/
• Kelkoo (Europe) http://www.kelkoo.com/
• Pricegrabber: http://www.pricegrabber.com/
• Dealtime http://www.dealtime.com/
• Dealtime UK http://www.dealtime.co.uk/

There is also Google’s new Froogle search engine, which is a combination of a regular search engine and a comparison shopping site (http://froogle.google.com/ ).

These sites have normally two notable limitations. They usually do not provide you with much information on the books you are looking for. Moreover, when you do find a bargain, the site will forward you to the relevant online bookshop, meaning that you will have to register as a customer at this bookshop. This can be a hassle, and because of this some book buyers stick to one bookstore they trust and feel comfortable with.

A while ago Amazon.com sent us a coffee mug without us having asked for it. We did not have to pay for it, and it was clearly a kind of loyal customer reward, but to us it was a red warning light: We had become a too regular customer.

There are several explanations for the success of Amazon. The fact that they have a huge number of books available is one. That the prizes are reasonable is another one. They are also reliable and seldom fail at delivering what they have promised on time.

Nevertheless, the main reason for the success is probably their innovative use of personalization software. They will for instance combine the index of what you have bought from them with the general customer database, generating lists of related products that you may like.

If you find a book about search engine marketing, Amazon will recommend other books covering the same subject. If you go to the “Your recommendation” section, you may actually fine-tune Amazon’s ability to predict what you are interested in, by rating the proposed items.

This makes the Amazon site a very valuable research tool. You may use Amazon to browse books in your topic of interest. If you love books, like we do, this can be a very costly experiment, but then again, life’s too short not to read good books.

You do not, of course, have to buy these books at Amazon. Some people use Amazon for research, and then switch over to a comparison shopping site to find the lowest price.

• Amazon.com US: http://www.amazon.com/
• Amazon.ca Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/
• Amazon.co.uk Britain: http://www.amazon.co.uk/
• Barnes & Noble US: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
• BOL UK: http://www2.uk.bol.com/index.asp
• Powells independent bookstore: http://www.powells.com/

Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble sells used and out of print books. Amazon actually assimilated the popular Bibliofind site (http://www.bibliofind.com/) in order to be able to offer more used books. By searching for collectible books, Amazon will provide links to relevant Amazon partners, including shops for used books all over the world.

There are alternatives. The TomFolio website is a cooperative of international professional dealers in used, out-of-print, and rare books. They present a quite advanced search form that lets you search for author, title, ISBN number, edition and price.

Booksense and alibris are gateways to independent bookstores, while Bookfinder and Abebooks give access to both new and out of print books.

• TomFolio: http://www.tomfolio.com/
• BookSense: http://booksense.com/
• alibris: http://www.alibris.com/
• Bookfinder: http://www.bookfinder.com/
• Abebooks: http://www.abebooks.com/

Also take a look at comparison shopping sites focusing exclusively on books:

• Isbn.nu: http://images.isbn.nu/
• AddALL: http://www.addall.com/

There are also websites specializing in new and used textbooks. Textbook X is a kind of eBay like exchange service where you may sell your own text books, while Direct Textbooks functions as a portal to online booksellers (mainly university bookstores).

• Textbook X: http://www.textbookx.com/
• Direct Textbooks: http://www.directtextbook.com/

So what about ebooks? Is there literature available for downloading?

The Gutenberg Project is the brainchild of Michael Hart, who in 1971 decided that it would be a really good idea if lots of famous and important texts were freely available to everyone in the world. Volunteers all over the world are transferring public domain books to the Internet. There is not that many, some 6000 titles all in all.

There are more free books out there though. The Online Books Page lists some 19000 English works.

If you are looking to buy and download an ebook, you may use the Ebook Locator search engine.

• The Gutenberg Project: http://www.promo.net/pg/
• The Online Books Page http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
• The Etext Archives: http://www.etext.org/index.shtml
• Ebook Locator: http://www.ebooklocator.com/

///Google Hacks

Google Hacks is good news for Web searchers who want to be Google power users. This book offers a cascade of tips, tricks and scripts that will allow you to mine the depths of Google for all the information you need.

If you depend on the Web for information (and who doesn’t these days?), you are already familiar with Google. However, most people are not aware of a fraction of the possibilities that Google search offers. Google Hacks will tell you all about it.

This book will also teach you how to use the advanced search interface and the new Google API (i.e. raw data from the Google database). You will even learn how to build scripts to make custom business applications based on Google. This way you can save hours of searching and spend time with someone you care about in stead (or hack some more if that’s what makes you happy).

The only reservation we have is that this book caters for two different audiences – searchers and programmers. Regular searchers will probably not find the API hack section all that interesting.

Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest: Google Hacks, O'Reilly & Associates 2003, 325 pp, ISBN: 0596004478.

Buy this book from Amazon.com
Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk
Some of Tara's own Google API hacks: http://www.buzztoolbox.com/google/
Google on API: http://www.google.com/apis/

///Search Engine Visibility

Search engine marketing expert Shari Thurow has written a new guide that aims at helping "web designers, web developers, programmers, ad agencies, web design firms, online marketers, copywriters, and anyone who builds web sites, to build a better web site, one that can be found through search engines and directories."

Does she succeed? Yes, she does.

Search Engine Visibility is well written an is easy to understand. Moreover, Thurow has achieved a good balance between detail and accessibility that makes this a good book for newcomers to the field of search engine marketing.

More seasoned search engine marketers will probably not find that many new tricks of the trade, but you never know. Shari Thurow is a well respected expert in the field of search engine friendly web design. She may have caught a few details other experts have missed. She certainly clarified a few points for us.

The book covers all the main areas of search engine marketing and web site design, including:

• How to optimize the text of web pages -- including keyword placement
• The link component
• Navigation schemes
• The popularity component and the quest for links
• How to solve problems following the use of javascripts, cascading style sheets, frames, Flash and dynamic web pages
• Pay per click and paid inclusion
• Search engine and directory submissions
• Spam

And that's not all. You will probably be able to find most of this information on the Web, but Thurow will certainly save you a lot of work. For a newcomer this is definitely a good place to start learning the ins and out of search engine oriented web design.

Shari Thurow: Search Engine Visibility, New Riders Publishing 2003, 206 pp, ISBN 0-7357-1256-5

Buy this book from Amazon.com
Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk
Search Engine Visibility companion site

Go to part 2: Recent search engine news!

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