Pandia Awards 2004 Part 5

Best publication on searching

Tara Calishain: Web Search Garage

Tara Calishain is one of the most respected Web search experts in the world, so when she publishes a book, searchers pay attention.

Her new book, called Web Search Garage, takes a new approach to web search tutorial writing.

This is not primarily an introduction to the ins and outs of the various search engines (although she will tell you how to use them), but a book with a wider scope.

She goes beyond the traditional search engines and tells us about a lot of tools and techniques that will let you harvest the information you need on the World Wide Web.

To give you a few examples: The book includes an excellent chapter on the use of online tools and gadgets, including toolbars, bookmark organizers and browsers. Another one introduces you to the art of using online communities as a source of information, including tips on searching the Usenet.

We like this book very much, not only for the fact that she has introduced us to online resources even we at Pandia didn't know about, but for the fact that she gives us such useful hands-on advice on how to use these various tools.

This is probably the best book on web searching available today.

Buy this book from Amazon.com
Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk
Web Search Garage home page
Tara Calishain's internet site Researchbuzz

Highly recommended

Edward N. Baylin and Judith Gill have written an excellent introduction to internet searching called Effective Internet Search

The amount of information is staggering. There are chapters covering search tools and strategies, search query basics, search examples, and advanced search interfaces. However, the text never gets too complicated, and the book will benefit both professional researchers and web search beginners.

The so-called Reference Manual is just as important as the regular chapters, as it lists the search features and parameters of the search engines covered and gives examples on how to use their search form interfaces.

There is also a large number of external references and links.

The book exists both in a printed version and as an ebook. Given that there are close to 600 pages with text, you cannot read it all on the screen, and the ebook cannot be printed.

Hence you definitely need the printed version of the book. The best option is to buy the printed book as well as the ebook. You can then use the ebook as a reference tool, and get the best out of the hyperlinks found in the ebook.

SearchHelpCenter.com - the book's home page.

Best publication on search engine marketing

You can achieve a significant improvement in search engine rankings if you do some basic fine tuning of your site and your pages. And better rankings leads to more visitors, i.e. more potential customers or loyal readers.

In our experience it is useful to start studying search engine promotion by reading a thorough introduction to the topic.

Should you then decide not to go on with the work, and hire a search engine promotion expert instead, you can use what you have learned in order to determine whether this expert actually is what he or she claims to be, i.e. a true expert.

Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars

The award for best publication on search engine marketing and publication 2004 goes -- again -- to Planet Ocean for their Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars.

The Unfair Advantage Book gives you easy to understand information on practically everything regarding search engine and directory optimization and promotion.

There are chapters on:

• Domain names, titles and keywords
• Metatags
• Tricks and illusions (spamming, doorway pages, HTML coding, CSS and more)
• How to analyze competition's pages
• How to set up several entrances to your Internet store front
• Link popularity, page reputation and page importance
• Specific details and strategies to use with the individual search engines
• High tech pages and search engines
• and more...

Moreover, it is updated monthly, so if you feel like it you can print out a new version on the 1st of every month. This is important, as the search engine industry changes so fast, that what was common wisdom one month a go, may be considered folly today.

Highly recommended

Mike Grehan has written a very extensive, high quality, guide to search engine marketing, called Search Engine Marketing. The Essential Best Practice Guide.

This is a veritable encyclopedia of search engine optimization and promotion. While there is probably too much detailed information for the beginner or the impatient reader, the book should be of great use to SEO professionals and others that would like to know more on the science of how search engines work and how to optimize your site for good search engine rankings.

It says a lot about Grehan that he includes a brief history of search engines and a detailed description of the various modules of a search engine. Search engine algorithms are explained in detail, giving you a better insight into how search engines "think".

Moreover, there are reviews of online SEO resources, books, and interviews with search engine representatives and experts, as well as practical tips on how to write copy, design sites and optimize HTML files.

A new version of the book is expected shortly.

Go to page 6: The best search engine weblogs and desktop search tools