The Advanced Internet Searcher's Handbook

Citation

du Preez, M. (2005), "The Advanced Internet Searcher's Handbook", The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 614-615. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510603804

Phil Bradley has been working in the field of electronic publishing for many years and is well known throughout the industry for his talks, training courses, lectures, and publications on various aspects of electronic publishing and the internet. The third edition of his The Advanced Internet Searcher's Handbook aims to help readers search the internet more effectively by giving an understanding of how search engines and related software work. Although he paid particular attention to the use that information professionals can make of the internet, the book is designed to be of use to everyone who needs to find information quickly.

This fully revised edition adds to a wealth of information about new search engines, and includes a detailed exploration of Google and AlltheWeb – the first two editions of this book contained very little information on Google and nothing on AlltheWeb, mainly because these search engineers were quite new and had made virtually no impact on internet searchers (p. 43). New chapters have also been added on important areas such as searching the “invisible” web, weblogs, resource – or site‐specific search engines (databases), and takes an in‐depth look at useful online tools.

Bradley first introduces the internet and then divides the book into three parts:

1. 1.

   Mining the internet for information.

2. 2.

   Becoming an expert searcher.

3. 3.

   The future.

In the first part, specific attention is paid to the different types of search engines. Bradley then goes into in‐depth discussions on free‐text search engines, index‐based search engines, multi‐ or meta‐search engines, and resource‐ or site‐specific search engines before advising on searching the “hidden Web”, finding images, sounds and multimedia information, and on finding people.

Becoming an expert searcher is the focus of Part 2. When Bradley was writing the second edition of this book, he was vaguely aware of the existence of “weblogs”, but in the third edition he devotes the whole of Chapter 10 to this phenomenon. He mainly focuses on weblogs that are, or could be, useful to information professionals in their daily task. This chapter complements the very valuable new book Weblogs and Libraries by Laurel A. Clyde (Chandos, 2004).

The last part is concerned with the information mix and Bradley attempts to merge all the different elements into a coherent whole, using some real‐life examples of internet searching. He gives 50 tips and hints for better and quicker searching (Chapter 15), discusses utilities and tools that are available to help the advanced searcher (Chapter 16) and concludes with some resources for further help, information and assistance.

Two appendices and an index complete the volume. Appendix 1 provides HTML code that could be used to create a new home page providing links to different search engines. Appendix 2 is a list of country codes that could be useful in determining a home page's country of origin. “Hints & tips” as well as “Did you know?” dialogue boxes appear throughout the text offering useful advice or additional information.

The Advanced Internet Searcher's Handbook is clearly written, well designed and reads easily. It is an invaluable guide to searching on the internet, whether it is read from cover to cover or merely dipped into when needed. It also is most useful for those who teach students how to search the internet.