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Google Businesses The Internet Books Media

Google: The Missing Manual 223

Posted by timothy from the as-it-should-be dept.
Alex Moskalyuk writes "According to O'Reilly Publishing's Web site, the missing manual series was started after many software publishers decided to drop the practice of including manuals in the boxed set. Supposedly, the same information could be retrieved from the Web site or help file, but those uncomfortable with the manufacturer's site, or those with pathological fear of reading anything that follows F1 were left out in the cold. So it's understandable that missing manuals exist for Windows, Mac OS X, Dreamweaver MX and other products packed with features that are not easy to grasp through naive experimentation. But a manual for Google? A manual for the Web service that makes money by creating an interfaces as simple and intuitive as possible? To put it mildly, are they insane?" (Read more below.)
Google: The Missing Manual
author Sarah Milstein, Rael Dornfest
pages 224
publisher O'Reilly
rating 7
reviewer Alex Moskalyuk
ISBN 0596006136
summary Everything there's to know about Google

Looking at the table of contents (for some reason PDF only), I figured out the book might be useful for someone relatively new to the Internet with intrinsic fear of doing something wrong (which pretty much describes my parents as well as their friends within the same age group). Chapters 8 and 9 on Web-mastering with Google might be useful, as it talks about buying AdWords for ad campaigns and serving AdSense for making money off the Web site. Still, I was interested to see what the book had to offer and started reading from Chapter 1, only to find this useful tip on page 24:

A lot of people probably knew this, but Google allows you to do a phrase search even if you don't have an idea of what the complete phrase looks like. Wildcard search allows one to use an asterisk for any word that's missing. Google will fill it in automatically. Pretty useful for finding the lyrics for that song you heard on the radio, but couldn't figure out the last word.

But this is not a Google tutorial: it turned out to be surprisingly useful even for me, someone who uses Google probably about a hundred times a day. Google features have that feeling of serendipity, where you can use the engine just fine without knowing anything advanced, but once you discover a few shortcuts, there's truly no replacement. For example, the book tells you what kind of numbers can be usefully entered into the Google search window: you can search for area codes, ISBN numbers, UPC numbers, flight numbers, Fedex/UPS/USPS tracking numbers as well as vehicle ID numbers (btw, the car is for sale).

Chapter 4 is very informative for Google's less frequently used services - Groups and Answers. While Google Groups and the Usenet search are probably bookmarked by any geek out there, not many people know that Google runs a paid service that can help you if you're just stuck with no results. Moreover, once the answer is posted and someone has paid for it, Google allows all the visitors to browse it for free, and some advice, for example, in small business section, can save a trip to the lawyer or paid consultant. The book takes the reader through the process of setting up an Answers account (which is actually the same account as the one for Groups) and asking informative questions requiring additional research.

Google: The Missing Manual is a pleasant book to read. Lots of screenshots (although all black-and-white), detailed information on the services and quite useful tips for newbies as well as professionals, clearly marked chapters, notes and tips spread throughout the book all make for a good reading experience. It's interesting URLs like this one that show that the authors really put time and effort into creating a book that's fun as well as informative.

Will the book be useful for an average Slashdot reader? Unlikely, since most of the information is already out there and most of the people here don't need a hand-holding walk-through into Google services. Will it be useful for Webmasters? Most of the tips I've read in the last two chapters were pretty much something I knew before. It's not something you need when you've had your own Web site for a few years, but the book is pretty good if you've just started up building Web pages. Also, since so many features have been only recently introduced, the book doesn't cover things like graphic ads in AdSense or Gmail accounts.

For someone quite unexperienced with the Internet or those seeking to gain expertise in Google services and broaden their research skills, though, it is a useful, fun-to-read title. It's not expensive either, so while I think for most of the geeks it's redundant, it would be a good gift for those in the family who keep calling and asking questions that begin with "Where do I find...?"

You can purchase Google: The Missing Manual from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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Google: The Missing Manual More

Google: The Missing Manual

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  • ID10T (Score:4, Funny)

    by Karzz1 ( 306015 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:03PM (#9836817) Homepage
    Well, when a hairdryer needs a warning label about use in the shower.......

    • Re:ID10T (Score:2, Funny)

      by strictnein ( 318940 ) *
      Here's a tip, don't complain about the colors
      Otherwise they ban you:

      Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily been disabled. If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner . If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down. If you think this is unfair, please email moderation@slashdot.org with your MD5'd IPID and SubnetID, which are ...

      I"M SORRY! I love the colors, really!
      • Didya email them?

        Maybe someone from your subnet was dicking around? Happened to me, but I got it back... and renewed my subscription so I could yell at them if it happened again ("As a paid subscriber...").

      • Heh, I've been getting that for almost a month, but I keep putting off emailing them bitching because I kept telling myself I didn't have anything *that* groundbreaking to say, so it wasn't worth the trouble, and it'd be fixed in a few days anyway.

        Yeah. But obviously if this shows up, I've finally been welcomed back. Hooray.

        And honestly, I don't really mind the colors at all.

    • Re:ID10T (Score:5, Funny)

      by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:12PM (#9836924) Journal
      Preperation H carries a warning label "Not to be taken internally".

      You just know someone wrote in; "I ate the whole goddamned tube and for all the good it did me I may as well have shoved it up my ass!!!"
  • Whats the deal with all this missing manuals? Someone needs to get fired.

  • Step by Step walkthough (Score:5, Funny)

    by TaintedPastry ( 790856 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:04PM (#9836823)
    Step One: Type Words

    Step Two: Hit Enter

  • 224 pages (Score:5, Interesting)

    by scowling ( 215030 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:04PM (#9836824) Homepage
    I'm not so surprised that O'Reilly has published a manual for Google. What surprises me is that they got 224 pages out of it.

    224 pages! My god, the style guide and word processing manual here at work, toegther, don't even come to 224 pages.

    What in the name of the Eversmiling Buddha could possibly fill those pages? "You may type 'AND' between search terms. To type the word 'AND', do not use the apostrophes. Find your keyboard. Locate the 'A' key..."?

  • There is a need (Score:4, Insightful)

    by erick99 ( 743982 ) <homerun@gmail.com> on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:04PM (#9836837)
    There is a need for any kind of manual when it comes to technology - even Google. If you write it (a manual) they will come (and buy it).

    Cheers,

    Erick

  • What Next (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:04PM (#9836841)
    Slashdot, The Missing Manual

    • Re:What Next (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Around here folks have trouble reading one whole article, how do you expect them to read a whole manual?

    • Re:What Next (Score:5, Funny)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:33PM (#9837181) Homepage Journal
      Slashdot, The Missing Manual

      You laugh, but Slashdot is complicated and changing all the time (usually by whim, I suspect.) Such enlightening topics which may be covered:

      Personal Journal: You personal crap which wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell of getting approved as a story.

      Trolls: How to spot one (e.g. Only an idiot would read this chapter)

      Microsoft: Once a day the happy way (except in MA,CA,NY and any other state law requires more frequent bad news about the company.)

      Stories: Stuff that may or may not be interesting, though the best stuff often dies until a truly bad submission is made, also Dupes.

      Moderation: Whyizzit? (e.g. Why did my doctoral dissertation get a Score:5, Funny)

      Metamoderation: Your big chance to work for free.

      Polls: What they reveal about that little dark spot on your soul (actually it was a smudge on the auragraph)

      Offtopic posts: Today's tech and how it relates to your personal beef with G. W. Bush, Kerry, Tea in China, The Jelly Baby tariff in Portugal or that worrying voice coming from under the bed at night.

      Slow page loads (Hey, the Tandy 1200 is overclocked, buster!)

      Etc. Beowulf clusters, Soviet Russia, CowboyNealism

    • Damn.. you ruined my Busines plan!

      Atleast mine will have a section entitled: "How to get mod points in just 7 days!" :)

    • Slashdot, The Missing Manual

      Can I write the appendix covering hot grits, Natalie Portman, and pants?

      (If you haven't been here several years, you are not expected to get the joke.)
    • ... both "The Bald Prima Donna" by Ionescu and "Waiting for Godot" by Beckett.
  • "It seemed to me," said Wonko the Sane, "that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for using a search engine, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane."

  • No (Score:5, Interesting)

    by EpsCylonB ( 307640 ) <eps&epscylonb,com> on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:05PM (#9836849) Homepage
    There are tons of little aspects to google that you probably don't know about.

    One of my favourites is the define option...

    type into google define:whatever and it will come back will a list of defintions, can be very handy sometimes.

    • Re:No (Score:2, Informative)

      by ChiefoftheChiss ( 791185 )
      Yeah that is a great option! I also like how it will convert cups into pints or do various simple calculations. They cover this on http://www.google.com/help/features.html#calculato r

    • Yes! Furlongs per Fortnight (Score:5, Informative)

      by BrianMarshall ( 704425 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:19PM (#9837008) Homepage
      I only recently discovered that you can use Google for units conversion. You can type:
      451 furlongs/fortnight in km/hr and you get back:
      451 (furlongs / fortnight) = 0.270020143 km / hr

      or type: 387 btu/hr in watts
      and get: 387 (btu / hr) = 113.418504 Watts

    • Re:No (Score:2, Informative)

      by MisanthropicProgram ( 763655 )
      ype into google define:whatever and it will come back will a list of defintions, can be very handy sometimes.

      And, it is even faster than http://www.webster.com/ [webster.com] at least for those of us still on dial-up.

    • PACKAGE TRACKING!!! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Cyno01 ( 573917 ) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:50PM (#9837359) Homepage
      If anyone doesn't know, you can put your tracking number for UPS, FedEx or USPS into google and it'll give you a direct link to their tracking service. Very handy.

    • Re:No (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jez9999 ( 618189 )
      Seeing as this is as appropriate place as any to ask, I'll ask here...

      A while ago, I'm sure someone on Slashdot showed me a way to search Google for *AN EXACT PHRASE*. No, I don't mean using speech marks, I mean whatever goddamn ASCII characters I enter are searched for. I have never found out how to do this again. So, say I wanted to search for the *string*:
      #irchelp efnet

      or:
      2^4^8

      ? Obviously Google would filter out characters like '#' usually and also ignore such characters in between words (Google d
      • Yes this just pissed me off earlier today, I was trying to find linux.au and even searching only english-language pages didn't turn it up, I kept getting pages full of french from assorted mailing lists. I desperately want to know how to find an exact string, also.
      • enclose your query in double qoutes such as:

        "blah blah blah"

    • Re:No (Score:3, Informative)

      by moonbender ( 547943 )
      Regarding the wildcards in phrases feature mentioned in the review, that one was actually news to me. And the way it was used in the review (Google will fill it in automatically [google.com]) was actually wrong: there's a wildcard in that query, but not within a phrase. Use that query and you get the exact same results if you drop the wildcard. But a query containing a wildcard within a phrase [google.com] does in fact work as advertised - cool!

      This would be a nice idea for a new google meta-utility: Enter any phrase with a wildcar
      • Sorry about that. I was prettying up the OpenOffice document to submit it in HTML, as Slashdot requires, and apparently my search-replace routines "optimized" the quotes.

    • Re:No (Score:2, Informative)

      by Chalex ( 71702 )
      A similar feature that I find more useful is typing "dict 'word'" in the Firefox address bar. It takes you to the dictionary.com page for the word you entered. There is a big difference, however, dictionary.com gives you the official definition while "define:'word'" at Google gives you all the colloquial usage on the web, which is sometimes more useful.
    • define:automobile

      Definitions of Automobile on the Web:

      , n. A transportation device hailed as the solution to the problem of providing transit without creating the pollution generated by a horse.

      Yep, that works :)
      • laugh if you want, but it's true -- ever cleaned up after one? Would you like to clean up the I-5 heading towards San Diego after rush hour?

        -Billy
  • I'm just not too sure what they could put in another O'Reilly book about it. Google hacks (O'Reilly), as well as the Google website itself, has tons of information on the less known features.

    Here's [dmiessler.com] a brief summary of a few of my favorites that I use to remind myself of them.

  • The Incorrect Assumption (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:05PM (#9836856) Homepage Journal
    Ok, maybe it saves trees or even recycled trees for better use. I personally find using online documentation a massive bother. I shelled for an expensive software package in the past, a few times, only to find no books or even decent installation instructions were included. I like a good copy of reference completely separate from the workstation or laptop. Often I'd like to go find a comfortable place to sit and read, or even read up on something while in line, flying or anywhere else I can make productive used of a few minutes, such as the doctor or dentist. A CD with a manual on it isn't quite going to work. Futher, I waste battery time if I'm trying to learn while on a laptop. Perhaps the best reason of all, though, is because I can put those yellow Post-It notes in the pages I frequently need to return to. A manual for Google? Well, that's not a bad idea, but I think Google has a very simple and intuitive interface. The only thing I think anyone needs to know is how to construct searches properly. Maybe I'm not the audience and the manual is targetted toward someone who hasn't spend their life around computers or written their own search engine (it existed for 5 years where I once worked, the replacement is horrible and I'm sure they paid well for that improvement.) The worst thing about search engines is the 'special knowledge' you need to be savvy. How to avoid being tricked into a site which isn't anything like you are looking for, but has a pile of key words in a header somewhere to get a high Google score. I suppose a book could teach you some of that, but the rest comes with experience.

  • "You're Stupid" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BoneThugND ( 766436 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:09PM (#9836900) Homepage Journal
    Call me stupid, but it doesn't look like this book has anything that Google Hacks [amazon.com] doesn't have...

  • for the /. crowd (Score:5, Interesting)

    by asv108 ( 141455 ) <asv@nOspam.ivoss.com> on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:10PM (#9836907) Homepage Journal
    Google Hacks [amazon.com] covers probably everything in the missing manual book along with code examples and a good description of the google api.

    Also, the book reviewed is available on Amazon [amazon.com] for four dollars less. Don't pay the /. tax.

  • They lost their value (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Stevyn ( 691306 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:10PM (#9836913)
    When more computer novices entered the market for computers and software in the 90's and I suppose up until now, manuals were being used less and less percentage wise. I'm sure it's expensive for software developers to publish them and so if no one reads them, then why bother? The "for Dummies" series and other publishers took over because they could provide manuals for people's specific needs. If you had no clue what you were doing, there was a manual for that. If you were skilled, but wanted a good technical reference, you had your books. The old way of the "one level fits all" manual style became too obtuse for the customers.

    The last manual I've read in a long long time was the Gentoo handbook. That was an example of the old style one level fits all, but they just happened to do a very good job and it worked. They combined good explainations along with technical information. For something like windows, you're dealing with system admins and complete idiots. There is no way Microsoft could make a manual to satisfy the needs of 90% of their customers, so they don't bother. Many other companies obviously do the same.

    If you don't believe me that novices have difficulty with one level fits all technical manuals, print out some man pages and see how many people can understand them.

  • Here is the real missing manual (Score:5, Informative)

    by myusername ( 597009 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:12PM (#9836922)
    I really like the google guide.
    http://www.googleguide.com/ [googleguide.com]
    I used it a few times to teach some classes on how to search the internet.

  • You'd be surprised (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Onimaru ( 773331 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:13PM (#9836937)

    We are all geeks here, so yeah it's ridiculous to us. But I see this as being an awesome book, and required reading for people getting into computers with the will to learn

    See, if you go out looking for something obscure, you'll find it perfectly in 15 minutes or fewer. But I have friends who work as researchers for Harvard Univeristy and are considered the bomb and a bag of Fritos basically because of this ability. It's not second nature to most people to start using quoted phrases, alternative spellings, excluded matches, and cached pages with their handy highlights. Most folks have never clicked "I'm feeling lucky," or even know what it does. And good luck explaining to someone when you should use the directory, what pagerank is (and isn't) good for, how to find GIS results, or foreign language results. Yes the product is simple, but it is huge

    Also, most people don't understand formal logic. Best Google-foo artist I know: a philosophy major. Try explaining even a concept so seemingly basic as implication to a random non math non geek. It's like the Mr. Wizard with the apple and pear slices. "So, if X implies Y, and I have Y, what can I infer?" They'll say "X" every time. Toss in a little logic, a little set theory, and I'm guessing that book could be even bigger than it is. And that's not counting Froogle or the toolbar or Gmail or anything.

    I'd buy it. I probably will. And I'll make my LSAT students read it.

  • It's terrible (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TibbonZero ( 571809 )
    I hate the lack or printed manuals. Only really expensive software seems to include any printed manuals (Protools TDM had quite a few thankfully).

    I have a version of "The Microsoft Office" in a large grey box, that has alot of massive manuals still sitting around here somewhere. I don't know why they won't print them anymore.

    Linux is just as bad about this as anything. Sure there's typing 'man' or using the howto's, but it's not like using an AS/400 or other server that actually has a whole bookshelf

  • Next Up... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Suriel ( 784721 )
    Next Up: Solitaire, The missing manual.

  • Bad example (Score:5, Funny)

    by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <[slashdot] [at] [keirstead.org]> on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:24PM (#9837066)

    Wildcard search allows one to use an asterisk for any word that's missing. Google will fill it in automatically. Pretty useful for finding the lyrics for that song you heard on the radio, but couldn't figure out the last word.

    If you were missing the last word, you could just type in the part you remember ( the first X words ) and it would do the exact same thing as the wildcard!

    Wildcard is usefull when you have a phrase you want to search for that can include generalities. For example, "The crooks at SCO are a bunch of * *" could match:

    • Lying cocksuckers
    • Scheming Bastards
    • Cheating SOBs
    .... etc. See?

    • Re:Bad example (Score:5, Funny)

      by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:49PM (#9837354)
      Well, unfortunately,
      Your search - +"The crooks at SCO are a bunch of * *" - did not match any documents.
      However, the somewhat more general search "SCO are a bunch of *" is a little more interesting. Among the results:
      • f%^ktards
      • snakes
      • bastards
      • blood-sucking bottom-feeders
      • losers
      • litigious bastards
      • liars
      • extortionists
      • crazy people
      • WANKERS
      • jerks
      • ^%$&ers
      • litigation-happy jackasses
      If I didn't know better, I'd say they were disliked.
    • What's interesting is that "SCO are a bunch of *" yields more results than "SCO is a bunch of *". Has everyone stopped using American English!?!?

  • Waitaminute. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Zanthany ( 166662 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:25PM (#9837081) Journal
    Folks, you're missing the point here.

    It's not about a manual for "type word here then press return." That's the part everybody knows about.

    It's the different things that Google can do from the very same line that the general populous doesn't know about. Sure, Google is great for searches. But it can also convert currency, forward & reverse phone number lookups, unit conversion, mapping, spell checking, and (now that I've read some of the prior comments) defining words.

    There's probably even more functionality that I don't even know about yet deep within that Mostly Harmless Google frontpage.

  • Don't bash the book! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by inkdesign ( 7389 )
    Google definitely falls in to the category of products that are simple & easy to use, yet below the surface are much deeper for people intelligent enough to take advantage. Most everyone on this site is (benefit of the doubt) of above-average intelligence, and it is great to see mass-audience products incorporate neat tricks for people like us. So, yes, publishing books about Google's deeper features is completely justified, and appreciated for those of us with responsibilities that keep us from havin

  • My Fave Google Trick (Score:5, Informative)

    by theluckyleper ( 758120 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:30PM (#9837139) Homepage
    Not mentioned in this write up (but perhaps in the book?) is this:

    -qqqqqqqq site:slashdot.org

    Placing something impossible (like 8 Qs) in the "without the words" field on the Advanced Search [google.com] page combined with entering a site in the "Domain" field will get you a listing of ALL of the pages on that website!

    Well, unless the robots.txt file blocks certain pages/directories... but most sites don't do this. I don't know how many times I've used this trick to find more pr0... err, I mean, information on a website.

    For example: Remember that Slashdot story about tired.com [tired.com]? It bugged me that there was only one page on the site... so I pulled out my google trick and found these [google.com]. Nothing amazing, but fun.
  • All the links in the example section have "...&sourceid=mozilla..." in them. Browser boosterism perhaps? I'm at work using IE.

  • Soople.com (Score:5, Informative)

    by aengblom ( 123492 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:39PM (#9837235) Homepage
    On a related note, Soople.com [soople.com] offers a sort of "GUI" for Google's more advanced features. Yes most of us on Slashdot can remember/figure out how to search for specific file types or look up a phone number via the command-prompt framework, but Soople puts them out front.

    It can work pretty well for those proverbial parents/grandparents who don't quite "get" it.

  • "The Telephone, the Missing Manual" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Thursday July 29, 2004 @05:42PM (#9837270) Homepage
    Actually, a user manual for telephones would be useful. A full list of all the # and * functions is hard to find.
  • I love paper manuals for computer programs, or nearly anything in preference to help files or electronic copies of manuals, and really resent it when a supplier sends us a program we pay $5k for to not include a paper copy of the PDF manual they dropped onto the cd.

    It is a lot harder to put post-it flags to mark the bits you refer to often, pencil in margin notes to clarify bits you had to work through, or cross reference to other sources of help.

  • When every 15-year boy thinks they know it all :-)
  • I think there's definitely a need for a Google manual. Apart from the importance of explaining how to search effectively, there are so many extra Google features that normal users simply won't know about, such as Google Local [google.com], the Google Toolbar [google.com] and Personalized Search [google.com]. That's not even starting to mention some extremely useful third-party add-ons that use the Google Web APIs [google.com], such as GoogleBrowser [touchgraph.com], GoogleAlert [googlealert.com] and CapeMail [capeclear.com]. Since they're not home grown, Google ain't going to be publicizing these on its own
  • This book was totally unnessary and almost completely useless. It seems like 95% of the books reviewed on /. are favorable. Why even bother? If nearly every book is a good book, why not just put a rotating amazon link on the side of the page with the rest of your ads and let people click on "/. recommended" instead of wading through 6-10 paragraphs of "Chapter 1 was great, Chapter 2 was ok but I still liked it, Chapter 3 was amazing....over all I recommend this book" UGH /. has the fucking WORST reviews eve
  • "-qqqqqqqq site:slashdot.org
    Placing something impossible (like 8 Qs) in the "without the words" field will get you a listing of ALL of the pages on that website!"

    do this instead:
    site:slashdot.org inurl:org

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