Book Review: Google Power Search by Stephan Spencer

Google Power Search is a brief but direct book(let) on how to exploit Google's various search engine features. Although the things discussed in the first two chapters may be readily available in various blogs and forums, the contents of the rest of the book are very valuable. Some advanced and not-so-well-known features are also introduced.

I am glad to have found the book as the section on common operators help me immediately in avoiding frustration in looking for what I really want. Finding what I need on the first page of results rather than on the third page is really great.

Highly recommended for those who do a lot of searching on the internet, especially those who want to find them quickly.

About the author:
Stephan Spencer is an author of The Art of SEO published in October 2009 by O'Reilly and co-authored by Eric Enge, Rand Fishkin and Jessie Stricchiola.

Stephan is the founder of Netconcepts. Netconcepts started out as a web design and marketing agency, but over time morphed into a leading SEO firm. Stephan, and Netconcepts, had been heavy into the science of SEO since 1999.

Netconcepts was acquired in January 2010 by paid and organic search software/services agency Covario. Covario is one of those rare companies to have made it onto the Inc 500 list two years in a row -- in 2009 and again in 2010.

Stephan is the inventor of the automated pay-for-performance natural search technology platform GravityStream, now re-branded as Organic Search Optimizer.

He is a Senior Contributor to Practical Ecommerce and to MarketingProfs.com, and a columnist for Search Engine Land and Multichannel Merchant. He's also contributed to DM News, Catalog Age, Catalog Success, Building Online Business, Unlimited, and NZ Marketing magazine, among others.

Stephan is a frequent conference speaker on SEO and other online marketing topics for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), American Marketing Association (AMA), Shop.org, Internet Retailer, SMX, IncisiveMedia (Search Engine Strategies), O'Reilly/TechWeb, PubCon, ECMOD, IQPC and IIR. His hundreds of speaking gigs have taken him around the globe -- everywhere from Berlin, London, Toronto, Santiago, and Auckland, to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and places in between.

Stephan is an avid blogger. He blogs at Stephan Spencer's Scatterings, Natural Search Blog, Business Blog Consulting, Changes For Good, and Google, I Suggest... He's also been a contributor for the following group blogs: Searchlight (part of the CNET Blog Network), Shop.org Blog, and MarketingProfs Daily Fix.

Stephan is on the advisory board of CrowdGather.

He holds an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

[Disclaimer: I got this book for free as part of the Oreilly blogger review program I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."]

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