Online Books

This book is a very handy practical guideline for anyone involved in making any major or minor web design decisions. It demonstrated the importance of prioritizing your web design to RIO rather than the obvious reasons. It addressed the Art of Web Design in a scientific manner with clear objective of each key web site page: Home page, Category page, Detail page, Form page and Check out process.

It demonstrated how small changes in web design convert leads into more sales with very clear objectives, strategies and tactics.

This book is a very light reading with over 200 pages and 10 chapters. The book cover is well-designed and printed in high quality premium paper. It is a very good practical book to read in your spare time and allow you to apply your leaning immediately into your work and capture positive results.

I had the opportunity to hear Lance Loveday speak at Web Design World in Seattle. I am very interested in learning how to present hard numbers which support the role of web design. Last December, I created an HTML email which linked to a branded microsite containing success stories and a quiet request for donations. The return that year was 40% above the previous year. I went back to study the campaign from the previous year and compared it to what we did in December of 2007. I had alot of data but did not know how to interpret it until I read this book. I learned from Lance how important it is to have branded landing pages, simple targeted navigation and limit choices for the website visitor (in our case, the donor). Now that I have the words and strategies to explain the success to upper managment, I can also see the areas of the campaign I can improve even more, such as redesigning our form on our donation page and targeting the metrics that truly matter. This book also provides information for understanding web analytics and how they tie into business objectives. The book is well organized and the color screenshots are helpful to visual learners. The best part is now I have business language to sell the importance of what I do that adds value to online campaigns, whereas before all I had was intuition and luck.

This book easily earned it spot on my easy to reach bookshelf as I find myself referring back to it again and again. It is perfect for anyone who needs or wants to better understand how every decision made affects the overall performance of their website.

The chapters that break down specific portions of a website (landing pages, home page, category pages, etc.) gave enough information to help me better understand those sections without being so detailed that it turns into a textbook.

This book serves its purpose perfectly.

The authors open with a statement that this book is not a checklist. However, I beg to differ. Once you begin to read through the chapters on category pages, individual pages, checkout pages, and so on, you'll realize that they are addressing the main concerns of building pages that properly convert, step by step.

If you run a web site, and you're interested in learning how experienced marketers use design to persuade users to do what you want them to do (i.e. convert), then you should read this book. It's a very straight-forward read, with many screen shots and sample charts used for illustrative purposes. Anyone who owns a web site can benefit from their examples and tips.

I've been working in web marketing for longer than Mr. Loveday, and I can tell you that this book is utter crap. Using VERY fuzzy mathematics, he attempts to give some suggestions on how some changes to style and content can boost your ROI. Flip through the book, and you'll immediately wonder why you're taking style and content advice from a book with so little of either. Methods vary from outdated to downright foolish, and the numbers are so bad that they border on unethical. There are tons of great books on Amazon addressing this topic, and this one is a total waste of money. Buy Kevin Potts instead, you'll find it much more helpful and current.

I love reading this book. It is very informative and easy to understand for someone who didn't study science but is interested in biology, like me. You can read only a short section (or module) at a time whenever you have time.

It was an ok book. Everything was outlined well enough, although some points could have used a bit more explanation & the definitions seemed a little clunky to memorize. Still, it was an invaluable learning tool in my biology class.

This biology book has great practical concepts and provides detailed descriptions of biological processes. This book is ideal for a college level introductory course for Biology. Easy to read, the format of the concepts are easy to follow.

This was my into to bio, and it is the best. I actually understood it ^.-!

Good illustrations, a very good book.

My teacher was great, which made all the difference.

Well, you either need it for your class or not.

I do like this book though b/c the pictures in this one are alot more descriptive of what you're reading then most of my other text books. Plus, the reviews in the back of each chapter actually make you think as opposed to just copying definitions for regurgitation of facts later.

I borrowed this from my local library and found it so helpful that I hunted down a used copy. It's not a technical reference, but it provides a great overview of the elements of online community, with authentic examples from existing communities (some of which, sadly, are now gone, but this was written before the bubble burst). Highly recommended if you are responsible for developing and supporting an online community, or if you are just interested in how thinking in online communities has been developing in the early days.

I'm an independent consultant on interactive technologies and web community building. I've read a number of books and articles giving advice about online communities, and none comes close to matching Amy Jo Kim's. Her book is the most exceptional in integrating human and technical considerations; describing how sites can launch, expand and evolve; giving lots of first-hand examples; and being an easy, fun read. I get the sense from her Naima company site that she's on the leading edge for design and technical approaches.

I'm personally working now with communities for performing artists and software developers. This book is the only one I'm willing to carry with me on all my customer consulting visits.

I thought this was an excellent book. Even though technologies change the concepts presented in this book are timeless.

Read this book only if you want to build a kindler, gentler Web community. The style of the writing of this book was so chummy and "we are just women who want to share nice things and we don't know much about that technical man-stuff." Yuk! If there was any real content to this book, I couldn't find it. I am building a business community on my Web-site but this book focues on social communities. Social communities certainly are valid, but I need something professional, not fluffy. Also, it totally ignored the technical tools I need to build the discussion boards and chat rooms.

I believe everyone has a heart - whether in social or business settings - and that most people warms up to sensible "human touches" in a mechanistic environment created with computer-based systems.

Amy Jo Kim's book is a strategy book written with a little humor and a great understanding of what people crave in a community (note "community" and not "transaction") - to belong, to interact and to be empowered. She gives many practical tips on how to attract and engage people in cyberspace.

At no time did Ms Kim give the impression that this book is supposed to be a step-by-step instructional manual.

I have read , Information Trapping by Tara Calishain(read my review), Mastering Online Research by Maura Shaw and now, Find it Online.

In my opinion , Find it Online is the best. I learned so much more about online research from it then the previous 2 books. That not say, that I didnt learn anything for Information Trapping, it is great for information that need constant updating and Online Research, I learned to use advanced searching more effectively.

But Find it now , gave me a plan, even before you begin to search online, that will in the long run save you time. And it convinced me that for real important research, a combination of a fee based service with free online searches are the only way to go. I have and still do have an aversion to paying for anything that could be had for free but Alan Schlein makes a good argument to use it when there is a lot at stake.

Now, for my negatives, although the book indicated that it was revised 2006, a lot of the information is dated and has not be revised. The book still talks about ICQ, and he never talks about You Tube even though that has revolutionized the internet, not one word and this was revised last year? And how about myspace and facebook? Looking for someone in their 20 or so age, that is the first place to look. Not one word, revised last year?
But the great information makes up for this,and some typos. It is worth the price and I look forward to the next revision but before buying I will check to see if he included all of the lastest web advances. I hope Alan and his people do not get lazy and do minor changes , that will be a shame.

This book is just Fantastic, it provides in detail all you want to know about Researching. It's very up to date.

Ignore "Complete" in the title. No book can hope to match the breadth of the Web. But Schlein does a commendable job in succinctly describing several hundred websites. The value in this book is in his selection. The websites typically have reliable content and lots of it.

In terms of doing online research, it's mostly at a high school or undergraduate level. If you are a grad student or a professional researcher, then the websites covered here are typically too broad for your needs.

Schlein also advises the reader on how to guard against various online perils like spam and phishing. Well, ok, for the latter, he really doesn't offer much except warning you to be on guard. Partly a reflection of the lack of a good programmatic defense against phishing.

I explored the guide at a friend's house and was astounded by the number of references available to anyone who wants to know all there is to know. I work at a newspaper, take foreign language classes and am interested in fine arts.... Just to read the titles of websites is fun.

Of the many books I have read and own on this subject, this one flows the best and is the easiest to read. That said, this book does not speak to the technical in terms the hows/whys of resources.

You don't have to be interested in AOL, Time Warner or their merger to read this book! This is a classic tale in American history of what happens when everyone thinks they are the only one with an idea and forgets that to make a company work, there must, under no uncertain terms be Teamwork. Any company already in existence, any company about to be formed, any company about to merge, any company thinking about merging, any business person, any person entering a business field ... oh forget it - anyone on the face of the earth should read this book and their knowledge of America and its business practices would vastly improve their ability to navigate through it.

I really liked this book. As a former participant of the crazy ways of carrying out business during the Internet hype, I think Nina Munk captured the essence of what drove so many people to act irrationally. She is objective, thorough and able to take the reader through a smooth ride across the AOL story.

Having read Stealing Time by Alec Klein, I was sure that I didn't want to read another book about the AOL-Time Warner fiasco. But then I happened to see the cover of this book at the library and couldn't resist its delightful cover. And I'm glad that the cover drew me in.

Ms. Munk has written a delightful story of the world's worst large merger that features lots of texture about the key players (especially Gerry Levin) and is written in a simple, effective style. Her book has more balance than the Klein book which emphasizes the sales and accounting legerdemain at AOL.

One of the book's most engaging qualities is that it is filled with powerful and interesting quotes from the participants and the observers.

I have had the opportunity to observe Time Warner in the past as a consultant, and I was struck that Ms. Munk did well in capturing the management style of the company and its reclusive CEO, Mr. Levin.

I would have rated the book higher except that this report still leaves the central mystery of AOL-Time Warner unexplained . . . why didn't anyone at Time Warner or its advisors figure out that AOL's profit success was based on a three-card Monte game before the deal was announced? Either people were bought off or they were monumentally stupid. Getting to the bottom of that mystery will have to await yet another book on this subject, I'm afraid. Ms. Munk puts it down to Mr. Levin's "big-picture, don't-bother-me-with-the-details" mentality.

If you want smooth, easy reading that gets most of the facts right, this book is a good choice. I particularly commend this book to students who are learning about how to make (and more importantly, not to make) acquisitions. If you mainly want to know about the AOL shenanigans, I suggest Stealing Time instead.

Munk's book reads like a fast paced novel and is easy enough to understand. It has not received the publicity of books like 'Good to Great' although in many ways it provides fundamental information on how big business is really conducted- for the benefit of pushy and powerful owners, managers and special interests.

Read this book to get real insight into how compliant board members and clueless senior management can wreck your 401K account. If an insider like Ted Turner could lose $ 8 billion in a three year period, where does it leave Joe Blow who plans to retire on his stock market investments?

Munk's book surprised even a cynic like myself- how could 2 persons deceive and mislead so many professionals and investors and evaporate $ 200 billion in less than 3 years? If this story does not provoke actionable investigations into the effectivness of oversight and toothlessnes of the legal system (to protect investors), I am not sure what will. In this regard, it is a very valuable read.

This is an article masquerading as a book. When the price drops to the price of a newsstand magazine, as the towering remainder pile suggests it will any day now, pick up a copy. Until then, read the Vanity Fair excerpt.

I'm not a PR exec and I'm not a professional blogger. So maybe for those who are much more experienced in the field this is a "no brainer". For the rest of us, this was a VERY clear, VERY insightful primer on how technology has changed the way public relations works. It's made me reflect on my own social media habits and given me an glimpse of how businesses can harness social media to build relationships with their customers. Its a fascinating book that opens up a pandoras box of questions but it's a great start nonetheless.

Marketing and PR professionals who successfully make the transition to the world of social media have learned that "participation is marketing," and that's the theme of this book.

Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis have teamed up to offer a punchy little book that's packed with insights into the principles that can guide communicators into, and through, the increasingly diverse and changing marketing environment. They offer organizations and executives a foundation to help create social media strategies for their companies.

A key point: There is no more 'audience.' There are, instead, communities. By participating in online communities communicators can learn what the community wants and likes, and can create content that's most valuable to it. The take away from this book: build value for your community, and work for them.

While PR 1.0 was all about controlling the message and broadcasting it, PR 2.0 encourages communicators to spark conversations to help people solve problems and discover new solutions.

Marketing and PR professionals must create value for their communities: material they find worthwhile. This requires a) knowing what the community wants, b) understanding the intrinsic value the company has to offer, and c) being creative enough to deliver this value in a way that's interesting and compelling.

Now is Gone was written for those who keep hearing buzz words like "social media" and "Web 2.0." It breaks down what social media is and how it will affect businesses and their nature of marketing at a ground level. The book flows very well from one item to another and it allows you to apply it to what you already know and figure out what you thought you knew when it comes to social media.

As a social media junky and practicing online networker, this book covers the most crucial best practices when looking at social media strategies. Namely, the transparency issue is essential to having a successful social media campaign. With the same fervor and passion that Cluetrain Manifesto portrayed, Now is Gone is perfect for anyone in business who is looking to crack into social media. Whether you haven't started yet or you have a campaign in place, this book allows you to evaluate your approach to elusive Web 2.0 users and engage with them for valuable returns.

Do you sometimes feel like you blinked and an entire new way of communicating appeared before your eyes? This book will get you caught up and ready to lead the next lap.

If you're already there but need to get a client, boss or business partner up to speed -- this is the book for them too.

You will see opportunities you hadn't even imagined once you've finished this book.

Unfortunately Now is gone is not worth buying. It's a book that should have been a pamphlet. The essence of the book is barely a chapter's worth of meaningful material. The book belabors the same point over and over and yet provides little insight into the greater media landscape. I found the book to be a painful read and yet I slogged my way through more out of my own dedication to the topic than the hopes of finding something meaningful. The most interesting part of the book is the last chapter which is a series of interviews with other people. Again, it is from these interview that the author draws much of the material for the book.

If you are truly interested in the topic of social network's impact on media and society check out "Groundswell" published by Harvard Business Press.

This is a great book for learning how to use typography in design. Anyone who is in any design field should look into this book, it will increase you abilities as a designer.

An absolute must have for any beginning typography student or instructor. User friendly, it covers the fundamentals of typography comprehensively and with great clarity. I have used it as a text book, when I taught beginning typography and continue to recommend it for my Intermediate and Advanced type classes. No teacher or student of typography should be without this one. Truly a classic from a real pro.

I bought this book for a class, but later found out the book was changed. I found this edition much more helpful than the later edition that I had to buy and use for class.

As a professor of Typography, I think that, that kind of a book has to be the part of each design school library.
It is important to have it, because you can find in it all kind of basic typography knowledge not only just for Typography students. So, as I said before I am kindly recommended it. Hoping you can find interesting, as am I.

Associate professor, Eduard Cehovin
Design Department
Academy of Fine Arts and Design
University of Ljubljana
Slovenia

Your book arrived today and I totally love it! I really like the improvements in the 5th edition. The color tabs and the projects in the back are very helpful. I love the practical approach to teaching typography. I will most definitely request it as my course textbook for the next term I teach Typography One!

--Sarah Slattery, Adjunct Instructor, Kendall College of Art end Design

I ordered two books from amazon. The first one was lost in transit and I never recieved it plus I wasn't refunded my money. The second one they sold me a book that they actually didn't have in stock. It took them 4 days to figure that out so overall it took me about 6 weeks to get the book I finally needed and it was not through them.

The product in itself was exactly what I needed. I am taking a Business Law class as part of my curriculum in Business Administration. I have found the the book is very informative but a little dry in reading. I was pleased with the speed of how the product was shipped but displeased in the condition it arrived in for part of the binding was literally cut down the bottom. It hasn't caused any issues for use but I know I will not be able to sell the book back to anyone without losing half of what I paid for it. My advice is to be aware of what you are buying and make sure that you ask the right questions. This was my first item bought off Amazon and it was much needed for class becuase the bookstore ran out and would be a while before getting any in so really there was little to no room for argument with the vendor. Anyway make sure you ask question and be aware that New does not always mean New!!!!!

This is a highly recommended book by legal professionals. I support their opinion since this book holds a wealth of important information to help people have a vital resource to be successful. It is user friendly and the legal concepts are written to be easily understandable.

This is a great book for undergrad students taking any type of business law class.

I like it a lot but it needs to put into simple word for a person like me who don't known any thing about law could understand it better. over all its a very good book. A lot of good information.

Lollie L. Jefferson

I have a little sideline in repairing computers, and one day a customer asked if I could help him recover all his bookmarks from the installed Mozilla version he had on his old hard drive and move them to the one on his new hard drive. Hack 25 in this book, "Migrate Firefox Profiles", told me what to do since Firefox is based on the Mozilla code base. Over several more days, I referred to other hacks in this book to guide the customer with greater skill. This book made me look like a greater expert than I really am -- which pleases me.

This is just one of several times I have quickly reached for Firefox Hacks in order to rescue either a customer or myself. It is very common for customers to want to migrate their browser data. Some consider it important enough to pay for my help to get that job done. Browsers are the most important unit of software on the internet. Buying this book is a good investment in working with Firefox as a tool.

For myself, I'm interested in the fonts I can use (Hacks 30, "Insall Fonts and Character Support", and 61, "Make MathML Content"), reviewing the basics (Hacks 1-10) and installation (Hacks 22 through 32.) I want to play with Scalable Vector Graphics which are now natively supported in Firefox 1.5. I never tire of rendering the cubic spline tiger on Croczilla: [...]

If you want to develop with Firefox (and Nigel McFarlane has written a related book on Mozilla development). check out the getting-started Hack 93, "Make Firefox Software". Enjoy the thrill of compiling your own flavor of Firefox.

My point is that Firefox Hacks has something for everyone. If you are just starting with web browing, look at Hacks 1 through 10. I learned something from most of these -- and I thought I was an expert web surfer. If you want to do deep development, refer to the "Work More Closely With Firefox" hacks in Chapter 9. Yes, I have compiled the Mozilla browser many times. If you just want to be able to play around, pick any hack in this book, read it closely, and then implement it for yourself. Go do it -- you won't be sorry.

I like McFarlane's way of describing each hack in detail rather than throwing code at you and using it to take up column-inches and pages of book space without telling you what that code really does and how to make it work. McFarlane has a gift for explaining exceedingly complex material in an easily digestible way. Every reader of this book will find at least a few hacks to zero in on and study closely. You will find that you have the careful explanation you need to make the hack understandable and workable, without being smothered with useless detail.

McFarlane cross-references and supports his hacks with other hacks and web page links for those who want to learn more. It is McFarlane's special strength that he can simplify the complex issues that come with web browsing and point you in the right direction, while actually getting you interested in some arcane bit of Firefox.

McFarlane has done an outstanding job of crafting this book. He is one of the best technical writers of our time and I am hopeful he will publish new books as well as update his existing work.

To wring the most out of Firefox as your web browser of choice, get Firefox Hacks.

I don't know where to begin, I get a headache everytime I pick up this book. It is clear that the author knows what he is talking about, but where this book falls short is the layout. This might have been a good book *if* and only if McFarlane didn't have to conform to the "Hacks" series format. It really ruins the book, most of the hacks aren't even useful for an end user and are meant for developers. These might be useful if you understand what RFC 822 means, but if you do, then why on earth do you need to buy a book that explains things you already know? Alot of the "hacks" don't even stand by themselves, this book constantly references other "hacks" making it a chore to read. Like I said, if the author was free to create his own format(not conform to "hacks" series) it might have been laid out well.

Someone must explain to me why, in a chapter entitled "Installation", why does it then go into describing the files and folders that exist only once Firefox is installed???? No where in the chapter does it mention the config.ini or install.ini. Which *ahem* are rumored to be used in the installation process. It might've been helpful *coughcough* if it detailed the options for the firefox-installer or setup.exe." It could explain what preferences might be set by the installation process, then have a seperate chapter devoted to preferences. The chapter should've been called "Preferences."

I don't understand the security chapter at all, why is it giving you ways to make Firefox *less* secure???? I suppose you could do them if you were accessing a local webpage, but how many of us do that on a regular basis, and for what purpose? Why would you turn off a security switch that has no performance hit what-so-ever? I suppose you could give a look through them and then use the exact opposite settings it defines, but most of those are already the default settings.

I could go on, but I have other things to do. If you must read this book there's an online version somewhere.

"Firefox Hacks" includes a wealth of under the covers
information on the number two most used browser. This
book goes beyond the average browser user that just
uses a browser for browsing. The book covers
everything from securing Firefox to deploying Firefox
across an enterprise to using Firefox for debugging
websites. McFarlane goes into enough detail and
explanation in each of his tips so that the reader can
at least get a good understanding of the whys and
hows. I would recommend this book to anyone doing any
development using Firefox or developing for Firefox to
get into the details behind the browser.

Firefox Hacks is a great collection of information about the Mozilla Firefox browser. While almost anyone who has used Firefox would learn a great deal from reading this book, developers, admins, and advanced power users would benefit most from reading this. The book starts out nicely by going under the hood to look at internal settings, then turns to presentation aids and then to developer tools. I wish I'd had the book several months ago when I was doing more development! From code development the book moves into altering the browser look and feel, and finally into extension development. Although I may never do so, it's nice getting a guided look into areas I don't see on a day to day basis.

If you want more details on Firefox than what you can find online, or just want a good reference as a jumping off point, this is definitely one of the books to have.

Firefox has been around for several years and most of the hacks in the book are well documented on the web, but O'Reilly and Nigel McFarlane have brought you a book that brings the structure of the program and the usefulness of the hacks into one place.

The power of the "hacks" series is that you can benefit from this book even if you don't have time to read through the whole thing. If you picked up the book to help you with re-branding Firefox, then you can go just to that section. Maybe you are needing Firefox to be a test bed for standards compatibility of a particular web project you are working on, then just read the sections of the book which apply. On the other hand, if you don't know what Firefox is capable of then you need simply to browse through the whole book to see what a powerful program Firefox is.

The book covers a very wide variety of hacks. Many have to do with extensions that can be added onto Firefox. An extension can be considered as a pre-built hack with a nice installer. It is fitting then that many of these packaged hacks are covered in the book.

Outside of just general use of the book for learning what Firefox is capable of, the book has great appeal for web developers. With the extensions available to developers to help in their work, there are quite a few development tools built into Firefox. Not the least of which is its standards compatibility. To know if something is well written one simply needs to view it in Firefox to see how a standards compliant browser renders the underlying code.

The author used several phrases and vocabulary that would not be considered standard English. This is something that a company like O'Reilly, catering to their particular audience, might allow to become lax. Well written and edited books are hard to come by and often go unnoticed. It would have been better had the publisher spent a little more time on the editing of this work. It would be a shame that someone might be turned away from this book and its great content because of poor editing.

With hacks ranging in difficulty from easy to advanced, this 377 page guide will get just about anyone hacking Firefox.

I wish to offer condolences to the family of the author as he has since passed away.

A very clear way to study and undestand a very dificult and complex subjet- The pictures are very clear and didactic.

A requirement textbook for my college course.

It is an excellent book with a lot graphs and clear illustrations.

This book is very helpful when preparing to go in for my lab. It goes step by step through the regions with blood supply, innervation, bones, etc. all in full text, yet it is concise for those short on time. I use this book to prepare for and complete labs and the Atlas of Clinical Gross Anatomy when I am dissecting.

Pros:
Good organization of the material
Chapters are structured in a way that helps learning
Images are unique in their approach to demonstrating the anatomy

Cons:
I've heard from several unrelated sources that the book has lots of inaccuracies in it (I've yet to find one)
Many of the diagrams are oblique views that take some time to figure out the orientation and then relate it to anatomical position

As a medical student I often find myself spending more time with this book than I do anything else in my life. With that said, the book does an adequate job of making difficult parts of the body seem approachable and understandable. There is a lot of over-lap between different sections which can be a benefit and a problem, It is beneficial because you go over the material again, which helps reinforce the concepts. It sucks, because you have to waste time reading the same material two and maybe even three times. Overall, this is a decent book that present the concepts well and to the point, and for the most part this is a great book. Even though I have a few quarks about this book, I would recommend this to others.