Click

July 14, 2008
Do Americans really spend that much time surfing porn sites? Which demographic visited Anna Nicole Smith's Web site most frequently? Who reads Perez Hilton? More than mere trivia nuggets, the answers to these questions define online behaviors among a varied mix of Internet users. Tancer, who leads global research at Hitwise, an online market research company, guides the reader through the search patterns among 10 million Internet users, challenging myths and making new discoveries about the psychology of consumers, illustrating that clicks speak louder than words and can reveal unspoken truths about individual drives that are not expressed via other forms of media. Everyone from marketing managers who want to know how much power social networking sites wield in the online market to political pollsters trying to decipher the disconnect between exit polls and election results would be advised to heed his research. Witty and invaluable in its insights, this book is destined to become a primer for online marketers and usability experts while shedding new light on the mindset and curiosities of the average Web surfer, i.e., your friends and neighbors.

October 27, 2008
With emerging search technology that is continually gathering demographic and psychographic data on millions of Internet users both domestically and worldwide, Tancer laces together a wide range of interesting data on such things as elections, pornography, social networks and changing concepts of the fuller meaning of Web 2.0. In exploring this vast storage of correlation, Tancer identifies possible means of profit for this ever increasing body of knowledge. The audiobook comes across as one big advertisement for his company, which he mentions every couple of paragraphs. As a narrator, Tancer sounds professional, clear and deliberate, revealing a keen familiarity and command over the text. At times, his tone also betrays his own personal excitement about scouring through data to find larger meaning. However, the production is plagued with recurring background noise. A Hyperion hardcover (Reviews, July 14).

September 1, 2008
Tancer, a search-engine data miner, takes a look at our culture by evaluating the millions of search queries on the Internet. He crunches the numbers to quantify our desires, our fears, our quest for knowledge, and our aspirations. From porn to prom dresses to politics, the content of our search queries reveals much about our private thoughts that we would not reveal to loved ones, friends, or a stranger taking a survey. His lists include the top fear of searches; fear of intimacy and fear of rejection were ranked high, while the fear of public speaking, usually sited as number one, came in at number nine. How to tie a tie just beat out how to have sex in the how-to category, with how to levitate clocking in at number six! For businesses, searches can reveal surprising information that dispels assumptions about customer behavior, such as the seasonality of clothing purchases. Tancer brings humor, clarity, and insight to the trends that are revealed by the ways we seek out and consume information on the Internet.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)