The Internet, with its profusion of information, has made us hungry for ever more, ever better data. Out of necessity, many of us have become pretty adept with search engine queries, but there are times when even the most powerful search engines aren't enough. If you've ever wanted your data in a different form than it's presented, or wanted to collect data from several sites and see it side-by-side without the constraints of a browser, then Spidering Hacks is for you. Spidering Hacks takes you to the next level in Internet data retrieval--beyond search engines--by showing you how to create spiders and bots to retrieve information from your favorite sites and data sources. You'll no longer feel constrained by the way host sites think you want to see their data presented--you'll learn how to scrape and repurpose raw data so you can view in a way that's meaningful to you. Written for developers, researchers, technical assistants, librarians, and power users, Spidering Hacks provides expert tips on spidering and scraping methodologies. You'll begin with a crash course in spidering concepts, tools (Perl, LWP, out-of-the-box utilities), and ethics (how to know when you've gone too far: what's acceptable and unacceptable). Next, you'll collect media files and data from databases. Then you'll learn how to interpret and understand the data, repurpose it for use in other applications, and even build authorized interfaces to integrate the data into your own content. By the time you finish Spidering Hacks, you'll be able to: Aggregate and associate data from disparate locations, then store and manipulate the data as you like Gain a competitive edge in business by knowing when competitors' products are on sale, and comparing sales ranks and product placement on e-commerce sites Integrate third-party data into your own applications or web sites Make your own site easier to scrape and more usable to others Keep up-to-date with your favorite comics strips, news stories, stock tips, and more without visiting the site every day Like the other books in O'Reilly's popular Hacks series, Spidering Hacks brings you 100 industrial-strength tips and tools from the experts to help you master this technology. If you're interested in data retrieval of any type, this book provides a wealth of data for finding a wealth of data.

Crafted from our bestselling Google Hacks title, the Google Pocket Guide provides exactly the information you need to make your searches faster and more effective, right from the start. The Google Pocket Guide unleashes the power behind that blinking cursor by delivering a thorough but concise tour of Google's features; practical examples to inspire going beyond the basic keyword search; secrets for constructing more powerful queries using Google's special syntax and advice on how to understand and further refine the results Google provides.

Everyone knows that Google lets you search billions of web pages. But few people realize that Google also gives you hundreds of cool ways to organize and play with information. Since we released the last edition of this bestselling book, Google has added many new features and services to its expanding universe: Google Earth, Google Talk, Google Maps, Google Blog Search, Video Search, Music Search, Google Base, Google Reader, and Google Desktop among them. We've found ways to get these new services to do even more. The expanded third edition of Google Hacks is a brand-new and infinitely more useful book for this powerful search engine. You'll not only find dozens of hacks for the new Google services, but plenty of updated tips, tricks and scripts for hacking the old ones. Now you can make a Google Earth movie, visualize your web site traffic with Google Analytics, post pictures to your blog with Picasa, or access Gmail in your favorite email client. Industrial strength and real-world tested, this new collection enables you to mine a ton of information within Google's reach. And have a lot of fun while doing it: * Search Google over IM with a Google Talk bot * Build a customized Google Map and add it to your own web site * Cover your searching tracks and take back your browsing privacy * Turn any Google query into an RSS feed that you can monitor in Google Reader or the newsreader of your choice * Keep tabs on blogs in new, useful ways * Turn Gmail into an external hard drive for Windows, Mac, or Linux * Beef up your web pages with search, ads, news feeds, and more * Program Google with the Google API and language of your choice For those of you concerned about Google as an emerging Big Brother, this new edition also offers advice and concrete tips for protecting your privacy. Get into the world of Google and bend it to your will!