Editor Reviews:

Product Description:

What time of year do teenage girls search for prom dresses online? How does the quick adoption of technology affect business success (and how is that related to corn farmers in Iowa)? How do time and money affect the gender of visitors to online dating sites? And how is the Internet itself affecting the way we experience the world? In Click, Bill Tancer takes us behind the scenes into the massive database of online intelligence to reveal the naked truth about how we use the Web, navigate to sites, and search for information--and what all of that says about who we are.

As online directories replace the yellow pages, search engines replace traditional research, and news sites replace newsprint, we are in an age in which we've come to rely tremendously on the Internet--leaving behind a trail of information about ourselves as a culture and the direction in which we are headed. With surprising and practical insight, Tancer demonstrates how the Internet is changing the way we absorb information and how understanding that change can be used to our advantage in business and in life. Click analyzes the new generation of consumerism in a way no other book has before, showing how we use the Internet, and how those trends provide a wealth of market research nearly as vast as the Internet itself. Understanding how we change is integral to our success. After all, we are what we click.

Rating : - a text for search newbies
I like to read other reviews of a book before I add my own two-cents. Mostly so it's not repetitive for others debating whether to buy this book or not.

Here's the summary of what others have said:
1) it's anecdotal
2) it's an ad for Hitwise (the company/software Tancer refers to)
3) it's frustrating because we know we don't have access to the data he does
4) it's written like someone on ADD

Here's my thoughts:
Tancer and Hyperion (as evidenced by the flap copy) never promised that this book would give tips for improving your own search capabilities, or even that it would provide methodology for doing your own research on clicktrail.
What it did state is that if you have read the history books on search (Search by John Batelle; The Google Story by Brin and Page, etc.), then this is the next text. The world has now embraced search not only as a pastime but as an important business tool. For those who still question it's importance to their livelihoods, or better yet, it's integration into our daily lives, this is a convincing read.
Do you realize small, unknown local musicians from anywhere can become #1 sellers (read millionaires) in a matter of weeks or months? Do you also realize someone can predict which of these currently unknown musicians will be the next big thing?
How about prom dresses. Tancer explains how the industry had chosen April as the time for appropriate marketing campaigns. Tancer's data discovered that January was the prime time.

The book wasn't meant to show others how to do what Tancer does, and admittedly it does make one wonder what such information would cost. What it does do, however, is show us what search can really do when applied to Web 2.0 thinking. Sometime soon, some of Tancer's capabilities will become available to the masses (or at least the tech-savvy masses--or as Tancer calls them the Early Majority). That's the nature of the internet, nothing stays a monopoly for long.

This book is an ideal text for entrepreneurs or upper management. It will convince you that search will be a vital aspect of your decision making, both in manufacturing and marketing, if not now, then in the very close future. To be ignorant of it's importance (and current manipulations of your product/service), is to be missing out on the chance to see your future.