The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN: Editor of Book pleasures &CLICK TO VIEW Norm Goldman's Reviews

In 1994 Yahoo was started by two Stanford University graduate students, David File and Jerry Yang. It was at the time when the Internet was just beginning to take off and there were an increasing number of web sites available to Internet buffs.

These two enterprising students developed a collection of selected sites arranged in categories or a web directory that they made available to others. It soon became a very popular search engine, and in 1996 the company went public.

In 2004 the focus had changed from a directory function to a portal and search function.

Yahoo had also established its own ?crawled? database, instead of relying on others.

Furthermore, in August of the same year, Yahoo came out with a home page that no longer even prominently displayed the directory.

I have to admit, that after reading Randolph Hock's Yahoo to the Max an Extreme Searcher Guide, I was quite surprised to learn all of the newest Yahoo features, and yes, it made me think twice about that other search engine whose name begins with G.

The resulting book is an excellent manual exposing all of the nifty features of Yahoo presented in an informative and accessible style.

According to the author, Yahoo is the best general portal on the Web, as it has the capability of integrating a broad variety of services and consolidates them nicely on a single page. Even Google has now recognized the usefulness of this approach, and as pointed out, they have been expanding into a wide range of other offerings (directory, news, images, shopping, local, etc) even to the extent of appearing to imitate Yahoo in several ways.

Hock exhibits a sharp eye for the small but important details of Yahoo that will help you better appreciate its value as a portal and its content rich quality.

This is quite in evidence as you read through the book's nine chapters, wherein the author has done an admirable job in explaining Yahoo's home page, effective search and browsing techniques, personalization of the site, groups, news, mail, buying and selling through Yahoo, financial page, and other miscellaneous tidbits as maps, travel, weather, health, photos, music, desktop search, etc.

I was surprised to learn that not only can Yahoo aid you with searches on the Web, but can also provide you with an easy, fast, and effective search of the contents of your computer.

Another feature that I have experimented with is the personalization of the portal pertaining to its appearance, contents, services, messages, and you can even add such features as calendar options, events and task listings, and many more.

It should also be pointed out is that most of the chapters include figures that aid you in fitting the pieces together in order to comprehend its usefulness.

As mentioned in the Preface, the book is not intended to be the definitive, ?everything anyone might ever want to know about Yahoo!? book. Its purpose is to act as a guide to the serious ?extreme? user in getting the most from Yahoo.

One last mention, as Yahoo is constantly changing, and to keep you aware of these changes since the publication of the book, a Web page has been set up.

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