"Click" follows in the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell and the "Freakonomics" duo, by analyzing modern-day trends and extracting meaning behind society's behavior through the use of data and statistics. There a number of different topics discussed including politics, entertainment, and consumer behavior. What makes "Click" unique is that all of Tancer's findings are based upon search engine data and all his conclusions are drawn from drawn from how Americans spend their time on the internet.

My goal in reading "Click" was to learn more about online behavior and to see a different view of the internet's role in our society. In that respect, I can say that I'm satisfied with the book. I was introduced to some unique information and learned some interesting facts. The downside is that because Tancer covers a lot of ground, he also chooses to focus on very specific examples and doesn't always provide enough of the bigger picture. I also didn't feel that there was sufficient cohesion among the different chapters, which I would have liked.

What I really appreciated about the book was Tancer's "love of data" and passion for numbers. His anecdotes about the conferences he has attended and his ability to produce data charts in no time were pretty humorous. I only wish there would have been more content on his personal experiences with his research and less on publicizing the company he works for and what they do.

Overall I enjoyed "Click" and would recommend it for anyone who is curious about how online data can teach us about our society as a whole and in some cases why it fails to lead to accurate conclusions. Bill Tancer certainly convinced me that "we are what we click"!

[...]

The discussion of Web 2.0 and its participants is quite interesting. It seems that Web 2.0 participation can be defined by a 1/9/90 split. One percent of people put information on Web 2.0. Nine percent either edit or comment on that information (actually can be anywhere from 3 to 9 percent based on how easy it is to participate). Ninety percent are called "lurkers". They don't add anything, but only use the information.

What is really interesting is the age group of the folks interacting. We have been taught that Generation Y is the group that is doing the most for technology. However, according to his search analysis, the folks putting information on the web and editing that information are the older members of Generation X and the youngest of the Boomers. Most Generation Y members are lurkers. They use the information, but don't actually contribute much to it...except the Social Networking sites. Wish some of those advocating catering exclusively to Generation Y at the expense of the previous generation (Generation X) would read this.

This is a nice read, it's not super thick and I enjoyed how it caused me to think in a more anylitical manner about my own websites, as well as my own click/search behavior. It's important to understand your customers if you have an online business and any books like this one just help you gain more focus, learn more tricks and think more critically. I also enjoy the blog posts on the detail page for this book on Amazon.

There was recently an article on [...] talking about how google can track the FLU and how it spread by what people are searching for. This is another great example of the power of watching and stduying the search anylitics from your website, as well as the web in general. Great book, not super thick but sometimes it's hard to find time to finish the thicker books so it's nice to be able to read something that is to the point, and still gets you thinking.

This book makes for light reading and I believe probably more useful for those who are not as familiar with the widespread popularity and power of the world wide web. In some way, it is possible to be used as the basis for understanding the world wide web, but not specific enough to offer industry expertise in any one application of the web. I imagine a student writing an essay on the world wide web could find this useful, but perhaps if this book were written five years ago, it could be more interesting.

This is a great book. First, however, a few words about what it is - and what it's not. It's not a primer on how to get more customers to the website for your your small business. It's not a technical tome on search optimization. It's not the be-all and end-all on the psychology of online behavior.

What it is is something in the same vein as Blink, or Nudge, or Freakonomics. In other words, the author looks at some data and, in a lighthearted way, makes some interesting connections that tell us some very interesting things about ourselves.

In this case, the data is what criteria people enter into search engines. The idea is that this information helps reveal a true picture of ourselves. Ask yourself, what would you trust more when it comes to surveying people's attitudes on pornography - a telephone (or in-person!) survey or detailed data about what people type into a search engine late at night in the privacy of their own homes?

The fun thing about this book is how much data the author has at his fingertips and how much fun he has in seeing odd patterns develop over time or in finding odd correlations - and then trying to figure out why.

Take, for example, prom dresses ... There is an expected bump in searches right before prom time - but also one at the beginning of the year. Why? Well, it turns out that there are basically two different customer groups. One is the girl - social, fashion forward, probably a little more traditional, richer - who is really into it. She reads the fashion magazines that feature prom wear (and that come out in January) and then starts preparing. The other is the girl who knows she's expected to go, and she's got to wear something, and doesn't want (or have) a lot of money to spend on it ("cheap prom dresses" soar during the later time period). The author even gets into what he calls "search arbitrage" - i.e., predicting things (like who's going to win American Idol or predicting the next hot band) based on search results.

Now, this sort of thing is not for everyone. The author meanders around quite widely, and the average reader may be asking themselves "so what?" quite a but. But for those of who have a bent toward data, it's a very fun ride.

The only beefs I had were that the author relegated his methodology to a few short paragraphs in the introduction. It's important, interesting in its own regard, and definitely could have had some more emphasis.

Also, the author's writing style is good, but he's no Malcom Gladwell or Steven Levitt. In particular, he has an annoying habit of starting each chapter with a hard-to-follow, not totally relevant personal story before he gets to the data. I strongly disagree with the reviewers who thought the writing was really bad or too self-serving. The personal stories simply make it more readable. And he's really quite humble. If you'd like an example of what NOT to do in this regard, try Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy.

As someone who makes his living nearly 100% on the Internet today, I must say Bill Tancer's CLICK is quite an amazing read. Our assumptions about online behavior may sometimes be dead wrong as Tancer so brilliantly lays out in this book and knowing what he shares about can result in success for you and your business. Some of this stuff I was already aware of just from my nearly 15 years of being on the World Wide Web, but a lot of what he discusses is new now that the Internet has gone widespread mainstream. He even goes so far as to say that perhaps our model for polling who will become the next president is distorted now because of the lack of attention on Internet behavior. If you just surf around for fun or rely on the online world for your living like me, then you owe it to yourself to read CLICK.

I expected this book to be dry, boring and full of data/stats. Surprisingly, this book was an easy read. I actually read the book in one sitting! The drawbacks were the author's constant patting-himself-on-the-back. (And we thought Steve Jobs had an ego!) If you can get over the hyper-inflated self-analysis of Bill Tancer, the book is an interesting read, but one you might find more helpful to pick up at the library. Now that I've read it I'll either garage sale it or Goodwill it. If you think you'll pick up the book to get an idea about detailed insights into click behavior...think again. You'll need to pay the hefty $1000+ price tag from Hitwise to get the real scoop. This book is really more of a snapshot into Tancer's daily routine (e.g. the droning illustration of the prom dress saga), and a subliminal sales pitch of why Hitwise should be part of any online marketing strategy. One interesting item to note from the entire book was that watching search behavior often tells a story that can be critical to a marketing campaign. It isn't so much the words which are used, rather the timing when the words go into effect. (Again, the droning prom dress story is a perfect example of how marketers are missing the sales window by assuming that sales for prom attire is in March-May rather than in Jan.) Interesting read, but not one that I feel the yearning urge to keep in my personal library!

This book explores patterns of activity on the Internet, especially as revealed by search activity. It thereby shows how such data can be mined to gain insights into who is using the Internet, how they spend their time there, what they buy, demographic profiles, etc. Conversely, such research also gives insight into how the Internet is changing individuals and societies, thus showing the dialectical relationship between the Internet and its users/creators.

I found the book to do a good job in covering this terrain, and the author clearly has a passion for this topic. However, I did find that the book may be too detailed for the interests of many readers -- sometimes reading like a research report -- and thereby sometimes obscuring the broader trends that most readers would probably be interested in. I'm not suggesting that the book should be dumbed down, but I do think it would help to leave out the details which many readers may find tedious and boring, and instead emphasize the fun stuff, the psychological and sociological insights into ourselves which this type of Internet-based research can somewhat uniquely reveal.

The book is farily well written overall, and therefore not difficult to read but, again, the level of detail may be more than most readers want.

Overall, I recommend the book to anyone who is generally interested in how the Internet is changing the world. It would also be useful for readers interested in social science using the Internet as a data source.

I'm beginning a new set of internet businesses to provide information to people and make money, and this book has been a major help in narrowing down the topics that will be of greatest value and the kinds of people and markets I can hope to reach.

In a conversational way, the author discusses some of the ways in which we use the web to find information, the different categories of info online and insights into how to best speak to those markets, and some general insights that are just plain interesting and fun to read about.

I'd recommend this for anyone who liked Freakonomics or anyone trying to market and work online.

In "CLICK," Bill Tancer examines significant trends in the use and evolution of the internet- as a communication tool, information source, influencer of culture, and means of socialization. There is a lot of information within this concise book- about trends in internet usage, as well as reaching and marketing to the population that increasingly turns to the web for many aspects of daily life.

The analysis is a bit dry in spots and the book would have benefitted from a bit more of a common thread of a narrative to tie it all together a little better, but overall it is an interesting and helpful read.

I wanted to read this book because I run an online business and I really wanted to know more about what, why, and when individuals are searching online. I was hoping for information that would transcend very specific industries and perhaps be applicable to our business. I wanted a broader look at who is clicking and why, so that I could apply that information to improve our online advertising. In addition, I am fascinated by the internet and the infinite possibilities it offers those who embrace it and I wanted to know more.

I expected a lot of very specific data that would be more technical than I wanted, so I was surprised to see that the information was fairly general. Surprisingly I found that the book did not really advance my knowledge of internet activity in any way that I could apply to our business. In addition, the author made many references to Hitwise, his employer, in this book in ways that didn't really enrich the material, at least in my opinion.

My recommendations to prospective readers is this: if you are a person who is looking for a very broad view of who's online, when and perhaps why AND someone who really enjoys numbers and raw data, then you will probably enjoy this book.

Like many people who do market research, Bill Tancer loves data. He is also curious when tracking clicks on the Internet show trends that don't make a lot of surface sense . . . such as when searches for prom dresses zoomed in January. In this book, he gives examples of how measuring online activity can give you clues to seasonality, how other media affect Internet behavior, how fads can be tracked and anticipated, and who will win votes and popularity contests.

The book is really about competitive intelligence, the vantage point that Mr. Tancer has as general manager at online competitive intelligence firm Hitwise. That's the book's weakness from two perspectives:

1. Mr. Tancer knows very little about market research (and sometimes little about the subjects he studies) so he has trouble getting past the noise to the cause-and-effect relationships.

2. He's very anxious for you to know what his firm does (it's a sort of long infomercial).

Unless you really want to learn about online competitive intelligence as done by Hitwise, you can skip this book.

Bill Tancer presents the reader with complex data mining ideas in the most straight forward, folksy, and enlightening way I've ever seen. He challenges you to consider the staggering possibilities of being able to predict market behavior by culling search patterns form vast databases of Internet search logs. Some of his conclusions are startling, amusing, fascinating, frightening, and challenging - all at the same time.

Pouring through gigabytes of statistical data isn't exactly my idea of a relaxing Sunday afternoon, but doing so can and has reaped amazing benefits to the astute business that does the work. Example after example of actual human search behavior confounds conventional wisdom and gives keen insight into why economic results often defy stated beliefs and/or intentions on the part of the consumer.

Competitive intelligence based on Internet behavior patterns has just become a weapon of choice in my marketing arsenal.

"Click" indirectly explains what many of those cookies on our computers are doing - reporting back where we visit on the Internet, and how we got there (prior sites, browser entry - suggests issues of importance to potential buyers). The real purpose of "Click," however, is to fan interest in the author's employer - the website "Hitwise."

Hitwise's large database of Internet searches allows users to determine not only the preceding (vs. their particular area of interest), but also timing. For example, "What day of the week, or time of day?" is most important in generating customer interest, and even variations in seasonality. The data is gathered from multiple ISPs across the U.S. (other nations' data is also available), supplemented with multiple groups of Internet users who agree to be monitored and have supplied demographic data.

Hitwise's service is clearly valuable - not only because of its ability to provide quick insights, but also to reduce the political correctness coloring of data that comes with direct questioning.

On the other hand, with a few exceptions, "Click's" sales message soon wears thin. One of those exceptions was the author's insight into how to use Internet search information to accurately predict winners in shows such as "Dancing with the Stars." Another was Tancer's demonstration of how the data could be used to predict future sales (homes, specific movies, etc.), as well as some of the early mistakes he made in attempting to do so.

Web analytics is a fascinating subject. There's the technology - how does one gather the data about what's going on on the Internet, using ISP data, browser toolbars, search engines, and other techniques. There's the privacy and public policy aspect - how is this data anonymized, how much control do people have over the data about their actions, does aggregation really preserve anonymity, what rights do individuals, ISPs, research companies and government have. There's the murky relationship between analytics and malware, and the related issue of internet filters. And after all that, there's a whole range of subjects that one might want to explore, in categories as diverse as sociology, business, politics, social, education, family, religion, sports.... And since every ready will be interested in something different, it would be really useful to discuss how one goes about this kind of exploration and research; how much of it can be done by Jane Doe, and how much depends on commercial databases.

That's not what Bill Tancer gave us. Instead, Bill rambles on about himself: how he got into the analytics business, and some of the random stuff he found out. It reads like a barely-edited transcript of a conference presentation on his company, complete with PowerPoint and speaker notes. It sounds as if most of the topics he discusses were the subject of consulting projects (or else he's got way to much time on his hands, and some rather odd tastes), but he can't simply regurgitate the reports that he wrote for his clients. So each one gets dumbed down into this folksy style, with a couple of graphs to show that he actually crunched some numbers. And all the time, it's me, me, me.

Tedious. Now if I can only find the book that I discussed at the start....

Bill Tancer knows how to extract useful information from your internet searches, very useful information. He shares some of his findings in this book.

The writing is good. The information is fascinating but the book lacks a clear thread. It draws some very specific data search trends but but no overall use trends. It's not really a how to manual. As an information junkie I enjoyed much of it but don't know how to classify the book

The first chapters give examples of how Tancer used his inside knowledge of search research to dig out very useful information. Later we get some understanding in where to use demographics, search patterns and data traffic to do market research. But there really isn't a lot of how to. As a marketing brochure for Tancer's services, it's great. As a general read, okay.

Still listening to it ([...]). Interesting and first thing that came to my mind was a book "The Search". I remember when I was reading it I realized how big benefit is of having a search engine which meta data provides a real pulse of the planet. In "Click" these benefits are more excact. Author shows how is possible to build human search patterns based on search entries analysis. Also points out that in some cases the human search mood is annual.

Click is by Bill Tancer, who is engaged in online research. That means, he spends a great deal of time tracking and understanding the trends of how we search and use the Internet and Web2.0. He obviously does this very well and it has led him to various insights on business and life. I am sure those insights are very valuable to a large number of companies.

This book can change your thinking. It did mine. It suggests that for those of us in social science research, we may have to move to very different methods. The quantity of data that can be gleamed from online searches is amazing. In a matter of minutes, data can be generated that challenges long held theories and beliefs.

I would recommend this book for college students in social sciences as well as their professors; also those in business and marketing. It suggests the way we conduct research methods will change, although we often tend to change slowly.

If the book was so interesting, why not one more star? Well, two reasons. First, although the writing is excellent, it lacks the flow or excitement, or build up of a Gladwell book. Second, I see this as sort of a cross between a popular and trade book. However, Tancer does not really provide enough detail on what he does to show us how we could also do it or even to start us down the path. He tends to discuss the outcomes of his research more than the tools used to reach the results. For example, several times he mentions psychographics, but he never really explains what this is or how it is done. I would have liked to see a discussion of his approach to psychographics. Also, if I was in marketing, I believe I would say, ok what is the next step, how can I go out and use this tomorrow.

This book took me by surprise: a very positive surprise. While other reviewers have pointed out "Click's" flaws, please let me tell you why this book is an important read, especially to business people, internet people, and salespeople.

The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. This is empirically proven truth used by leadership and management in every facet of business, hiring, and sales. People's words, opinions, intensions (even the best ones) and thoughts often don't match what they actually do. The problem here is that behavior is not only historical, but subjective. How do we know what a person's or a group's future behavior will be?

Bill Tancer, the author, has pioneered using the Internet to answer that question on a wide selection of topics and behaviors. While the book itself has many areas where it could be improved, learning Bill's method has great value. By researching what people are searching for on the web, as well as what they are doing on the web, significant competitive advantage can be obtained for those willing to study and think about these "web behaviors."

Too often we base decisions on what we wish were true. Often we don't even know why things happen. For example, why do girls search for Prom dresses January and how should that impact dress retailers? Here is a shocker "there is little to no evidence suggesting that our religious beliefs are affecting the overall use of online porn." [21]

The Internet phenomenon has changed the very fabric of society. It has made billionaires out people who understand it, like Google's inventors, MySpace, FaceBook, etc. `Click' provides deep insight in how the internet impacts all businesses and how we can use the internet to improve business, even for local retailers. Not only is `Click' and interesting read because of it's knowledge of how the Internet has evolved with some great anecdotal stories of companies and personalities, it can dramatically change how you use the internet. Its methodology (which in part you must deduce) is a game changer. Just knowing these insights into buying behavior can be figured out makes this an invaluable read. Now more books on the "how to" are needed. However Click is a good start and an important read for anyone who must persuade, sell, or make a living based on what people do.

CLICK by Bill Tancer explores the important subject of on-line data analysis ... but poorly. CLICK desparately needs editing. Hyperion books really dropped the ball on this one. The author uses so many "I" statements that CLICK begins to read as a self-serving promo piece. For example, his introduction is hardly an introduction to the book, but is so filled with "I", "me" and "mine" that is reads as more of an introduction to the author.

I barely made it through the introduction. Sadly, the book gets worse, editing-wise. As soon as the author begins to build a head of steam for an argument, he often unexplicably cuts off to write about himself some more.

The bottom line: I began skimming after about two chapters.

I gave the book two stars because I think a discussion of researching human behavior through on-line activity is an important one. Bill Tancer may be "the king of measuring online research," as CLICK's cover proclaims.

This king would do well to hire a better editor.

The unreadable prose and narcissistic writing style kept this reader from discovering important gems of information that they author had to share. The author clearly has the discipline and intelligence to master online research. I invite him to apply those same traits to learning how to write more clearly.

Tim Warneka, Author
The Way of Leading People: Unlocking Your Integral Leadership Skills with the Tao Te Ching
Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today
Healing Katrina: Volunteering in Post-Hurricane Mississippi
Black Belt Leader, Peaceful Leader: An Introduction to Catholic Servant Leadership

Whether this book is interesting to you will probably depend a lot one what you think you're going to get out of it. If you're just curious about the types of things that can be found out by looking at the online traffic data that is available then you'll probably be pretty satisfied with Click. The author does a good job of describing how he looks at the different types of data and can develop conclusions from them. It's actually pretty cool, if that kind of analysis interests you at all.

If, however, you are looking for anything very specific from the book, you're out of luck. The author does provide some examples, but for the most part the discussion is very general and not directly applicable. In some ways Click comes off as an advertisement for the author's work. Much of it is a kind of light sociology/psychology discussion.

For my own part, it was the discussion in the final chapter or two about the different types of users and how they adopt new tools and such was very interesting. Being a business person I found that discussion one which led to thoughts about things I could do to expand and better target my efforts. The stuff up to that point gave me an idea of what could be done with the data, but more in the "Boy, if I had that kind of data I could...." way.

In the final analysis, I'd say this book falls short of its potential. If it focused specifically on either conclusions drawn from the website visit and travel pattern data (sociology/psychology), or if it focused just on how one can use traffic data and knowledge of user demographics, I think it could have been a more useful book. The mixture leaves it a bit short on both sides.

One of my favorite quotes attributed to Mark Twain goes something like "It's not what he knows that gets him into trouble, it's what he knows that aint so." I believe this quote is relevant in this book review because this book will show you that much of what you think you know about how people use the internet is dead wrong. So, if you don't know what this knowledge is important, you can stop reading this review now because this book isn't for you. However, if you have ANY interest in online business, online marketing, online customer behavior, or online research, then this book is required reading.

Ok, my succinct review of this book is simple and here is goes. If you do business line, you MUST read this book. Any questions?

The Summary
Bill Tancer, an online data researcher, has written an insightful book on the subject of internet user behavior and how it gives us a window into our wants, needs and desires. This book is part business and part social trends. This will appeal to the business crowd since it explains the new world of internet behavioral data and how it can be used by advertisers and marketers. The insights into patterns and trends of social behavior will appeal to a larger audience; probably similar to the crowd that found `Freaknomics' fascinating.


The Audience
If you love data and unearthing interesting patterns and trends, then this book is a must-read. For those that enjoyed `Freaknomics', `Search' and `Tipping Point' you will find a new window into the intriguing world of online user behavior.


The Details
Bill Tancer has written a fascinating book on data, no really it's true! Tancer is a researcher at Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence company. He analyzes the data of what people do on the internet. Hitwise has one of the largest samples of aggregate internet behavior data (note about privacy - this data is anonymous and aggregated across a large sample). Using this looking-glass into internet behavior he can answer complex questions and find interesting patterns. This book takes off from where John Batelle's book on Google talked about the `database of intentions' of search terms to actual behavior of where people click across multiple sites. As you can imagine this clickstream data provides more insight into user behavior than just the initial search term. There is a world of difference between two people searching for Ferraris; one is a teenage boy that looks at the cool pictures and videos and the other is an executive looking for their next toy. Seeing where someone clicks after searching provides a better view of their intentions.
Tancer's book is a cross between Batelle's `Search' and Levitt's `Freaknomics'. Using internet behavior data Tancer finds interesting patterns and insights. He explores the counter-intuitive behavior of prom dress shoppers, new year resolutions for dieting, the top ten things we don't know how to do, what we are afraid of, the tipping point for new bands extrapolated from myspace and political voting predictions to name a few. Tancer is very upfront in outlining that this data is only one view and needs to be correlated with other sources to discover true trends. All the same, this is a great book on an important subject.

The Take-Aways
`Click' is a short, well written book. Tancer draws you in with interesting stories and his obvious love of data and trends. You will learn a lot about internet behavioral analysis and some of the implications of this data. Advertising and marketing are leveraging this kind of data more and more to target consumers and it behooves us all to understand this field. I highly recommend this book for the self-professed data-lover; apparently we are a growing breed. I also recommend this for anyone wanting to know more about how user data provides insight into our nation and culture.

Search - `Click' [Click], Amazon - buy `Click' [Click], Read `Click' [Click--lightbulb going off in your head]
Kes Sampanthar
Inventor of ThinkCube

The advent of consumer PC's, coupled with the Internet, will be shown by history to have dwarfed the idustrial revolution's impact upon humankind. CLICK is a look at how we, in the dawn of this incredible global phenomenon, are using the Internet to make our lives richer, do business, and (for the first time in human history) talk to one another en masse. However, Bill Tancer also touches upon how the Internt might be the means by which one can destroy his or her life by addiction to online gambling or pornography.

I received this book just a day or two after reading The Numerati, by Stephen Baker. Bill Tancer is clearly just the kind of data geek/otaku that Baker is describing. Using the power of Hitwise, he rassles data to the ground to track new trends and even predict them. Particularly interesting (or do I mean creepy?) is his chapter on arbitraging data (that is, getting hold of it ahead of the curve and selling it--it's not the data per se he's selling, but its timeliness). Can a search engine maven tell us which way the economy is heading or even who will be the next American Idol? Mmm, maybe!

The writing is a little choppy--not cohesive enough to be a narrative, but not quite self-contained enough to read as a series of essays. But what Tancer lacks in style, he makes up for in interesting knowledge. Definitely worth a read.

In a work that proves that "we are what we click (p. 203)," Bill Tancer briefly shows the versatility and implications of such a seemingly obvious notion. Its bottom line is thus succinctly summarized: "Our Internet browsing behavior may at first glance appear to be random and unconnected, but upon closer examination it reveals subtle but simple patterns of how we think and act" (p. 84). Or, as John Battelle further explains in The Search, and is thus quoted by Tancer, our cybernetic meanderings are a "database of intentions" a source of "...information [that] represents, in aggregate form, a place holder for the intentions of humankind--a massive database of desires, needs, wants, and likes that can be discovered, subpoenaed, archived, tracked, and exploited to all sorts of needs" (p. 143).

The book simply illustrates the aforementioned using various examples taken from the author's own superior work in the field of online research from variegated sources ranging from porn to the formation of political opinions, which might very well differ very little, as well as the fall and decline of erstwhile successful web ventures such as Friendster and the emergence of MySpace. We learn and get to understand, in lay terms, about many of the connotations of "arbitrage," the "diffusion of innovation" and "clickstream analysis," among other equally relevant issues, such as a classification of the humans that do all this clicking around in the web.

This is a worthy read, in spite of continuing to support the discredited notion of the so-called six degrees of separation (p. 188), with much unexplored and quite profitable territory for business owners of any size, as well as savvy web clickers that want to better understand themselves and others through their cybernetic conduct.

This book focuses on the author's job as GM of Global Research at Hitwise, a company that collects and analyzes vast amounts (i.e. a statistically very significant sample) of internet usage data. With the data, curiosity, and some basic math, the author is able to reach certain conclusions before they are widely known. The book is well written, and can easily be read in less than a day. While the stories are somewhat interesting, the basic premise of the book, that "we are what we click", comes across as strong sales pitch for Hitwise. That said, it was a successful one - I'm going to look into what information they sell.

A fascinating book, especially for those of us who make our home and our living on the Internet. The author has waded through an ocean of statistics to uncover trends of Internet surfing.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has more than a passing interest in cyberspace. And if I were teaching a course in contemporary culture (and maybe a course in consumer behavior), I would want to assign this book.

As a marketer, I would question the book's subtitle: Unexpected insights for business and life. The author does a masterful job of collecting data but his interpretations raise a number of questions.

For example: Tancer notes that visits to adult sites drop to their lowest rates on Thanksgiving day. He suggests that nobody's left alone to surf the Internet that day. This idea make sense. After all, there's a strong cultural norm against being alone on this holiday in the US.

But he also notes that visits drop on Sunday during more ordinary weeks. He speculates that people still have some residual respect for the religious connotations of the day. But if that were true, we would expect to see declines in other secular pursuits, such as shopping. In fact, more and more states have ended blue laws.

And if a whole family is home on Sunday, wouldn't it be harder to go off alone and umm...indulge your fantasy life? I suspect much adult surfing happens at work, anyway, motivated by boredom more than anything else.

Tancer also reminds us that some Internet phenomena are triggered by non-Internet forces. Young women are motivated to surf for prom dresses after reading fashion magazines. So when the magazines feature prom dresses in January, the search numbers go up.

Tancer seems to be trying to see Internet searches as clues to culture. An interesting idea, but folks who live on the net may have a different view. First, not everyone surfs, so the data will be skewed. And people buy some things on the net (but not others). As a career consultant, I'm constantly reminded that readers prefer to choose their reading from online and off-line book stores. The career market is notoriously difficult to reach on the Internet.

We also need to consider that certain categories of searches are enabled by the Internet. Many who surf adult sites would never set food in off-line adult bookstores or movies. Searches for health conditions would be very difficult without the Internet.

In fact, the whole notion of searching was alien to many people before the Internet. You'd have to spend time in libraries. Unless you lived in a big city, you were limited by a library's limited holdings. If you could afford book, you would depend on reviews and catalogs. And getting copies of newspaper articles, even if you could learn about them, presented new challenges.

And that's a whole separate Click.

The author analyzes results from Hitwise, a web statistical tool based on gathering usage data from Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The book's topic is important but needs to be rewritten.

There are three types of web statistical analysis sources--the web server, the PC client, or the ISP. This book describes the latter, but doesn't discuss the former two, and doesn't analyze whether Hitwise's ISP sources are statistically valid. These lack of discussion weaken the book's integrity. Instead, the author writes anecdotes and his assessment of social phenomenons--boring and not instructive.

The Hitwise site has videos and other explanatory information, and probably a live person to customize desired consumer-behaviour reporting. If after using such service, I wanted analysis tips, I would then read this book carefully. I don't see what practical purpose this book's 200 pages serves initially and recommend reducing the book to 1/5 its present size for faster reading.

The style of writing here is nearly like a set of conference presentation talk papers, except, here, we don't have the opportunity to see a speaker point, use his voice, etc. And instead of having colorful charts, we have B&W diagrams, and insufficient numbers of these. Just count the number of times the word "I" is used in this book, and it's clear that this books is a self-narrative discovery style that's very difficult to use as an instructions book.

Furthermore, I don't understand who the author is writing for. I'm in the web marketing business and would purchase a book on this topic. Some of the other reviewers who received complimentary copies--would they really buy this book?

Maybe the author is writing profoundly, but I found the presentation boring and skimmed after the first 30 pages. Felt if the book wants to be taken seriously, it should be edited seriously.

This is an excellent book if you need something to talk about at a party.
You certainly don't need to be a techno geek to enjoy this book. Some might think that this book would be dry and more oriented towards businesses looking to get an idea of how data can be used to help sales. While it maydo this, it can also be of great interest to the rest of us who simply are curious about the evolution of the internet and how it has effected the habits of customers and in turn the way companies do business. I highly recommend it to those interested in history and background information on the internet as well as how all the information collected by the search
engines is used.

This book is way outside the box of what I normally read and review. Most of my 350+ reviews center on craft, coffee table, and religious (Neo-Pagan) books. However, after recently watching a program series on the evolution of the internet from search engines like Yahoo and Google to sites such Ebay and Amazon, this book piqued my interest. I took a chance it and I'm so glad I did.

Bill Tancer manages to take what might be a boring subject (internet data) and make it both interesting and humorous. I am a person who finds much of what is supposed to be funny such as stand up comics and slapstick comedy boring. However, throughout this book, I caught myself laughing. I LOVE that the author seems to be able to make the book humorous without trying. You would never know that he admittedly is not a journalist. Who would have though that the 7th. top "how to" search would be "how to levitate." Okay, I admit I found this bizarre and was baffled by this information (and so weremy friends), so I just HAD to look it up.

I loved learning about more about the beginning and growth of sites like
Wikipedia and YouTube as well as what web 2.0 means - I was clueless. I even made a point of memorizing some of the stories he wrote, as they make for excellent small talk on something besides the weather.

I'm not planning to get a job in data crunching. Nevertheless, I can
honestly say that this author has made me love data too. I am certainly
planning on reading some of the other data books he mentions. I can only
hope they are half as good.

I though I would end this review with my "data." I am a 34 year old female, married 10+ years, no kids (not interested), suburban middle class with some technical school/college. I am quick to learn internet/computer software yet clueless when it comes to the technical and programming side. I spend about 20 hours week online, including writing email. However, I admit I can be slow to pick up on some of the newest sites like YouTube as I don't do IM (or even text message) or have much interest in sites like Myspace.

The author analyzes results from Hitwise, a web statistical tool based on gathering usage data from Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The book's topic is important but needs to be rewritten.

There are three types of web statistical analysis sources--the web server, the PC client, or the ISP. This book describes the latter, but doesn't discuss the former two, and doesn't analyze whether Hitwise's ISP sources are statistically valid. These lack of discussion weaken the book's integrity. Instead, the author writes anecdotes and his assessment of social phenomenons--boring and not instructive.

The Hitwise site has videos and other explanatory information, and probably a live person to customize desired consumer-behaviour reporting. If after using such service, I wanted analysis tips, I would then read this book carefully. I don't see what practical purpose this book's 200 pages serves initially and recommend reducing the book to 1/5 its present size for faster reading.

The style of writing here is nearly like a set of conference presentation talk papers, except, here, we don't have the opportunity to see a speaker point, use his voice, etc. And instead of having colorful charts, we have B&W diagrams, and insufficient numbers of these. Just count the number of times the word "I" is used in this book, and it's clear that this books is a self-narrative discovery style that's very difficult to use as an instructions book.

Maybe the author is writing profoundly, but I found the presentation boring and skimmed after the first 30 pages. Felt if the book wants to be taken seriously, it should be edited seriously.

Back in 2003, when no-one knew how the dem primary was going to turn out, Moveon.org ran an on-line "vote" to see if any candidate would pull 50% or more of their "members'" vote.

Back then, alexa.com was young, but it had caught my attention as tool for tracking website activity. I started copying the stats for the sites of the candidates, tying to see trends. The night before the election, my alexa.com data pointed towards a win by Howard Dean. I called his campaign office to let them know it looked like he was a winner and explained to a high level staffer why I'd reached my conclusion, citing my numbers. They tell me the campaign office celebrated that night.

The next day, Dean was declared the winner and the numbers I'd used had predicted the percentage he'd won by within one percent.

THIS book, CLICK, takes the idea of using web stats about a million percent beyond my primitive exploration. It gives great examples of ways to look at patterns and the problem with the book is it will surely cost me both time and money, as I attempt to utilize the very cool approaches the offer reports and describes on how to discover information that is now available that was not before.

As a website software developer, this also gives me ideas on how to tap the data and stats my own site generates. This bookr rises above the crowd.

Online web surfing is a popular pastime and the sites that individuals visit, the time they spend in specific web sites, and the things they search for in search engines are often quite revealing. The internet is not only an important source of business for online retailers, it is also fast becoming a means as a social outlet and continues to be a place to search for answers to questions. Buying is still an important internet use, but the greatest internet growth trend in the past five years is the social networking site. Sites like Myspace.com, Facebook.com, and others have exploded in popularity. What these sites mean to the future of the internet and why people use search engines the way they do is the main focus of this book and some of its discoveries are quite interesting and very revealing.

People visit the internet for a multitude of reasons. Some of the more obvious include purchasing and looking up answers to questions. But the internet has evolved in many directions and people use this important communication medium for many other purposes, like keeping up with their favorite celebrities, checking sports scores, monitoring business activities, and much more. Click isn't concerned so much with the reasons why people use the internet for these tasks instead of consulting other sources like newspapers (convenience is the most likely reason); rather, it is concerned with discovering the different triggers that cause some people to want to learn more about a celebrity, seek out information on a specific item of merchandise, or make a purchase of something before most of the population. Why, for example, do prom dress searches peak in January each year when the actual prom is held many months later? Why are visits to adult sites so common on Saturday, Friday, and Thursday yet they take a huge dip on Sunday and Monday? These and other questions are answered in the pages of Click, and the answers might surprise many readers.

To allow the reader to visually understand what some of the facts are talking about, some of the pages include a table or line graph showing the trends spoken about on each of the pages. I found these graphics very helpful because they show exactly what the author is referring to when he mentions the seasonal fluctuations in certain web site visits. By viewing a graph, it is easy to see the changes that take place from month to month and the volatility of these changes clearly illustrate the extremes or lack of extreme of a trend.

Web surfing and the sites people visit are often very telling and this is the main reason why Click was written. Phone surveys and traditional means of research may or may not reveal a person's true motives or true intentions. It is very easy to say what one thinks the interviewer wants to hear, even if it isn't really the truth. But with the relative privacy of the internet, people are free to surf as they please, with only the speed of their fingers on the keyboard or the quickness of the click of the mouse standing between the web surfer and the virtually infinite amount of information available on the internet. Because of this, what people say and what they actually do are often two very different things and a person's web surfing habits often reveal more than any other type of study ever could. One example quoted in the book is phobias. People say that certain things scare them more than anything and there are lists compiled that show the most common phobias among Americans. However, research into actual web searches using the word phobia reveals a very different list. Could it be that the fears we have are different from those we say we have? Or, do we like to use the internet to lookup facts about phobias, even though we don't necessarily suffer from them?

Overall, Click is a pretty good book about the internet and what our searching patterns say about us as a people. In many instances, the book seems to end an important thought right when it had just gotten started and it sometimes fails to examine everything relating to a specific web surfing discovery like it should, in order to draw the most accurate conclusion. But Click is still a good book about the internet and it offers many interesting answers to trivia questions about the world of the internet, its changing face over the past decade, and what the future holds for this very important communication tool.

As a board member of a substantial web 1.0 concern, I found this book to be fascinating and informative. While somewhat reminiscent of Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything and The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, the book expands on some of the insights gleaned from those two (outstanding) works. Common knowledge is so often wrong and this book explains how search engine data can enlighten us as individuals, businesses and as a society.

On the downside, the book would have been better had it included additional practical ideas of capitalizing on these trends, short of going to Hitwise. This book could very well be the beginning of a series of related books that delve deeper into those topics. I anxiously await them.

I used to work for one of the biggest software companies that specializes in software used for data mining -- basically culling through massive amounts of data in order to figure out what people are really doing (Amazon uses this technique in order to target your recommendations...) I'm also interested in psychology -- I enjoy knowing what makes other people tick.

This book gives you a glimpse into our "online lives". What the author discovers is that how we are "online" does not necessarily resemble that "image" that we would want our mother (or spouse, children, etc ) to see. It is like when we get behind the screen, we show our real selves and it isn't always pretty or respectable.

The thing that is disconcerting to me is how much information can be gleaned from mining internet search engine data. While it is interesting to know what others are doing -- it is equally disconcerting to realize that we, too, are being watched. This book makes you think about some of the ethical and privacy concerns associated with online data mining as well. While there was a big controversy over the realization that our government is keeping track of who we call and when we call, we don't often think about who is keeping track of our online activity -- even though that represents a significantly larger and more revealing part of our time.

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in both what our online activities tells others about us and how our information is used in order to try to manipulate us into doing what businesses want us to do. However, warning -- you are likely to approach your computer with a little more distrust -- especially the next time you go do an innocent google search.

If you or your business are fairly new to the online world, this book could be educational.

A lot of people have written about the transformative nature of the Internet. But Bill Tancer, a manager at Hitwise, ties together some very good speculation about trends on our internet habits with some superb and interesting data.

A few years ago Michael Lewis wrote a book called Next: The Future Just Happened which discussed the early effects for a band called Myridian who discovered how to escape the traditional management system of the music industry. They figured out how to reach their fans using some internet marketing techniques. Tancer has lots of interesting stories like that - what is the busiest night for porn sites (hint Sunday is the lightest night); how much does an average teen couple spend on the prom (a lot more than I did). The first section would be an interesting book in itself. But what makes this short book even more interesting is the shorter second section which tries to make sense of the data and how to use it. The second section, What is Possible with What We Know,is about 60 pages of fascinating thoughts about where all this is going.

Finally, Tancer adds value to the book by his blog (Ilikedata.com) which offers insights built on the premises of the book with current issues.

A fascinating book investigating the confluence of the online and the offline worlds, Click explores how an analysis of Internet behavior provides a new understanding of human behavior and preferences. In ways that traditional surveys cannot capture, Internet search-term data reveals more about who we really are, how we really chose to live, and how (and precisely when) we are most likely to change. In addition to reflecting our thoughts, fears, preferences, curiosities, obsessions, confessions, hopes, and dreams, the ever-growing database of online intelligence provides new insights into consumer trends, which traditional business models often fail to predict. Providing a convincing argument for the premise that "we are what we click," Click shows how our online behaviors both reflect and effect who we are offline.

It has been over a year since last assigning a 3-star rating to a book. Keep in mind that such a rating is equivalent to a C-grade, and should by no means be taken to be any less than that. The content for this book is better suited for an issue of The New Yorker, although Tancer admits within the pages of "Click" that he himself does not think he writes very well, and that magazine has some fairly high standards. The quote by Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of "Freakonomics", is quoted on the cover to this title as follows: "Bill Tancer is the king of measuring online research. And online research is the Main Street of the new world. Which makes Bill Tancer king of the world, or something like that." There is no argument here about the qualifications of Tancer or the effectiveness of Hitwise, the company at which Tancer is employed as general manager. The book itself, however, is just not very insightful, and the content is not presented in an interesting manner. And although the book starts out well, and might remain true to some extent to its subtitle, "Unexpected Insights for Business and Life", the flow from chapter to chapter is poor and fails to cover the wide scope of material that is attempted while not delving into any area with much depth. In barely 200 pages, it is difficult for any author to do so. Essentially, Tancer attempts to demonstrate both the applicability of internet research and why this area of marketing intelligence is such an exciting field. In early chapters of the book, the author discusses why traditional research can be ineffective when attempting to understand consumers, and how internet research instead can succeed in this space. Tancer explains that much of the marketing intelligence gained is due to determining collective search patterns. In my opinion, chapter 7 provides some of the best content within "Click", and I recommend reading this chapter due to its discussion of why the familiar 80/20 Pareto Principle might be passe and might be superceded by the 1-9-90 rule, at least on the internet. The discussion on this topic is interesting, even though the author relies on secondary research to discuss this phenomena, aptly named "participation inequality" because the breakdown of internet visitors to social sites is typically in a 1-9-90 spread in which 1% of internet users are active contributors, 9% contribute from time to time, and 90% do not contribute at all. Hitwise research essentially confirmed this phenomena. Demographics of internet users are also discussed intermittently throughout "Click", but most of the material is not new. This book is recommended to readers who are new to internet marketing and who wish to get a feel for what might be possible analyzing the vast amounts of internet data created by individual visits to websites, but "Click" offers very little beyond this initial introductory material.

Throughout the book are boring antidotes about Bill Tancer--Tancer as speaker, Tancer writing that he didn't know what to say moments before he was to speak, Tancer and his obsession with proms. I found all of this tiresome and beside the point.

Additionally,the book doesn't teach you how to search for material yourself. Instead, I have to wonder if Tancer wrote this book to get jobs and more speaking engagements.

Part I he illustrates why we do what we do and in Part II, he provides cases of internet data to help spot new trends.

Unfortunately, the subjects he chose to write about I have zero interest in. Because he provides no methodology, you are stuck with the examples he provides--they don't allow you to do research on what matters to you.

Chapter 1 covers porn, pills and casinos. Chapter 3 is all about how fascinating it is that prom dress searches peak in January. Tancer just finds this amazing and searches for answers--even discussing this *phenomenon* during a speech. As I read, I'm thinking, magazines work 6 months out--and sure enough, teen magazines covered dresses in December and thus the hits in January.

Tancer was equally fascinated with the fact that weight loss, smoking cessation and fitness searches spike in January. HUH? Doesn't everyone know that people make New Year's resolutions to lose weight, stop smoking and exercise?

By Part II, I was too bored and disgusted with the author's writing about himself to do anything but half-heartedly skim through.

I am not usually one who cares much about stats, but Tancer does a really good job of presenting web stats and, in many instances, what those stats mean. Not sure how this book will really help me with the two sites I run, but it is interesting nonetheless.

The data offered in the variety of "search stories" is quite interesting, and presents cases that various search terms are predicated on seemingly unrelated advertising campaigns. This truly is an interesting book, but I believe it could have been much more than just interesting.

I'm at a loss for who is actually the intended audience for this book. While the book listing is "BUSINESS," it is difficult to believe that any small to mid-sized business would find this useful to running and operating their own business. Additionally, since these smaller companies wouldn't have free access to the data described in this book, any pertinent ideas for a business would be somewhat useless. For large businesses that could purchase or "rent" the data - the discussion simply isn't in depth or technical enough to be a useful guide. (For example, the author repeated makes assertions that coupling a TV ad or TV show with a web search term or website increases search patterns. While I suppose it's nice to have confirmation, I think most people would pretty much assume that if people are watching ShowXYZ and enjoy it, and are told to go online and look at TermXYZ...they're likely to do it.) Again, not much insight. INTERESTING for the various moving parts (including some unexpected) that the author mentions, but not really ground-breaking for any company that has a marketing department.

As far as the individual reading this book without a business purpose - It IS an interesting read, but unfortunately, it doesn't seemed geared for individuals, so it's a little dry and isn't written as a piece of entertainment.

There are occasional sections of absurdity as well, but fortunately, there are not many of them. For example, "And as far as regional spread, more than 35% of Oprah's U.S. visitors come from powerful voting states like California, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Florida." Pretty much by definition, a "powerful voting state" is a state with a high population. A high percentage of TV viewers watching a show from a region with a high population? That's *completely* expected.

Later in the book, there is a suggestion that results of certain events (quarterly company results, winners of "talent" game shows, etc) can be predicted before the official outcome based on search queries. This again is very interesting, but there are many external factors (that the author keenly points out, and even admits that his predictions have failed, and then researched and informs why they failed) that make it extremely difficult or perhaps impossible to use search terms as a sole predictive indicator.

Some parts of the book read like one of the PowerPoint presentations he often refers to.


I personally believe that the book could have been done a couple of alternative ways to provide a more compelling read:

1. Have the author team up with an author experienced in Marketing and/or Advertising. This could have the effect of creating a bit more actionable ideas for the business readers that are apparently the intended audience. (Of course, this would have the drawback of the appearance to be a sales tool for the authors company, Hitwise. However, if a business wants to learn or do anything with the insights presented, it already is an advertisement in book form for said company.)

2. Written 2 books, or made this book with 2 sections, once for Business (preferably teamed up with a Marketing person), and 1 for individuals (as an interesting/entertainment endeavor with stronger narrative and slightly less data/charts.)

Overall...an interesting book. Not a great book, not a bad book...but worth getting if you're already interested in the topic.

Summary:
--------
The book is written in an acedotal style that is distracting from the message of the book; it is similar to listening to a person with ADD or a person jumping around the web on semi-related web links. The underlying message that real-time consumer/web user data is very powerful when you have access to it and know what you are doing is hidden below the self-grandizing of the author.

The author makes references to searches / research that only someone who has access to the search data of his firm (name left out intentionally) through out the book. It is annoying as no one but a client of his firm could really attempt what he describes in the book. Note: You will not get great insights into what can be done. He only hints at it as the searches being described would be fairly obvious to someone familiar with the data being gathered by the author's firm or other firms specializing in web traffic information gather. It seems that he is looking for potential consulting gigs with other businesses.

Purpose:
--------
The book is clearly an informercial for the client's firm. There are not great insights to be had by reading the book. The chapter on why prom dress searches spiking in January could easily be answered by asking a teenage where magazine ads for the Prom start to come out -- a pretty obvious logical why to find out. If the author has described his methods from the ground up including what data was available, the book would be much more useful for someone new to web marketing and what data is being gathered by web information companies.

Prose:
------
The prose is not terribly well written. The author uses a circular style of writing that takes a while to get to the "wheat" amongst his self-grandizing "chaff". He should use a more straight-forward communication style. The book is a fast read, so you can get through it quickly if you are interested in the book.

Content:
---------
The content of the book can be boiled down to the following:
1) near real-time web usage statistics are available
2) the web usage statistics include where a brower came from, what was searched on, and where the browser was redirected to from a given page
3) you can use simple statistics in combination with other searches to find patterns
4) The number of patterns in near infinite and you need an organized/intelligent heuristic to quickly locate non-surface patterns.

Some of the examples are interesting but only toy examples nothing that is earth shattering or overly useful from a marketing perspective.

Summary:
Overall: 2.5 to 3 stars
Purpose: 3 stars -- get more clients for the author's firm
Prose: 2 stars
Content: 2 stars to 2.5 stars

When I first received this book I was expecting it to be a business book that talked about general search related strategies and how to utilize search to make your business better. What I got, in "Click", was a book that took me into the revealing world of online research and opened up my eyes to concepts, trends and behaviors that I never knew existed. It was a wild ride; an interesting ride; and most of all one that left me wanting to know more about online search and what secrets the data holds.

All of us tell little white lies. We all holds back the full truth more often than we will admit. Our partners, our family, our friends -- they only get a portion of the whole picture. Yet to a perfect stranger we are willing to tell the whole story. We leave nothing out; we spill our emotions, our fears and our curiosity to it without a second thought. That stranger in the night? None other than your search engine of choice. It knows more about us and what we do than our closest friend or trusted life partner.

The data reveals more about our habits and beliefs than many of us want to even admit to ourselves. We tell search engines more about out hates, our fetishes, our hungers and our pains than you could possibly imagine. When our collective searches are pulled together and analyzed, they reveal fascinating habits and trends amongst different parts of the population. Things that no survey could come close to telling us.

This book is not only suited for business people who want to understand how to analyze click and search data, but also for those of us out there who want to understand and know more about the sociology of the web itself. If you are anything like me, you will finish reading this book with a lot more questions running through your mind than before you started. If nothing else