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Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Tancer
Publisher: Hyperion
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 7685
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 1401323049
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.312
EAN: 9781401323042
ASIN: 1401323049
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
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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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
 a text for search newbies December 8, 2008
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.
Mediocre December 6, 2008
The best thing I can say about Click is that it was a quick read requiring little thought. (I was sick when I decided to open it up.)
I had seen Tancer on TV and thought that the insights he gleans could result in a compelling book. However, despite being only 200 pages long, there simply isn't enough compelling content. This would have been better as a long or multi-part magazine article.
Interesting look at online behavior November 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"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"!
[...]
 Generation Y Participation Redefined November 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Relavant and Interesting November 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
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