Book Review "Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters"

I just finished reading Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters by Hitwise's Bill Tancer.

Here at Rockett Interactive we are constantly looking at search data with our metaphorical microscope down to granular levels to see what most effectively drives results for our clients. This book is a fascinating step back; a commentary of what can be found by turning the lens in the other direction and letting all of our combined aggregate search data reveal who we are as a society.

Bill Tancer uses the Hitwise data to reveal our fears, obsessions and to rethink the consumer sales cycle in different verticals. He illustrates how search and website data can show the naked truth of what happens when you have a person interacting with their trusted computer and their favorite search engine.

Most specifically of interest to me, search geek that I am, was his data revealing the extreme degree to which traditional media drives search behavior. This is something that I have been thinking about a lot as the power of what can be done by combining traditional and interactive campaigns is still an emerging area of the industry. He uses various examples to show internet searches surging within moments of a well placed television advertisement. Upon awareness, the first thing most people do is ask their most trusted confidant (Google) what they know about the subject! The beauty of paid search is the ability to allow an advertiser to capture that person and control the message at that critical moment.

Click is a quick entertaining read that provides both great food for thought on the power of web statistics and great cocktail party sound bytes as well; sort of the Freakonomics of search phrase and click stream data. Highly recommended!