balanced, practical, and immediately useful
This book may not seem an obvious choice for many readers. It's not about a particular API, certification, or other buzzword topic, and the title can sound dry and academic. Don't be put off! This is a practical, hands-on book which can take your software straight past the hype of web services and into using the resources of the whole internet in your programs right now. With no big middleware downloads, protocol specs, or head-scratching config files.The book walks you through how to read, control and extract information from existing web pages and web applications anywhere on the internet, how to read, send and process emails and newsgroup postings, how to recognise just the text or data you want, and much more. Source code is given for servlets and applets to examine and drive web forms, and usage examples include sending SMS messages and applying decision-making rules to internet share-price data. It's also full of ideas and suggestions to make you want to leap up and get started.
When I got this book, I couldn't put it down. A lot of computer books sit on the shelf or send me to sleep, but not this one. Not only is it both topical and useful, but it hits a just-about-ideal balance between code and food for thought. The author has a real knack for useful solutions to complex problems.
A Great Find
This book is a little gem packed full of ideas. For people who don't want the overhead of big enterprise solutions like web services, the techniques and code are lightweight and easy. Even as someone who has worked with Web mining before, I found a lot of helpful tips that I have put to good use.
Great Recommendation
I bought this book on the recommendation of javaranch.com. The review was right on, and I couldn't be happier that I took the advice. The code for servelets and applets supplied by Loton provides instant and hands on help to get and use information from the Web. It is the perfect Web mining guide.
