"Good Web writing needs to be like soda pop or champagne," says Rachel McAlpine in Web Word Wizardry: "crystal clear and fizzy." But engaging prose isn't enough. Web writing needs to be straightforward ("the enigmatic, provocative, cryptic, poetic, ironic, or witty heading is wasted on the Web," she confides) but not bland. To instill trust in the reader, it must be both personal and professional. McAlpine, a trainer and consultant in online content, addresses everything here from alt-text and source code to doorway pages and link popularity. She discusses the differences between writing for the Web and writing for intranets (private Internet systems used by large organizations). She warns against long domain names, italics, and flags as language indicators. And she devotes a considerable amount of space to the fine art of customizing pages of your Web site for specific search engines. After all, who cares how brilliant your site is, if no one can find it? --Jane Steinberg