MenascT (computer science, George Mason U.) and Almeida (computer science, U. of Minas Gerais, Brazil) provide a quantitative analysis of Web service availability and a framework for understanding and planning Web services. They discuss benchmarking, load testing, workload forecasting, and performance modeling. Examples and case studies illustrate the ways each technique can be used in Web services, portals, search engines, and streaming-media applications. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)