Comments about oreilly The Internet: The Missing Manual:

You can turn to your computer and the internet for everything. Reach for your mouse and keyboard to find up-to-the-minute news. Download or buy what you want in music, movies, or television. Try your hand at writing; create your own blog (an online diary), add photographs, and post your blog online for family and friends to read. Save time and money and do your banking, shopping, and travel planning online. Meet new people worldwide, through gaming websites or on dating sites. Stay in touch regularly through email, chatting, and internet phone calls.

This book will give you an idea of what the internet is capable of bringing to you, and what is on the internet today. The book guides you through, starting with the various ways to get online. For example, a broadband connection is the faster, but more expensive way to get online. Dial-up is the slower, but least expensive way to go. Pros and cons are listed whenever choices and options are presented. Windows and Macintosh computer systems are referred to throughout the book too. There are numerous tips, notes, diagrams and pictures inside the book. The pictures provide readers with visual examples of previous discussions. The tips and notes are helpful in making the internet experience easier to understand and maneuver. For example, one tip refers to free antivirus programs for Windows, and another tip involves erasing cookies from your computer. Some tips list fun and interesting websites. A great movie trailers page is listed in one tip. As stated in the introduction of the book, "the primary discussions are written for advanced-beginner or intermediate computer users". In addition, the authors have provided grey boxes labeled "/Up To/ /Speed/", which are helpful for the new learner, and boxes labeled "/Power Users' Clinic/", which will be of interest to the advanced users. The boxes "/Word To The Wise/", "/Gem In The Rough/", "/Workaround Workshop/" supply insightful information for everyone as well. The information in this book will help you learn to surf the web effectively, how to set up your browser, how to search engines and directories, and how to find many great websites. (The medical websites, and fact/reference websites presented are fantastic.) If the sites are not free, or a subscription is required, this is noted as well.

This is a handy book to have by your computer. And a good book to have if you need clarification about the internet. Explanations are straightforward, and easy to follow and understand, especially when diagrams and pictures are shown. The authors have taken the confusion and fear out of the internet. The knowledge contained in this book will give you confidence to use the internet to its fullest potential- and in a safe and smart way! Some other Missing Manual titles include: Flash 8: The Missing Manual, Google: The Missing Manual (2nd edition), Creating Websites: The Missing Manual, and eBay: The Missing Manual. The author J.D. Biersdorfer, who writes a weekly column in the Circuits section of the New York Times, is the author of iPods & iTunes: The Missing Manual. David Pogue, who writes a technology column for the New York Times, is the creator of the Missing Manual series.

Comments about oreilly The Internet: The Missing Manual:

Back in the 90s, the Whole Internet was the book to read to learn about the Internet. Sadly, that book has gone out of print. But this book (the latest in the Missing Manual series) essentially picks up where that book left off. And while this may indeed be a book more suited to beginning (yes Virginia, there still are folk who aren't on the Internet) and intermediate users, there's still enough information here that even long time Internet users like myself can learn something new. In my case, it was learning about podcasts, RSS feeds, more about VOIP, and online backup and storage sites. The Internet has gotten so big and spawned so many different technologies over the past fifteen years alone, that it can be a big challenge to keep up with the constant changes. All of them are documented in this book. It gives a general look at all things not just with the topics I mention here, but also topics like searching and surfing the web, blogs, web sites that list peer reviews (sorta like this review!), shopping online, games, music, videos, communicating with others online (whether it's chat rooms, mailing lists, or "community sites"), even ways of staying safe and secure online.

There are countless books available about the Internet and its many forms, but this is a great book to have if you need a well-written all purpose book about the 'Net.