The primary advantage of Special Edition Using the Internet and Web is that it focuses on the most common activities of Internet users, not on the underlying technologies or software.

The approach is similar to that of The Complete Idiots Guide® to Online Investing and other similar single-activity Internet titles-except that this title covers multiple activities in a single book!

The book is organized by activity-how people spend their time online-with individual Internet technologies introduced as appropriate within each activity. Where other "big" Internet books covered the software (browsers, email clients, newsreaders, FTP clients, etc.) and smaller books covered individual topics (online investing, online shopping, online auctions, etc.), this book covers multiple individual end user activities. Topics range from getting connected-and getting connected faster-to online shopping and downloading MP3 files. In short, whatever users want to do online, theyll find in this book-without having to wade through hundreds of pages of software-specific instruction.