Even if you're a long-time Internet user, you may learn a thing or 20 from Google's new e-guide to the Internet.
Packaged as an illustrated children's book, "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web," written by the Google Chrome team, explains terms like cloud computing, HTML5, DNS and 'the Internet.'
'What's a cookie?' 'How do I protect myself on the Web?' and What happens if a truck runs over my laptop?' and more are thoroughly answered in laymen's terms.
From reading to sharing, experiencing the e-book is like participating in a Google product lovefest: it is clearly optimized for Chrome. You can also read it offline in Chrome, download a PDF version through Chrome's beta PDF viewer, or reduce it to a Goog.ly URL for easy sharing.
"We built '20 Things' in HTML5 so that we could incorporate features that hearken back to what we love about books—feeling the heft of a book's cover, flipping a page or even reading under the covers with a flashlight," product marketing manager Min Li Chan wrote in a blog post.
"In fact, once you've loaded "20 Things" in the browser, you can disconnect your laptop and continue reading, since this guidebook works offline. As such, this illustrated guidebook is best experienced in Chrome or any up-to-date, HTML5-compliant modern browser," Chan wrote.
And before you cry "biased," a lesson on the "modern browser" recommends at least upgrading to competing browsers like Firefox 3.6, Safari 5, Internet Explorer 8, and Opera 10.63.
The e-book was illustrated by freelance artist Christopher Niemann and built in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3.
Last weekend, a print ad for the e-book was spotted in the LA Times, perhaps signaling a target audience of more old-fashioned media consumers.
When Google first introduced Chrome in 2008, it did so via a comic book with details about the browser.