Facebook - The Missing Manual
Book Review
Facebook is a popular, fast growing, social networking website that combines the best of blogs, online forums, photo sharing, applications, and interaction among friends, and networks of people. The one thing it didn’t have until now was a user’s guide - in book form.
Facebook: The Missing Manual provides a very clear and entertaining introduction to the many fascinating things that Facebook has to offer. Written by E. A. Vander Veer, and co-published by Pogue Press/O’Reilly, in January 2008. (US$19.99) - ISBN 9780596517694
Why am I doing this book review? I met a publicist from O’Reilly publishing on - you guessed it - Facebook, and she asked for volunteers to review the book. So I got the book, and read it over several days on the commuter bus, and found it to be an easy read.
The book is a quality production, from an experienced author — with a comprehensive outline, and clear writing style; full of interesting tidbits, sidebars, and colorful illustrations. It faithfully follows the missing manual formula, with excellent layout and typography — and the result is a first-rate, quality, how-to-manual about getting started with Facebook. Spotrick, a blogger from down under, says the book exudes quality.
Topics covered: How to get started, creating your profile, help in Joining a network (business, geographic, city, country); finding friends, looking for people, college buddies and old acquaintances, viewing your friends, organizing your friends, responding to friend requests (or not); Sending messages to friends, and poking people (a Facebook phenomena). What it means to “write on someone’s wall”. How to stay in touch with friends through status updates, news-feeds, mini-feeds, RSS-feeds, notifications, subscriptions, etc. — and controlling what kind of information other people can see about you (privacy, security, etc.) There is even a whole chapter (chapter 13) dedicated to the topic of Facebook privacy concerns.
Other chapters: Chapter 6 - Participating in groups, finding groups, joining groups, creating groups, and participating in groups. (Note: personal observation of group behavior on Facebook… a lot of people know how to join groups, but very few know how to participate. ) Chapter 7 - Events and calendars; planning and event, or party; finding events, how to RSVP to an event, creating your own events and inviting people to join the event. (Note: I was looking for a little more help in chapter 7 and did not find what I was looking for. I had done a few event announcements to large groups in Facebook, and found that the Facebook software was very buggy — or network congestion at the Facebook server farm caused the trouble on several occasions — and it took three attempts to mail an invitation to all the people in my group (over 900 people), because the system kept timing out. Some things on Facebook work very well with smaller groups; less than 200 people - but not large groups with thousands of people … and I was hoping “the missing manual” would help me out on this.) Chapter 8 - Going shopping, placing an ad, finding stuff, answering ads. (Note: this was something I had overlooked on Facebook, and looks like a feature I need to explore more.) This was a helpful chapter. Chapter 9 - touches on business topics like recruiting people for a business, gathering prospects, looking for a job. Chapter 10 - talks about using Facebook for collaborating on business projects, setting up meetings, exchanging ideas, and exchanging files. Chapter 12 - All about Facebook applications, and customizing your settings. As stated earlier Chapter 13 covers security and privacy issues, and does a reasonable job of explaining how the interface works, and how to adjust your personal profile settings. This chapter alone might be worth the price of the book, if you are concerned about this issue, and are confused or bewildered by it.
Potential audience: This might not be the best book for the millions of people who were already using Facebook (eg, college students - they already know how to use facebook) but it is probably a helpful book for the millions of people who are still joining Facebook. High-schoolers, or college-agers that need to understand how Facebook security actually works, might benefit from this book. But the biggest audience for this book, might be the millions of people over 30 (and the grandma, granddad crowd) that are now joining Facebook in droves. (Personal note: I am a 49 year old grandpa-type.) Lots of older business people might really benefit from reading this book, if they are a little timid about social networking websites, and need some support.
This book is an introduction, or a beginners guide. It does not cover some topics in depth, and does not attempt to cover topics like how to write Facebook applications. (Perhaps OReilly will publish other books like: How to Write a Facebook Application.) This book is a user’s manual; like a tourist guide for someone traveling through Facebook-land. Enjoy the journey.
What other are saying about the book:
When you’ve posted all those snaps of yourself getting drunk at the parties - did you know that it’s quite difficult to take them down again just before that vital job interview? If you’re going to use Facebook and take it seriously, you need a guidance manual, and there hasn’t been one - until now…. takes you through the whole process, step by step, from registering and creating your profile to joining networks and finding friends. And every one of those steps is spelled out in a commendably clear manner.
Duffbert says in his random musings - recommending this book…
So let’s say you’re someone who hasn’t dabbled much in the Web 2.0 world, and you’re wondering what all this talk of Facebook is about. Or, you’re a parent and you’ve heard media reports of how dangerous Facebook can be for your kids if they’re not careful. If you want to get a overview of the site without getting totally bogged down in the details once you log on, Facebook: The Missing Manual is a good option to pursue. You’ll find out the reality of what Facebook offers, why people find it appealing, and what sort of security matters you should keep in mind as you (or your kids) establish a presence there.
Tags: book, book review, facebook, How To, social network
