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20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web by Google

If you have some less tech-savvy friends that are a bit confused about what cloud computing, HTML5, DNS, or the other ins and outs of the internet, a new web site created by Google explains it clearly for non-techies.



The creative team that gave us Google Chrome has released an online book titled "20 Things I learned About Browsers and the Web". The book is not an eBook, think of it as more of an interactive online guidebook built in HTML5.  It’s a clever overview of things many people may not know. Well illustrated and written with humor, the book covers a cross section of items and is designed to explain some of the finer points of the internet to those of us that don't understand it.

This online guide was written for everyday users who are curious about the basics of how browsers and the web work, and how their evolution has changed the way we work and play online.  It has quite a few long-standing basics, like DNS, IP addresses, and cookies, while also explaining some of the more recent trends, like webapps, HTML5, cloud computing, and more.

The site is well designed and one can it read like a real book. You can flip through pages cover-to-cover, or jump to specific sections from any point in the book. It's a good resource when something like Wikipedia might get too technical, so it's a nice companion to Google's latest video how-tos for parents initiative.  
I expect we will only see more and more of this sort of stuff as the years (and technology) move forward. The full experience (ideally in Google Chrome) can be viewed here.