Practical Technology

With the continued growth of social networking as a pervasive presence in our day-to-day lives, the need is greater than ever for a guide for young readers that helps them understand their engagement with this key medium of online communication. This book breaks down the basics of social media, its benefits, and its dangers for Internet users today. By explaining the concept of networking-both on and offline-readers will learn the importance of social interaction and meaningful relationships, as well as how to safely use online communities to interact with friends and avoid cyberbullies, or "trolls." Sidebars shed light on navigating the various social media websites mentioned within the text.

The widespread use of blogging today has made understanding how to read and write these online journals an essential skill for digital literacy at any age. In these pages, the ins and outs of several kinds of blogs-including political, news, and personal ones-are explained in clear terms. Content management, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) text editing, and web hosting are just a few of the topics that are simplified to guide users towards getting the most out of this cyber technology.

This lively guide to the wiki phenomenon narrates the history of wikis, explains how they work, and projects the future of these collaborative, content-driven sites based on developments already under way. With lists of the most popular wikis, biographies of the key figures of the wiki movement, and a timeline of feature developments integrated into wikis today, readers will finish this book feeling confident in their ability to understand, use, and create a wiki on any subject. Also explained are the dangers of hacking, "edit wars," and ways to stay protected from cyber-vandalism.

Almost every day of our lives we go online and connect to websites for the news, research, or simply to socialize, but many of us may not know the history of the Internet and how web pages are made. This enlightening book takes the broad concept of the World Wide Web and makes it understandable for any reader, explaining HyperText Markup Language (HTML) tagging, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and the other design elements necessary to build and design a website. It is also packed with links to online tutorials to help any reader get started on creating their very own website.

In this handbook on databases, the complex world of computer applications used for storing, managing, and accessing information is broken down in an easy-to-comprehend format. Concrete examples of physical and online databases that readers will already know coupled with explanations of how more advanced databases work will help the reader grasp digital information storage on all levels. With sidebars on topics such as Structured Query Language (SQL) and how databases are used in social media, as well as a chapter dedicated to data security, this book is certain to help young readers learn the essentials of using and understanding database technology.

This handy guide to search engines allows readers to learn the tricks to using these Internet-indexing services to their maximum potential. With an informative history of the development of search engines, this book teaches readers how this essential tool for the Web has advanced in its technology for categorizing websites and then pulling them up for users at the click of a search button. From an electronic "spider" that crawls the World Wide Web looking for new web pages to the meta tags and hash codes that have come to help optimize results, this book covers the early days of Yahoo and WebCrawler through the most recent developments in search engine technology. A discussion of Cloud computing and other safety issues makes this a key read for anybody who wants to stay up on today's issues in Internet security.