Rating: 
Summary: Overall Very Good Reference
Review: I like this book in its one stop shopping quality. As a reference it does more than just skim topics- for most topics you need to get up and running with you probably have everything you need here. For more advanced coverage of a topic you'd probably want to buy a book on just that, but it goes surprisingly deep on each topic. Also very comprehensive. A must for anyone new to the web and anyone who wants a big picture view of the web and its tools.
Rating:
Summary: Very strong on HTML
Review: This book provides an overview of just about all the topics required to design a web site, and is an excellent HTML reference. I especially like the way the browser compatibility of the various elements is presented. At a glance it is easy to see whether a particular element is compatible with a specific browser version.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Reference
Review: As a web design student I was looking for a good reference book. This book is it! Hands down!! I was tired of trying to look up things I learned from 5 or 6 books, plus the internet. HTML, CCS and Introduction to Javascript and DHTML plus others. There is a great section on creating web graphics. I learned more from the book than I did in my "web graphics" class. Jennifer has laid out the cross browser/platform problems. This has already been a tremedous help in bringing everything I learned together in my mind. The format of this book is excellent and easy to read. This is not a beginners book. There are no fancy pictures and type is small. It might be overwhelming. For beginners I recommend Jennifer's book "Learning Web Design".
Rating: 
Summary: Nutshell? That's a joke.
Review: I...grabbed my copy of this for a reference. Bad choice. My jaw must have dropped open as I read the history of video...This is a "nutshell"? I am reading stories about QuickTime version 2 and Netscape 3? What possible use is it, in web development, to be lectured about 5 year out of date standards?I want to place video on a website NOW and there are nasty problems that these [people] completely overlook in their banal history lessons and definitions... Read this quote: "Both Netscape 3.0+ and Internet Explorer 3.0+ come with QuickTime plug-in players, so the majority of web readers are able to view QuickTime movies right in their browser." ...Fact is that in the real world everyone's "free video player" is junked up with advertising and tries to play each other's formats. The upshot is that the web designer cannot control or guarantee how video will play or if it will at all. This book still lives in the dreamland that video on a website was possible and simple once upon a time...long, long ago, before the Justice Department lawsuit against Microsoft. This book should be in a museum for people designing with a Macintosh on OS ...building website for that "hot new" web browser called Opera or for WebTV, or who really want their sites to look good in version 3 of Netscape. ...How can you call 500 pages of 9pt type a nutshell? This book has no idea what a nutshell is, so I resent the title as false advertising. This book needs a competent editor and 3 versions worth of updates before it is useful. And you can trim all those explanations. If someone doesn't know what a gif is what would they need a web design book for? Cut the length in half! This is no nutshell and that animal on the cover is no squirrel. That is a weasel and so is this book.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Comprehensive Guide to Web Design
Review: Overall, this book is the best I've found for explaining all the related web technologies: HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, audio and graphics, and everything else you can find on the web. If there's one book you can rely on for all your web work, it's this one. Of course, if you do substantial CSS, JavaScript, CGI, or servlet work, you'll want separate books for those subjects, too, but this book at least covers the basics of those topics. One of the major drawbacks of the book is the omission of critical details. For example, it's difficult and frustrating to write XHTML or strict HTML using this book as a guide, because throughout the book only transitional HTML is explained. The book also doesn't explain which charset you should use for your web pages, or exactly when you need to return true or false from event handlers. Due to the poor timing of this book's release, it isn't fully updated for MSIE 6.0, which will become the world's most popular browser in 2002. The numerous other omissions and obsolete details prevent me from giving it a 5-star rating -- see the errata at the O'Reilly web site for all the details. Even with all its faults, this is the best book on HTML and related technologies I've found, and it's mostly updated to be current with mid-2001 browsers and tools. I'm hoping that I can rate an improved version of this book 5 stars in the near future!
Rating:
Summary: Top Reference for Web Work
Review: The second edition has greatly improved on my favorite Web development reference. I had nearly worn out my copy of the first edition. Jennifer Niederst has completely updated the content and the reference tables to incorporate in this guide the breadth of elements available for those that code and program the Web. This edtion is broken into sections that are easily scanned by the reader looking for answers to questions. The reference tables have been updated to now include elements that have been depreciated (or not longer considered fully supported by the standards boards), as well as the recently approved elements. This version is thicker than the last so I will have to gladly expand my notch for it on my bookshelf that is within easy reach.
Rating:
Summary: Not a starter book but superb as a reference
Review: This is a nutshell book, plain and simple. It's not intended to teach you HTML but it will help you hone your coding and web design skills. I read this book after learning HTML from Sams' "Teach Yourself HTML in 4 Hours." The former provided the appetizer, this book provides the meat and potatoes. It's best feature is the tips and tricks sprinkled throughout each section, particularly as they apply to getting the same effect in different browsers. The book also highlights IE quirks and Netscape bugs for various HTML tags and provides examples for workarounds. Most invaluable are the various tables included in the text: "MIME Types and Subtypes by Extension," "Decimal to Hexadecimal Equivalents," "Colors w/ their RGB and Web-safe hex values," and a full listing of character entities (@=@). You may be able to find this info. elsewhere, but rarely in one location as it is here. I would highly recommend this reference for any webmaster's desktop library.
Rating:
Summary: Being a webdesigner this anwswers all my questions.
Review: I had purchased this book about 5 monthes ago before i started this big design project. During the design project my partner and i had multiple questions regarding some design principles such as live space and pixel dimentions. This book in the first 50 pages answered ALL of our questions and even listed the solutions we came up with. This is the most comprehensive and up to date design book about the web i've ever read. Highly recommended for any type of web developer from beginner to advanced.
Rating:
Summary: Jack of all trades, master of none
Review: If you are looking for a book that covers a large range of material on various Internet technologies, this book is for you. I really came away with a good feel for the basics of HTML, web design, audio, video, display concepts, etc. However, if you want to learn HTML in-depth, look elsewhere. Jennifer Niederst focuses on summarizing a ton of breadth, but gives specific details in only a few instances. This is a great starter book to get you excited about Web technologies, but other texts will be needed for more in-depth learning.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Indispensable
Review: As a reference book, it comes very handy specially when requiring quick looks or crash reviews to keep a project going. It's comprehensive, easy to understand and well organized. It's not a teaching book so don't expect any kind of handholding.
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