These days, to keep up with the competition on the Web, it's not enough to have scintillating text or even great graphics. You need to grab surfers' attention with the latest in Web animation. If you'd like to learn just how you can enliven your Web pages, check out Designing Web Animation.
The authors focus solely on animation, so if you're looking for a designing-a-Web-site-primer, this ain't it. If, however, you know how to create simple Web pages, and want to jazz your pages up, the techniques offered in this guide will give you the answers. The book is nicely designed, with useful graphics and tips that make it easy to read and follow.
The book's highlights include in-depth information on Java animation, using Shockwave for Director, and server-push animation. And don't undervalue the CD. It contains Netscape-compatible animation plug-ins, HTML and Java editors, and other tools. These bonuses work with Mac PPC or 68k and Win3.1 or 95.
What can you say about a book subtitled "The Best of the Net" that includes separate listings for Netsurfer Digest, Netsurfer Digest Home Page, Netsurfer Focus, Netsurfer Focus Home Page, Netsurfer Marketplace, and Netsurfer Tools? Obviously, the author of Most Popular Web Sites is a genius, if maybe a tad absentminded.
In addition to singing Netsurfer's praises, English offers 1,222 pages of site listings that vary from art to advertising to politics to associations to - well, let's just say that there are enough laudable addresses in this book to keep you surfing for a long, long time. The author spices this mammoth tome with "Editor's Choice" boxes for the different sections, reviewed by a variety of contributors.
You also get a CD that contains the book online, a browser, and related Internet software. It's worth noting that although the book was published by Macmillan, it's from Lycos Press (jointly from Lycos, one of the search experts, and Que).