The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog, by Ed Krol, was published in September 1992 by O'Reilly. The Los Angeles Times notes that the Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog was the "first popular book about the medium" and "was later selected by the New York Public Library as one of the most significant books of the 20th century." The title and format were inspired by Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog.

Contents

The World Wide Web

In the May 1993 edition, the World Wide Web was described in terms of Gopher protocol: In addition, Krol notes:

The Web v. Gopher

Krol compares the Web and Gopher, stating: He further notes:

Browsers

While Krol notes that a number of web browser options exist, he highlights ViolaWWW stating that, "The one called Viola or 'ViolaWWW' is probably the most feature rich" (p. 227).

Hypertext editors

At the time of publication, HTML editors or "hypertext editors" were rare. Krol states:

Printing history

From inside cover of the November 1994 edition, supplemented with that of the December 1992 edition: As the Internet and PC operating systems evolved, the book was updated and re-released as two newer editions: