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Idiot's Guide
Kirby's Korner · December 31, 1999

Years ago, I gave a copy of a Dummies book to a friend who appeared offended that I considered her a likely recipient for the honor. I finally know how she felt.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Planning a Trip Online, from technology publisher Que, is not a bad book, but it's sloppy and it's a bad idea. The published version is a good first draft that an editor should have whipped into shape before consigning it to the semi-permanent status that computer-related books enjoy.

Practically no one reading this column would benefit personally from the book. Ticked.com readers are at least savvy enough to log on to the Internet, check mail, and visit Web sites. A look through the suggestions made on this site, a visit to an editorially driven search engine such as Yahoo!, or a peek at a listing of popularly chosen travel-related sites, such as found on Top9.com, would provide as much information as the 17 bucks you'd shell out for the book.

Idiot's Guide might be useful to people just getting on the Internet, and for that reason it could make a nice gift for friends or business associates. But once they've been exposed to the World Wide Web, they'll realize the information cannot be captured between the covers of a 335-page book.

Quibbles first. The cover and title page list two authors, Julia A. Cardis and Kendall Smith II. Cardis is a writer who has tackled online business travel planning before, and Smith is a marketer, owner of a travel agency, and Web site developer.

Unfortunately, the book is often written in the first person, and that first person is singular. Who is the "I" who crops up so frequently in the Guide, Cardis or Smith? More importantly, is this "I" the same person throughout the book?

Without knowing this, no reader can build an understanding about how simpatico they are with the author's (or authors') views.

Another sloppiness: as long-time Ticked.com readers know, the site underwent a name change some months ago, from The Ticked-Off Tourist to The Ticked-Off Traveler. Idiot's Guide lists both names, apparently as different sites, 70 pages apart, even though the same Web address is given for both and they appear next to each other in the index. Someone wasn't paying attention.

(On the other hand, Guide recognizes Your Humble Servants as "experts on travel," so the authors -- or author -- got something correct!)

The author says the booking engine on Trip.com is called IntelliTrip, a mere three pages after saying she or he "liked" the site. IntelliTrip is a neat low-fare-finding tool that, I suspect, will serve as a model for similar features on other sites in the future. But it's not a booking engine.

The chapter on B&Bs and other "alternative lodgings" completely ignores Bedandbreakfast.com and ResortQuest, two of the most important Web sites in this arena.

Newsgroups and mailing lists, some of the greatest sources of online travel advice, are relegated to five pages in Idiot's Guide. America Online is barely mentioned, and CompuServe is ignored completely.

Other readers will find favorite resources that don't get a nod. And that's precisely the problem with Idiot's Guide and similar permanent printed publications that attempt to lasso the ever-changing Internet. I like the printed word.

I like the permanence of a page and the heft of a book. But I also like to use the proper tool. When it comes to chronicling the ebb and flow of the viscous Web, we should look online rather than off.

David Kirby is the editor of the Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at david@ticked.com.