Facebook, the stratospherically popular social networking site, combines the best of blogs, online forums, photo sharing, and playful applications, to help people connect with their friends who work, study, and live around them. No longer just for college kids and with more than one million flocking to Facebook every week, this rapidly expanding communications hub now attracts grownups of all ages from Gen-Xers to boomers and beyond. Yet one of the few things this site doesn’t have is a printed users guide.

That is, until now. O’Reilly Media’s latest publication, Facebook: The Missing Manual by E. A. Vander Veer, provides the crystal clear guidance and entertaining overview that those new to social networking need. This timely new book makes it possible for folks to embrace everything Facebook offers — from sharing interests or vacation photos to building new professional relationships, while remaining in touch with old friends.

“Fads come and go, and I’m not easily impressed,” says Vander Veer. “But what Facebook does under the covers astonishes me. If readers have a clear idea of what they want from the site and are careful about protecting their privacy, they can get an enormous amount of benefit from Facebook.”

Indeed, now Vander Veer is a Facebook fan. “I’m a Luddite by nature, and never expected to get caught up in Facebook on a personal level — but that’s exactly what happened. A mom’s group I was involved in needed a new online ‘home.’ There were other sites I could have used, but I figured administering the group on Facebook would put the site through its paces. I was actually shocked by how useful the site is for keeping up with a lot of geographically-linked members!”

The book is packed with high-quality color graphics on every page and provides easy-to-grasp help with specific Facebook tasks. Readers learn about signing up, networking, shopping, joining groups, finding or filling a job, sharing a virtual hug, playing a game, and a whole lot more. In addition to the getting-started tips, Vander Veer offers step-by-step instructions for customizing the privacy of the information you put on the site.

With Facebook: The Missing Manual, readers learn how to:

• Join a network, based on where they went to school, where they live, or who they work with
• Look up old friends, find new ones, and decide whom they’d like to keep track of
• Contact members by virtually poking them, or leaving notes on their message boards
• Get automatic updates from Facebook friends and send updates of their own
• Participate in groups of particular interest and meet up with members face-to-face
• Buy and sell using Facebook’s marketplace and classified ads
• Find a job or hire employees by combing through the member pool
• Use Facebook as a collaboration tool to keep team members, co-workers, clients, and projects up to date
• Play it safe by using a multi-pronged approach to ensuring your privacy

Think of Facebook as a 50-million-plus-entry searchable Rolodex. With the useful guidance from this vital new resource, readers get a clear picture of how they can use it to make their lives better — and a little more fun!