What is mySQL? Well, mySQL is one of the leading SQL engines for UNIX. It provides speed, stability and can handle large amounts of data efficiently.
With a bit of knowledge in Perl, PHP or C, you can link your CGIs to a mySQL database to provide real-time access to any data you may want your customers/visitors to handle, like accessing information on books just like Amazon.com does.
That said, mySQL (or a database driven website in general) is not for beginners, but the following tutorials should get you going with mySQL within 48 hours. To get started, download MySQL’s documentation from www.mysql.com as it will be very useful for you to have quick access to them.