1- there is no fault or any problem in learn by the internet..., there are a lot of information that you can use to learn by yourself :) iv learned alone, and the only problem is that you need to take a time every day to practice, and if you are lazy (like me XD) you will have a little difficult.
2- for me, to begin to learn by the internet, iv looked for a relatively cheap guitar that have a good tune for me, for example: i have a Strato Model from "Shelter: California Made". I liked this one because the tune is very good for those who want to play rock songs :) if u want to play blues, u can buy a "Epiphone" model. His sound is more "Fullbodied" than the strato ;)
Try to unite the "useful" and the "nice", lookin for a good guitar with the cheapest price ;)