For this particular blog post I'll be updating with a report on the book Using Google Apps by Michael Miller - I'm sure if you've read a book or two about web2.0 apps, you've heard the name, he's published over 100 how to books on various web2.0 applications. I realize this isn't related to the blog topic, so I hope you'll forgive me for going off topic. That said, the Google Apps suite is a tool that integrates nicely with other Web2.0 apps, much like this one. I want to take a few moments to give you a quick summary, my own thoughts, and hopefully a few useful tidbits I've picked up through the book.
So, bear with me and thanks for your attention.
The first thing to note about this particular book is that it was published in January of this year. That may not sound significant, but Google has already introduced a new interface that will eventually replace the interface that the book describes, now known as the Classic view. Most of the functionality remains relatively the same, things might just not be exactly where the book says. So far with a little bit of searching I've been able to find most settings. For example, in chapter 2 the author covers how to add folders via the Classic dashboard. However, the new view has you select the Create menu button and select the Collections option. In this case its the same functionality, however the newer view has simply renamed a few of the different items. Another very important example is the deprecated Google Gears API which gets quite a bit of face time in the book, but within the last year has been discontinued, however I'll talk about this a little more later on. This is simply something to bear in mind when looking over the book.
That said, the book still contains a wealth of practical information. I found out new things I didn't know about within the first two chapters, such as how computing within the could really worked. The book spends the first chapter explaining exactly what the Google App suite is and discussing the various pros and cons, of which I won't go into. The book is very informative and does a great job at sticking to the point. Each page is dedicated to explaining certain functions of whatever app is covered in that chapter which makes it both incredibly easy to read and even easier to reference. The book contains plenty of diagrams to assist in learning concepts (such as how web apps work with the cloud) and several screen shots that are broken down and explained, use primarily for showing the various options on toolbars. Additionally, in true web2.0 fashion, the book contains videos on nearly every feature that it covers. Admittedly, the videos can be a bit dry and the audio sometimes comes in fuzzy, but they remain informative and a welcome addition to the text. Overall the book is great, and its not nearly as long (or boring) a read as I initially expected.
I'd also like to take a few moments to introduce some new features that I discovered through the text. Nothing too engrossing, just some cool basic capabilities. First of all, the ability to import and export documents in Google Docs is a great feature. This means that you can start a document at home, but say you run out of time, just import the document into Google Docs and pick it right back up at work or school to finish it. Or say that a group collaboration has come out very well and you want to hang on to it long term, just export the document to your local drive and viola, now its yours to review freely with or without an internet connection. Its a basic feature that goes a long way. Another really cool feature shows itself in Google Spreadsheet, which is Google's adaptation of Microsoft excel. You're actually able to make forms for people to fill out using the application. After the form is created, it is posted to a special address online where people can go to fill the form out. Once completed, the answers are fed back into the underlying spreadsheet where you can analyze them. The feature could have a lot of great uses, from basic experiments to polls on opinions, or maybe even using it as an RSVP list for special events (going? Yes or no). Google even allows you to solicit answers via email, which means that by providing the email addresses of the participants and selecting the proper form, and email can be automatically sent to them asking them to partake in the survey. These are only two features that the suite comes with, for free, there's a ton more to be discovered in the book!
As great as the feature outlines are, the book has become dated, even within just the last year. One particular feature that I mentioned above, namely Google Gears, I was excited to learn more about. The book even goes so far as to dedicate a full chapter to it. However, as of December Google Gears will be completely deprecated, meaning this particular aspect of the Google suite will no longer be supported. That said, most all of the functionality of Google Gears is being written into HTML5 which will be supported by most newer browsers. This is just another example of how swiftly the internet moves, and how quickly documents like this become outdated. So overall, I would have to say that this is a very rich material with a lot of information that is still very valid, and probably will be for quite some time, but if you're looking for anything more than a feature list I would have to suggest a newer book.
Thanks for taking the time to read it, and have a great night!
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