Following Philipp’s announcement last month about the release of Google Apps Hacks, written by him and published by O’Reilly, I’m pleased to say that another O’Reilly book recently hit the shelves. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been the technical reviewer for Google Apps: The Missing Manual, a book aimed at users who are either new to Google’s online applications, such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Talk, Calendar, iGoogle, Page Creator, Google Apps and Google Sites, or who simply want to learn more about all the available features which can sometimes be difficult to find. Content previews are available for each section of the book on the O’Reilly website so that you can see the type of things being discussed.
As we all know, Google’s applications often have features added (and removed) on a daily basis, so being the technical reviewer for a book written about these applications was a difficult task. Even with excellent resources like Google Blogoscoped forum, it was impossible to ensure the book would be up-to-date and 100% accurate when it was published. For example, Google Sites was opened to standard Google Accounts users two weeks after the book had gone to print, so this section already has slightly incorrect information in places. However, I’d like to think that my knowledge and input helped to improve the overall accuracy of the book.
And we’re not the only Google Blogoscoped regulars that have been involved in books about Google recently either. Reto Meier – an excellent contributor to the forum who has also written guest posts for this blog in the past – is currently involved in a book titled Professional Android Application Development which is due to be released in later this year, published by Wiley. Android is the Google-initiated mobile operating system, and the publisher writes that this book “takes readers through a series of projects, each introducing a new Android platform feature and highlighting the techniques and best practices to get the most out of Android.”