Google Apps - Deciphered

by Scott Granneman

Reviewed by William Chipman (bill@chipmaninfo.com) on March 5, 2009.

Summary

Google Apps Deciphered focuses on the administration of a Google Apps site for use by small companies, educational institutions or other groups. The first few chapters present a good introduction to the concept and practice of cloud computing. I didn't notice any glaring problems and he painlessly gets the reader up to speed on the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing. Scott Granneman does a very good job addressing some of the most common objections to cloud computing -- which boil down to loss of control -- by pointing out the the illusion of control is all that will be lost. Scott then goes on to describe the various flavors of Google Apps that are offered - standard, team and educational which are free and premier which is paid. He does a good job of explaining the trade offs and unique features of each flavor.

The second phase of the first section goes into a step-by-step description of how to start and set up a Google Apps site. I took the instructions and set up my own site at chipmaninfo.com. This gave me a chance to judge whether the instructions were complete and effective. I did not have any problems setting up the chipmaninfo.com site. I use godaddy as my registrar and the instructions in the book helped me find some of the subtle options that made the dns setup go well. I set up a standard site with 4 users in about an hour, including testing the accounts and swaping some emails and calendars along with documents.

The instructions for setting up a Google Apps site were quite effective. However, this section also introduced a style to the book that may not fit everyone's tastes. Basically Scott takes a phase of the setup and use and explores many different options that you may find. Each option is described and the methods required to make each option work are well described. However, you will find yourself skipping over large sections of the book that describe options that don't apply to your situation. The instructions on syncing your current email system with Google Apps mail is very complete, as near as I can tell, but most of the options don't apply in my case. Similar discussion about syncing calendars and contacts follow the email section. Finally, several options for importing and using existing documents and their applications with Google Apps are discussed. The excellent table of contents makes it easy to locate just the section that you need.

The rest of the book contains hints and suggestions for administrators as they support the email, calendar, contacts, docs, spreadsheets and presentations sections of the Google Apps site. The focus is very much on the administrator and support staff, however. There are relatively few hints that would help the knowledge worker trying to use Google Apps in their job. There are many examples of ways to use Greasemonkey scrips with Firefox. These hints cover a lot of the holes in Google Apps. Scott spends a lot of time talking about weaknesses with Google Apps in some detail. This book is not a fan rave. The warts are covered along with the advantages.

Contrasts

I compared Google Apps - Deciphered to two other books. Google Apps - The Missing Manual has a more direct focus on using the Google Apps applications to support your document, email and calendar needs. Use Google Apps - The Missing Manual if you have questions about using write, spreadsheets or presentations. The warts are freely discussed along with some workarounds. The section on setting up a Google Apps site is much less complete, so use Google Apps - Deciphered to set up your site and then set it on the shelf. Google Apps Hacks is the other book I read. It really concentrates on the Greasemonkey and other scripts to supplement the applications in Google Apps. Use ''Google Apps Hacks' to find out how to make presentations or documents do tricks that Office can do.

Recommendation

I found Google Apps - Deciphered to be a very good reference to setting up and administering a Google Apps site for a small company or school. This is a very detailed reference to migrating your email, calendar, contacts and documents into a Google Apps site. The main weakness is the lack of discussion about actually using the Google Apps applications.