Who Should Read This Book?

I've designed this book to meet the needs of anyone who wants to use Google Web Services. You might be a corporate developer, a researcher, a college student, or a store owner running a small business who needs an Internet presence. Depending on your needs, you won't use every part of the book, but you'll find that most parts have something to offer. No matter who you are, make sure you read Chapters 1 through 4. Chapters 5 through 8 are language specific, so choose a language and read the appropriate chapter (more if you're multilingual). Chapter 9 helps anyone who wants to write an application for mobile devices. Finally, Chapters 10 and 11 will help people who want to go a little further in the development process. In short, the book has something for everyone, but you might not need to read everything.

Some people have noted that a one size fits all approach generally doesn't work. I realized this early on and made a few assumptions about your skills. You need to know something about computers ”you can't pick up this book as a complete novice and expect to learn something. This book is packed with resources ”many of which you'll need to locate on the Internet and read. I've assumed that you're motivated to learn what Google Web Services can do for you and will use these resources to augment the information that I've provided. That said, all of the examples include complete explanations , so you don't have to worry that this book is incomplete. In fact, you'll find many instances where the information provided here doesn't appear anywhere else.

It's possible to use this book without much programming knowledge, but you'll get a lot more out of it if you do know how to program at least a little. I've included a few examples in Chapters 2, 3, and 4 that don't require many programming skills. The VBA examples in Chapter 5 are very easy and might be the best choice if your programming skills are weak.

This book doesn't teach any of the programming languages it presents . It concentrates on Google Web Services and shows you how to use several programming languages to develop solutions of all types. Consequently, you won't want to look past the first four chapters until you've already learned to use the programming language of your choice. Because it's so important to know the language you want to use, I suggest several additional books you might want to try if you don't have the required background.