Google Sites & Chrome For Dummies: A Book Review

• Use Google Sites to easily create Web pages with wikis
• Share information with teams, colleagues, or family members
• Download and install the speedy Google Chrome browser

All the above, according to the cover blurb can be done by reading the book:

Google Sites & Chrome For Dummies

I have a Google Sites site I use for playing around on occasionally and the software doesn't get much coverage. It is normally the blogging end of Google's outfit that gets all the glory with Blogger having a few books about it.

Sites is pretty handy if you want a "page" based site as opposed to a chronologically based site like most blogging software is. It may suit a lot of educationally based outfits, small businesses and clubs and societies much better than Blogger would.

It also allows you to upload and download files so it is really handy for passing file based information around between people without needing other accounts to do the file sharing on. And this book takes you through the ins and outs of setting up a Sites site, mastering the layout, adding gadgets and even Google AdSense if you want to commercialize it and allow the public to view it as opposed to just using it internally in a business or group.

This is Google's foray in to the Web browser market and a quite successful one, too. I use one of the development versions on Linux and it is far better than Firefox 3.5. Unfortunately the book only covers the Windows and Mac variants but as that covers about ninety per cent of the market I can see why.

I was quite impressed with the clarity and tongue-in-cheek style of the "Dummies" series when I first read one of them a few years ago now and I still like them. Simple and accessible would sum the style of the books up.

If your pretty new to the Internet or are just looking for a simple collaborative Web based site you can use that allows group editing of the content (the wiki bit) then this book will give you a great introduction on how to achieve just that. And at the same time let you see how to set up and use Google Chrome as an alternative to Internet Explorer.

If you want to get the best from your Sites based Web tool for your team, club, group or business this is the book to help you do so.