Hacking GMail (ExtremeTech) [Paperback]

Ben Hammersley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 076459611X | ISBN-13: 978-0764596117 | Publication Date: December 19, 2005 | Edition: 1

• The first book to unlock the true power behind Gmail, Hacking Gmail will immediately appeal to Google and Gmail fans
• This is serious, down-and-dirty, under-the-hood, code-level hacking that will have readers eliminating the default settings, customizing appearance, disabling advertising, and taking control over their Gmail accounts
• Covers turning Gmail into an online hard drive for backing up files, using it as a blogging tool, and even creating customized Gmail tools and hacks
• Shows readers how to check their Gmail without visiting the site; use Gmail APIs in Perl, Python, PHP, and other languages, or create their own; and maximize Gmail as a host for message boards, photo galleries, even a blog

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Armed only with a PowerBook and some fine pipe tobacco, Ben Hammersley is a journalist, writer, explorer, and an errant developer and explainer of semantic web technology. He’s also liable to spread his dirty, dirty words over at The Guardian.
As an Englishman of the clichéd sort, Ben’s angle brackets always balance, and his tweed is always pressed. He’s not worn trousers for six months now. Ask him about it sometime.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076459611X
• ISBN-13: 978-0764596117
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,513,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ben Hammersley is a British writer and journalist, based in Florence, Italy. Previously writing as the first Internet reporter for The Times, he currently contributes to The Guardian.

Unlike many technology writers, Hammersley's stories often result from reporting from dangerous countries. He has worked in Iran and Afghanistan and interviewed the Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Hammersley has been influential in the RSS community and coined the term podcasting. He built and maintains the Lazyweb, and the weblogs of The Guardian. He is attributed with the first Warchalking in the wild, on a street corner in Kensington, London in June 2002.

Hammersley also regularly contributes to congresses and conferences, such as the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention and the Global Investigative Journalism Conference. He is a member of the advisory council of the Open Rights Group.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible analysis of the Gmail platform..., February 10, 2006

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hacking GMail (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

Gmail rewrote the rules on how online email functions. At the same time, the folks at Google have offered up a platform for some really cool programming tricks. Ben Hammersley explores a number of those tricks and hacks in the book Hacking Gmail. A very enlightening read...

Contents:
Part 1 - Starting to Use Gmail: Desktop Integration; Integrating Your Existing Mail; Gmail Power Tips
Part 2 - Getting Inside Gmail: Skinning Gmail; How Gmail Works; Gmail and Greasemonkey; Gmail Libraries; Checking for Mail; Reading Mail; Sending Mail
Part 3 - Conquering Gmail: Dealing with Labels; Addressing Addresses; Building an API from the HTML-Only Version of Gmail; Exporting Your Mail; Using Gmail to; Using GmailFS; Long Code Listings; Index

Hammersley has written an entertaining book that delves deep into the inner workings of Gmail, and in the process uncovers a lot of functionality that isn't apparent on the surface. By using Firefox and a few strategic plugins, he's able to dissect the HTML and Javascript used to display the Gmail interface. This hunting trip shows how Ajax grabs data in the background so that screen updates happen without trips back to the server. It also uncovers the URLs that are used to get that data, and he then shows how those URLs can be used for so much more. Many of the hacks he shows use Perl and Python libraries that you can use to interact with Gmail without the Gmail interface. He also shows how you can use a few Greasemonkey scripts to completely change the user interface, or "skin", of Gmail to fit your own preferences. It's all really incredible stuff that you probably won't find from too many other sources.

There's only one "drawback" to this book, and that's the everchanging "beta-ness" of Gmail. All the analysis that Ben's done could easily be wiped out by an update to Gmail by Google. In fact, as I type this, Google has announced a whole new interface that is being rolled out. You could look at that and think this book is already obsolete. I would disagree, however. The fact he was even *able* to get this book published with all the ongoing Gmail changes is amazing. But even with all the changes, the fundamental principles he uncovers will likely *not* change for a long time. He also shows you an interesting set of hacking tools that will serve you well for other projects going forward. To me, those were worth the price of admission themselves.

The sooner you read this book, the more immediate gratification you can get. But even if you buy it six months down the road after a Gmail interface change, you'll still learn more about the service than you thought possible...