Hacking Gmail

Introduction

Welcome to Hacking Gmail. Thanks for buying this book. If you haven’t bought it, you should. It’s very good, and once you buy it you can stop loitering around the bookstore stacks. Go on: Buy it, sit down, have a coffee. See? Comfier isn’t it? Ah. Hacking Gmail. It’s a manly hobby, and this book will tell you how. Sorry? What’s Gmail, you ask? Well, let me tell you . ..

What’s Gmail?

March 31, 2004. A watershed in human history. Google’s web-based e-mail ser¬vice, still now at the time of this writing in Beta, and available only to people invited by other existing users, was launched. Offering a gigabyte of storage, an incredibly advanced JavaScript interface, and a series of user interface innovations, Gmail was an instant hit among those who could get access to the system. Today, more than a year later, Gmail is proving to be one of the flagship applications on the web—a truly rich application within the browser, combined with the server-based power of the world’s leading search engine.

Hacking Gmail?

Of course, all that power just begs to be abused. Power corrupts, as they say, and hackers are nothing but a corrupt bunch: Almost as soon as Gmail was launched, hackers were looking at ways to use those capabilities for other purposes. They investigated the incredibly rich interface, and saw how much of the process¬ing is done on the user’s own machine; they burrowed into the communication between the browser and the server; and they developed a series of interfaces for scripting languages to allow you to control Gmail from your own programs.

This book shows what they did, how to do it yourself, and what to do after you’ve mastered the techniques. Meanwhile, you’ll also learn all about Ajax, the terribly fashionable JavaScript technique that Gmail brought into the mainstream. Two topics for the price of one!

What’s in This Book?

There are three parts to this book, each lovingly crafted to bring you, young Jedi, to the peak of Gmailing excellence. They are:
Part I: Starting to Use Gmail

Where you learn to use Gmail like a professional. A professional Gmail user, no less. A really skilled professional Gmail user. With a degree in Gmail. A Gmail ninja. A Gmail ninja with a black belt in Gmail from the secret Gmail training school on Mount Gmail. You might actually be part Gmail. Perhaps you’ve named your first born child after Gmail. You live in the Google Headquarters. You are Larry Page. You get the idea.

Part II: Getting Inside Gmail

Where you find out how Gmail works, and how you can use modern scripting languages to control it.

Part III: Conquering Gmail

Where you put these new skills to the test, wrangling Gmail into fiendishly clever uses, totally unlike those Google intended.

Whom Is This Book For?

You. Of course it is. If you picked up a book called Hacking Gmail, you’re very likely to want it. If you’re a programmer looking to use Gmail in wacky ways, this book is for you. If you’re a power user looking to hack together scripts to do dan¬gerously efficient things with your mail, this book is for you. If you’re the parent, best friend, or lover of someone who answers to that description, this book is for them, and you should buy two copies. Really. It’s great. And the shiny cover looks cool, no? I tell you, metallic covers are all the thing.

Hacking Carefully

It must be said here in plain English, and elsewhere by a battalion of scary lawyer folk, that I take no responsibility whatsoever for anything anyone does after reading this book. If you lose data; get folded, spindled, or mutilated; or have your Gmail account suspended, it is not my fault. The fine folks at Google, it has to be said, have played no part in the writing of this book, and most likely do not approve of the contents within. They may have me killed. Either way, I take no responsibility for anything. You’re on your own, kiddo. As am I.
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