Google's API documentation is not great

[Andrew Koper]

I have been doing two projects - one with Google Maps API and one with Google Charts API - and I have to say Google's documentation is not great.  It's alright, but, as great as Google's search engine is, it's disappointing that Google's API documentation isn't as awesome.  I know I experienced hours of frustration and negative feelings when I wanted to do some things for the first time and the documentation didn't make it clear how to do them.   All of the objects, methods and options aren't communicated clearly.  Good documentation makes all of the difference in the world in terms of people learning, adopting and using things, versus not understanding how things work, getting thwarted and not using these new things.  That is the whole basis of O'Reilly books: writing clear instructions on how to use powerful languages and technologies because these powerful languages and technologies aren't clearly explained and won't get used otherwise.  I hope some people at Google see this and produce awesome documentation.

- Andrew Koper

- Web developer