Smaaz’s Blog

Google Sets Its Sites on Google Apps

February 29th, 2008

Google today introduced Google Sites™, an application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. With Google Sites, people can quickly gather a variety of information in one place – including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text – and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world.

“Creating a team web site has always been too complicated, requiring dedicated hardware and software as well as programming skills,” said Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of enterprise, Google. “Now with Google Sites, anyone can create an entirely customized site in minutes and invite others to contribute. We are literally adding an edit button to the web.”Creating and editing a set of pages in a Google Site requires no knowledge of HTML or web design skills. People can start a new page with one click. Adding content is as easy as clicking the edit button. Sharing is as simple as sending an invitation. All content is instantly searchable, and Google Sites is accessible through any web browser.

Anyone inside an organization can begin using Google Sites by signing up for Google Apps™ communication and collaboration services through Team Edition — without having to burden IT for support. After verifying their business or school email address, people can instantly invite others to join, or easily identify people within their organization already using Google Apps.

With Google Sites, people can create a wide variety of sites, such as:

• an intranet to centralize company information;
• a team site to manage a project;
• a profile site including an individual’s resume, areas of expertise, and goals for the quarter; and
• a virtual classroom to post homework assignments, class notes and other resources.

Google Sites is secure and scalable.  Users have full control over who can own, collaborate and view pages, and view version history for each site. Google Sites is built to scale to any sized organization — from a five person start-up to a 50,000 person enterprise or university — and requires no hardware or software to buy, install, or maintain.

Additional features include the ability to:

• Embed content from other Google products, including YouTube™, Google Docs™, Google Calendar™, and Picasa™
• Upload files of any type
• Customize a site’s look and feel

Google Sites is based on JotSpot™ technology and available in the Team, Standard, Premier, and Education Editions of Google Apps. If your business or school doesn’t use Google Apps, please visit http://sites.google.com and sign up for Team Edition with your work or school email address. Existing Google Apps administrators can enable Google Sites immediately from the Google Apps control panel.

Entry Filed under: Google