Google Sites - Create Wiki style Websites Without Learning HTML

Posted by Ask Chief Online

February 29, 2008

Google is finally launching the wiki it’s been promising since the company acquired Jotspot, 14 months ago (see Dan Farber: JotSpot reincarnated as Google Sites). The service, now called Google Sites, will be rolled out to Google Apps users starting tonight.

What is Google Sites?
It’s an online application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. You can quickly gather a variety of information in one place — including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and gadgets — and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world.

* Anyone can do it — Building a site is as simple as editing a document, and you don’t need anyone’s help to get started.
* Share from one place — Create a single place to bring together all the information your team needs to share, including docs, videos, photos, calendars and attachments.
* Work together — Invite co-workers, classmates, or your entire organization to edit your site with you to keep it fresh and up-to-date. And let as many or few people view your site as you want.

Learn more about other Google Sites features.

Take a look at some example sites to see how you might use Google Sites:
* Company intranet — http://sites.google.com/a/organic-city.com/intranet/Home
* Team project — http://sites.google.com/a/altostrat.com/project-eggplant/Home
* Employee profile — http://sites.google.com/a/altostrat.com/jkraus/Home
* Classroom — http://sites.google.com/a/googleclassrooms.org/mrs-richau/Home
* Student club — http://sites.google.com/a/googleuniversity.org/ski-club/Home

Here’s a video from the product manager of Google Sites explaining the individual features, note that the word “wiki” is never mentioned:

The Google Sites home page is live now available from Google Apps dashboard. Google Sites offers 10 GB of extra storage - you can add file attachments to web pages or embed rich content from other Google applications like YouTube videos, Google Docs, Presentations, iGoogle gadgets and Picasa Photo slideshows.

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