Sheara Wilensky . com

Google Sites is a new application that allows users to essentially create web pages in an easy to use, code-free manner. If you’ve ever used Google Docs, or Google Spreadsheets, it works in a similar fashion - the program is within the browser window. Google Sites allows you to import videos, documents, calendars and other attachments into a web page with just the click of an insert button.

Google Sites is a structured wiki - a collaborative database environment - typically used as a shared writeboard allowing users to add, remove and edit information. This allows for the free and simple sharing of knowledge which everyone can use.

Officially launched this past Thursday, February 28, Google Sites in my opinion is best for creating intranet pages within a small organization because it is template based. It’s also good for managing projects. Especially for startups on a budget. If you take a look at the Google Sites overview page, you’ll see what I mean. In the vision of Google, Sites, of course, has a simple user interface.

Google Sites was developed by JotSpot, which it acquired in 2006. JotSpot was the first company to create wiki applications in 2004, targeted to small and mid-sized business. JotSpot has been working on Googe Sites for the past 16 months.

Google Sites has been getting a lot of mixed reviews. Critics are disappointed that given the time it has taken to develop the software, it should be able to create more sophisticated sites. They are saying though that soon developers will be allowed to create advanced applications for the product (think: Facebook) so in the future Google Sites will be more flexible.

I think what Google set out to do - allow the non-coder/non-techie community to participate in the creation of web applications - should work fine for now. Can’t wait to see how Google takes this new application to the next level. Thoughts?