Internet search leader Google has announced a new online service, called Google Sites, that allows consumers  or teams of people to easily create, share and collaborate on media-rich Web sites, in an addition to the company's year-old collection of free online applications executive Dave Girouard likens to "literally adding an edit button to the Web," the company said Thursday in a statement. "It’s our biggest launch since Apps itself launched,” added Girouard, who is Google's vice president and general manager of its enterprise group. Diverting Users From Microsoft's SharePoint The new Mountain View, California-based Google Web site building and sharing service enters into competition against rival Microsoft's commercial team collaboration product SharePoint, and adds to its already popular Google Apps collection of online applications, which includes word processing, e-mail, calendar, spreadsheet and presentation software. The basic version of the service is free and requires no installation or maintenance, features Google said will help consumers bypass IT (Information Technology) departments and the delays they can bring. "It's better because it doesn't require any training or IT staff to get started," Google Sites product director Matthew Glotzbach said in a recent Forbes article. "It's like Microsoft's SharePoint or IBM's Lotus Notes - but with a dramatically lower cost," Glotzbach added, sentiments echoes by Girouard. "We think this is SharePoint-like, but better," Girouard told Reuters. Of the $4.8 billion Microsoft's business software division took in during the most recent quarter, some $1 billion came from SharePoint, according to Microsoft chief financial officer Christopher Liddell, in an area now being targeting by Google. Becoming Legitimate Enterprise Choice Some analysts see Google facing a long road ahead before it proves that it is a legitimate enterprise  software choice. "There is a lot that Google still has to prove in terms of being a viable enterprise vendor," Forrester Research analyst Rob Koplowitz told the New York Times. Businesses have been more hesitant than individuals to store private information using online applications such as Google Apps, often fearful that sensitive company or personal information will reside on servers owned and maintained by another entity, such as Google. Microsoft SharePoint contains a number of sophisticated features not available - at least for the time being - to users of Google Sites, however much of the core functionality of the commercial Microsoft application is available for free with the Google service announced Thursday, and it is with the core functionalities that Google hopes to pull customers away from the world's largest software maker. "They are targeting a subset of the SharePoint functionality,” Koplowitz added. SharePoint most often requires organizations to purchase and administer their own software and hardware, for sums that can exceed $100,000 to manage just one hundred users. The basic SharePoint server software sells for $4,400 on Microsoft's Web site, and necessary client licenses add between $94 and $187. Based on Start Up JotSpot Technology Google Sites was built using the framework developed by Silicon Valley startup JotSpot, which Google purchased in October 2006 for an undisclosed amount in order to obtain the firms collaboration, or "wiki," technology. JotSpot, which was co-founded by Joe Kraus, who also helped form the popular early Web portal Excite, stopped accepting new users after Google took the reigns, although support for existing users has continued while Google prepared for the retooling of the site which culminated with Thursday's launch. While much of JotSpot's original look may be gone, replaced with pre-defined design templates aimed at preventing people from building cluttered Web sites, the underlying functionality has been retained. Clean Design Among Sites Feature List Girouard said that by using it's new service, "Anyone can create an entirely customized site in minutes and invite others to contribute." Google said its Google Sites service was targeting both individuals and groups with no previous Web design or programming experience, who are looking for an easy way to create Web pages with a  combination of text, images, spreadsheets, Web links, videos and other types of content. Google Sites users work with a simple word-processor-like rich-text editor to create Web sites, and choose from one of five pre-defined design styles, which include a choice suited for lists of information, a dashboard-like template to which Google's utility gadgets can be added, a basic wiki-like template, a file organization style, and a blog-like look. By making it easy for anyone to include information from any of its Google Apps programs, Google believes its Google Sites service will appeal to a wide range of consumers and groups. "We've passed 500,000 organizations using Google Apps, and we're adding 2,000 to 3,000 more a day," Google’s Glotzbach said. "The vast majority have been small and medium-sized companies, plus educational institutions, but the pace and interest from big companies is picking up," he added. Web sites made with Google Sites can also incorporate images from Google's Picasa photo management service, videos from its YouTube online video site, calendars from the firm's calendaring utility, and each page created on a site includes an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed for tracking modifications to projects. Sharing And Collaborating With Sites The Web sites made with Google Sites can be made private or shared, with access-control options making it possible to designate who can edit or view either parts of a site or an entire site, a process Google said will  help teams looking to collaborate on projects over the Web without having to worry about hardware or IT departments. "Creating a team web site has always been too complicated, requiring dedicated hardware and software as well as programming skills," said Girouard. "The idea is that IT [departments] don't have to do anything except enable users to serve themselves," he added. Some fear that bypassing the traditional scrutiny of IT departments could place sensitive business information at risk for potential online security breeches. The Google Sites homepage, which touts the new services' ability to "centralize all types of information - from videos to presentations - and share your site with just a few people, your entire organization, or the world," encourages those with little or no prior experience in building Web sites to try Google's simple web site publishing tool. "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," the new Google Sites homepage notes, highlighting the firm's hopes that educational institutions will be among those using the service. Google Sites can be used to set up virtual classrooms featuring student resources and course assignments, said Google, who also noted that "several thousand" schools and universities already use Google Apps. "Information in organizations is siloed. Teams have difficulty pulling together all the information they
need to collaborate," Google Apps product manager Rishi Chandra told InfoWorld in a recent article. "With Google Sites, teams can bring this all together in one central place," Chandra added. Few Limitations For Free Service Google Sites users can create Web sites using up to 10GB of disk storage, a figure likely to increase as the project moves ahead, according to Google. The service is available for free to customers using the three free  versions of Google Apps, which it calls the Team, Education and Standard editions, and to Premier edition users, who pay a $50 annual fee for each user in exchange for customer support, a service agreement, additional administrative functionality, and more online storage. The free versions of Google Sites display limited advertising, which are removed for Premier edition customers. While Google Sites does not yet include a developers Application Programming Interface (API), one is in the works for future incorporation, according to Google. Users of Google Analytics, the company's free Web traffic analysis service, can tie in with sites created using Google Sites, Chandra said, adding that the process will become simpler in future versions. The Market For Shared Applications Google Sites is a part of Google's enterprise software group, and at first will be targeted at business users, however the new service is a part of the company's broader effort to have the same type of impact it has had in Internet search, in areas relatively new to Google, business and education. In 2007 Google brought in $16.4 billion from its core online advertising business, while revenue from its software licensing and other products totaled a relatively small $181 million. Income from Google Apps accounted for less than 2 percent of the $4.8 billion the search giant took in during the fourth quarter of 2007, an amount Google hopes will increase over time because of Thursday's launch of Google Sites. Members of the online discussion forums operated by WebmasterWorld, a community of mostly technically savvy webmasters and search engine marketing (SEM) professionals founded by chief executive Brett Tabke, reacted to Google's Thursday announcement with mixed thoughts. One WebmasterWorld member sees the launch of Google Sites as little more than re-branding existing technology. " Yawn. Nothing ground breaking here," the member, using the handle "SEOMike," noted. Another WebmasterWorld member sees Google's latest online application launch as a good move. "I think this is a good thing for the world of webmasters," noted a WebmasterWorld member using the handle "weeks." "When your brother-in-law wants a Web site, say, 'Sure Fred, a smart guy like you can do it yourself. Here's how'," the member added. New Google Sites Service For Easy Creation and Sharing of Web Sites Google said that it has tried to move away from using the term "wiki," instead preferring to portray the type of site popularized by Wikipedia as just another part of what a Web page can contain. "We see Google Sites as bigger than a wiki," according to Glotzbach. "It's as easy to edit as a wiki, but looks as good as a Web site. [...] One of the challenges of wikis, even though working with them is easier than working with HTML, is that they're built by IT for IT, and not with the end-user experience in mind," Glotzbach noted about Google Sites. "There shouldn't be a distinction between wikis and sites," Google product manager Scott Johnston told CNET recently. Whether Google's self-proclaimed "Microsoft SharePoint killer," as Glotzbach labeled Google Sites, will make a significant dent in Microsoft's business collaboration software profits remains to be seen, however there should be little doubt that the project announced Thursday will help many new consumers add their first content to the Web. Related Links:
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1:08 am on Feb. 29, 2008 (utc 0)