Mountain View, California-based Internet search giant Google has opened up its free simplified Web site creation tool called Google Sites, which was first launched in February for business customers, Google announced late Wednesday. The Google Sites online service allows consumers or teams of people to easily create, share and collaborate on media-rich Web sites with free hosting from Google, and adds to the company's already popular Google Apps collection of online applications, which includes word processing, e-mail, calendar, spreadsheet and presentation software.

Offers Maintenance Free Web Creation And Hosting

The Google Sites application 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.

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. Children and older adults may find the simplicity of Google Sites attractive, according to some industry analysts.

Google Sites users work with a simple word-processor-like rich-text editor to create Web sites, and choose from 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.

Google senior product manager Scott Johnson announced the move making Google Sites available to all consumers with a Google account Wednesday, writing "now we've opened up Google Sites to everyone" on a new Google blog dedicated to the service.

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 the initial February 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 largely been retained.

On Wednesday Google engineering manager Andrew Zaeske helped Johnson announce the public availability of Google Sites. "You can securely host your own website at http://sites.google.com/[your-website] and add as many pages as you like for free," Zaeske noted on the official company blog. Google saw many possible uses for Google Sites, which Zaeske summed up. "Now we've made it easy for anyone to set up a website to share all types of information - team projects, company intranets, community groups, classrooms, clubs, family updates, you name it - in one place, for a few people, a group or the world," noted Zaeske in a posting on the Google blog.

Sharing And Collaborating With Sites

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 can include an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed for tracking modifications to projects.

The sites built 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. Google Sites can be used to set up virtual classrooms featuring student resources and course assignments, Google said.

Google Opens Free Simplified Web Site Creation Tool To All

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.

One member 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 positively to Google's Wednesday announcement that Google Sites had become available to all consumers. "That should really help quite a few get their groups, organizations, etc. online," the member, using the handle "pageoneresults," noted. "That whole editing interface is awesome. Kudos to Google for making it readily available," the WebmasterWorld member added.

The Google Sites online service is presently available only with an English user interface, and Google did not provide details about future international versions.