Sites.Google.com is Google Sites, the [[List:Wiki|wiki]] formerly known as JotSpot.
Google Sites
Google Sites is a structured wiki (although Google wouldn't call it a wiki until recently) offered by Google as part of Google Apps. It was launched on February 28, 2008 and is currently in beta stage. It replaces Google Page Creator, Google's previous webpage creation service. All Google editorial content is licensed under Creative Commons or an Apache license.
History
Google Sites started out as JotSpot, a software company that offered enterprise social software. The product was targeted mainly at small-sized and medium-sized businesses. The company was founded by Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer, co-founders of Excite.
In February 2006, JotSpot was named part of Business 2.0, "Next Net 25" , and in May 2006, it was honored as one of InfoWorld's "15 Startups to Watch". In October 2006, JotSpot was acquired by Google. In February 2008, Google Sites was unveiled using the JotSpot technology. The service was free, but a domain was needed to be able to be used, which Google had offered for $10. However, as of May 21, 2008, Google Sites became available for free separately from Google Apps, and without the need for a domain.
Features
Google Sites offers the following features:
- A web address of the form "http://sites.google.com/site/sitename/".
- A limited number of themes.
- Limited use of HTML coding. CSS (cascading style sheets) cannot be incorporated in the theme templates.
- Ability to insert:
- Videos from Google Video/YouTube
- Google Docs document
- Google Calendar
Limitations
- 100 MB of storage (for free account)
- 10 GB of storage for Google Apps users.
- non-collaborators cannot add anonymous comments (only invited people can "write" to site.)
- Cannot clone/copy site.
- No RSS feeds for site updates.
- No data export / backup functionality.
- Must use provided site themes and structure (limited customization is available, colors, font-type, font-size, no CSS, no JavaScript, etc.). However, HEX-coding is modern for certain features, and Javascripting is accepted in Google AdSense.
(see official sites wishlist)
