Google Sites is a structured wiki offered by Google as part of Google Apps. It was launched on February 28, 2008. It replaced Google Page Creator, Google's previous webpage creation service. 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.
In its current stage of development (August 2009), Google Sites offers the following features:
- A web address of the form "http://sites.google.com/site/sitename/."
- A limited number of themes (50 as of August 2009).
- 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
- AdWords and AdSense (none by default)
There are no ads displayed by default.
Limitations
- 100 MB of storage (for free account) and 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).
