http://sites.google.com/

Cool!!!

Thanks for letting us know.. :)

Writeup on it over at CNet.
http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9881062-80.html

I think it's a very bad launching: the help center is a crap (just click on the logo direct to a 404, the official Google group is overwhelmed by users who face critical troubles – see next point), many Google Apps accounts can't – without any reason – enable the "next generation" control panel (necessary to activate Google Sites), all the informative pages of Google Apps ignore the new service.

If it proves to be as bad as I experienced, I fear it will get a very bad buzz and press coverage... I would have wait a sufficient technical support is ready before launching a so expected service.

http://youtube.com/?v=X_KnC2EIS5w

Just try a click on the logo: http://sites.google.com/index.html
And on the same page, click on "Trouble signing up?"... empty...
Hopefuly there's a section "Enter your domain name" at the top-right of the page... but no possibility to access Google Sites!
Try so sign up (because you can't access Google Sites with an existent account), but Google Apps account doesn't verify if the account is already created for the required email adress. They do it at the next step, without any link to login directly.
Moreover, there's no sign of Google Sites on the main page of Google Apps:http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/index.html

woohoo!

Looks cool!

As with Page creator it doesn't seem to work with Firefox 3b3, I'll try it out when I get to college, gotta go now :(

They seem to be fixing bugs right now!

However good Sites may or may not be, I'm so disappointed that it's just for creating intranets, and is not after all a replacement for the very basic Google Pages.

A launch on this 1st April (as usual) would have been much appreciated
they would have got enough time to fix issue & create help pages :)

I remember seeing a post about a 'Google Wiki' logo that had been discovered. Although Sites is collaborative, it's not really a wiki, so perhaps they are still to release a wiki hosting service...

I take that back: it is a wiki. But I wish it was easier to compare versions, and that each page had a separate talk page.

I also wish it was a public wiki rather than a private wiki – i.e. I wish people could sign-up themselves, without having to be invited, and could view edit history without having to login. Perhaps a public wiki will be added to Pages...

I also wish users could have their own userpage.

It needs more integration with the other Google Apps. For example offering a list of the available Docs when inserting into the document instead of having to paste the URL of the doc.
Inline editing of Docs would be cool too (but maybe I'm asking too much)

Took me some time to get it activated, seems ok, but I still don't get why people call it a wiki. Isn't it more an advanced intranet tool?

[Moved from "http:// sites.google.com/ & Jotspot" – Tony]

One-stop sharing for team information

Google Sites, a new offering from Google Apps, makes creating a team site as easy as editing a document. Use Google Sites 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.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/27/it-took-16-months-but-google-relaunches-jotspot/

Google relaunches JotSpot

Can anyone use it with a free Google Apps Account?

i want to ask the same.

I have it on my Google Apps Account. However I'm using the paid version of Google Apps.

Yes, you can use it with the Standard Edition of Google Apps.

JavaScript gets stripped from the HTML, so I guess this means no AdSense on sites pages.

Wow, the blog's a little slow to report on this isn't it?

The issues that I am having is that I only use gmail /google account for all my properties. Now Sites does not support this.

secondly, my jotspot collaborative site has multiple users with different email handle's.. they cant be migrated into Sites seamlessly. This will becomes an integration nitemare!!

I am disappointed .. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!!

(Ben, agreed, hopefully the post is coming soon, as they released it during [German] night-time and I was working on the book today, there's a bit of a delay :))

> The issues that I am having is that I only use gmail /google
> account for all my properties. Now Sites does not support this.

/pd – I think it's only a matter of time. The usual service pages for the "jotspot" service name have started to work in Google Accounts today too:

https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?service=jotspot
https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?service=jotspot
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=jotspot
https://www.google.com/accounts/EditUserServiceData?service=jotspot

Actually it does seem to be working with Firefox 3b3 now. Sorry, my bad.

Philipp: Sorry if that sounded impatient – I'm just eager to know what you think!

Tony, have you noticed that they there is a new sites groups. they have not merged it with the jotspot group..

I am skeptical on their strategy..

Philipp, in response to your "neat predication" comment –

I really did not know what was going to be released. I knew that google was upto something and its was big in terms of business strategy.. that's all I knew!!

Moving to become a "sharepoint killer", mesh it into Google Mini and a whole intranet env can be quickly put together for SME 's ..at hardly any costs, TCO's wil drop.

I just received an email about it from Google/JotSpot, text follows:

Greetings!

We're contacting everyone who's expressed interest in learning of
JotSpot registration re-openings on the JotSpot website. And
today, we're excited to announce that JotSpot is working on Google
infrastructure and has been re-launched as Google Sites.

Google Sites is the latest offering from Google Apps, a suite of
products designed to improve communication and collaboration
amongst employees, students, and groups. Google Sites makes
creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. You can
quickly gather a variety of information in one place – including
videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and gadgets – and
easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their
entire organization, or the world.

To get started with Google Sites, you'll first need to sign up for
the Google Apps edition that's right for you (if you're not
already a Google Apps user). Start the sign-up process at:

http://sites.google.com

Sincerely,

The Google Apps Team
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Press relaese: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20082802_google_sites.html

/pd – You'll might be pleased to hear this:

<< We're just finishing up the code to migrate existing JotSpot customer wikis to Google sites, so if you're already a JotSpot customer, you'll be hearing from us soon on how to make the switch. >>

From: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/bringing-it-all-together.html

Still no mention about non-Google Apps accounts though.

I thought Google Sites was going to replace Page Creator. Why did pages-beta.google.com redirect to the JotSpot service?

Maybe they'll be a migration route later...?

Ionut, frankly – google is beginning to behave like MSFT , each prodcut /deve group does not integrate their product into the mainstream of userland .

Google is becoming fragmented .. tis was the initial symptoms of MSFT too

Google needs a serious cleaning to assure all their products are smartly integrated. I would also kill Page Creator and put My Maps and picasaweb into Google Docs. And I would definitely prepare better a launching like Google Sites' one.

An utterly disappointing product. Google had better use Jotspot to glue all their services in one place and release the long awaited GDrive...

I love that Google is shining a light on Sharepoint. And I wish the product was better.

More on Google being a "sharepoint killer" here:

gobigalways.com/google-meet-glass-ceiling/

This is very good information.

You can see more information about "what is google sites" topic here

gen-next-tech.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-is-google-sites.html

[Unlinked, just in case.]

At release time, the product is still too full of bugs. See the "something is broken" section of its discussion group (http://groups.google.com/group/sites-help-somethingisbroken/topics?start=0&sa=N) for problems you might expect.

Warning:
visiting Philipp's samplonia site seems to crash Mozilla 1.6.
The crash may require clicking on an element and not just loading the page.