Jotspot, a wiki provider that allows users to build their own wikis for personal or business use, is finally being relaunched after being purchased by Google in October 2006. Immediately after the take over, Jotspot closed to new users, though existing members were not affected. Now, this wiki application has been relaunched as Google Sites, and is part of Google Apps. The new service bears no resemblance to the mother that spawned it, but it serves the same purpose: a "wiki suite targeting small and medium-sized businesses".
Wikis are becoming increasingly important part of the web, largely due to the massive success of Wikipedia. Now, more and more businesses and organisations are realising the benefits of integrating a wiki into their sites, and Google are offering these people an easy way of doing this.
Google Sites users will be able to choose from five templates: a standard wiki, a dashboard where Google gadgets can be embedded, a blog-like template for announcements, a file cabinet for file uploads and a page for lists of items. The application allows users to create a new page for a Google Site in a single click, with no HTML formatting required. Easy customisation means users can personalise their site, and free templates are provided to help users get started.
As would be expected, it's easy to integrate Google Sites with other Google products to include video, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, photos and calendars. And the real beauty of it all is the wiki factor; permissions settings let users, designers, owners, viewers and other collaborators work simultaneously, so editing and updating a site is, as Google puts it "As easy as editing a document".
The basic Google Sites set up is free, though storage is capped at 10GB and support is limited. Users wanting more disk space and support can upgrade to a premiere edition for $50 per year. Google Apps is expected to cause Microsoft some serious competition, because it allows businesses to work collectively on a site without having to purchase expensive Microsoft software. Indeed, Google's Management Director of Enterprise, Matthew Glotzbach called the combined products under Google Apps a "Microsoft Sharepoint killer".
Bill Gates may not be quaking in his boots quite yet, but the new Google Sites application is certain to be a hit with many web users, as a simple, quick and - most importantly - free service that could replace existing expensive software.
