Google vs Microsoft: Google Sites vs SharePoint

In February 2008 Google launched the latest addtion to their Google Apps suite:     Google Sites.  It has been dubbed as Google's answer to Microsoft SharePoint:  an application that allows teams  and workgroups to create collaborative sites to share information and documents. 

Google are allowing any individual to create a Google Sites application for their organisation for free, and in minutes.   Google's hope is that the application will then spread virally within the organisation, as that individual invites other colleagues to join and collaborate with them.   

Google are by-passing IT departments, hoping that teams impatient with their organisation's systems will jump ship to Google Sites.

However Google are offering IT departments a way back into the loop.  Once a Google Sites application has reached a critical mass in the organisation then  IT departments may want to step in an take control of it.  Google have made provision whereby a Chief Information Officer can sign in and demonstrate that the or she owns the organisation's domain name. They willl then receive administrative rights over their organisation's Google Sites.   They also have the option of  upgrading to Google Apps Premier Edition, and at that point becoming a paying Google customer.

The risk of this model is that it poses a question mark over control of the sites. Could I see my team's collaborative site deleted by our Chief Information Officer who had subsequently secured administration rights?  Conversly, from a Chief information Officer's point of view,what would be the point of paying to upgrade to Premier Edition if I didn't get the ability to weed out reundant sites?

I created a TFPL Google Sites application this afternoon, simply by registering with my tfpl.com e-mail address.  If or when any of my TFPL colleagues creates an account for themselves using their work e-mail address they will be:

• told that there is already a TFPL.com instance of Google Sites
• able to see my name and e-mail adress and the names of any other TFPL colleagues who have already created an account for themeselves
• able set up collaborative sites within TFPL.com (the sites themselves are similar to wikis)
• able to assign access permissions to any site they set up within TFPL.com. They can choose between allowing all TFPL colleagues to see it, restricting access to invited colleagues ( they can  also invite people outside the organisation) or allowing the whole world to see it.

In theory if my other forty colleagues signed up we could be up and running with collaborative sites for our projects and programmes within a couple of hours.

See also  Sarah Perez's article on ReadWriteWeb   Is Google Sites the next SharePoint