Google: Pages Vs. Sites

June 21, 2008

In late spring a couple of up and coming students were working on a project where they needed to post something online. I just required these students to create GMAIL accounts, so I suggested Google Pages. Google Pages is a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) web page editor. This is free and built into Google APPS, so I figured it would work out pretty well for her.

So let me talk to you a little about what worked and what didn’t work so far in Google Pages. If you need to make some simple webpages or you don’t need anything too fancy, then go for it. If you don’t mind structured webpages with little freedom, then this will work ok for you. For example, I use to use Microsoft Publisher for webpages (yes, I admit that!) and it was so rigid, and Google Pages is like that. That student met with me during conference time and we worked on her website together, and I couldn’t believe how little control the user actually had (no matter which theme we chose). If you’re looking for quick and dirty, go ahead though.

Also, recently we see that Google Sites come online, and I’d like to point out a few differences. Google Sites has a wiki base to it, and for the layperson, steer clear at first. No luddites here. Albeit, if you understand the collaboration strategies in Google Docs, go for it! That’s how their “wiki” works, which is cool for those who’ve used Google Docs for awhile. A colleague of mine just made a site on teacherweb.com, and I wanted to bang my head against the wall because I’d been converting her over to Google Apps. Then she makes a rigid, ugly site. It’s not her fault, and it’s difficult to discuss that with her, but I wish I’d been asked beforehand.

Posted in google sites, wiki