Another business application has been added to Google’s growing arsenal. On Wednesday, the search giant added Google Sites, which “makes creating a team site as easy as editing a document.”

At sites.google.com, the company showed several examples for its new application, including an intranet, a project site, an employee profile, and a classroom site. Pages can be created with a singled-out go, no HTML is mandatory, and customization options allow users to add some personal touches.

Templates include a Web page, announcements, dashboard and list, and each Google history has up to 10GB of storage. And, as one might expect, you can use Google Search on the Google Sites pages.

A Variety of Doc Types

With Google Sites, users can share a variety of document types, including not only text-based documents, but plus video, photos, calendars, file attachments — up to 10MB — and presentations. Users can set up the site themselves, without IT help; invite other

team members to edit or manage the site; and control which citizens have access. Sites can additionally include data from other Google applications, including Picasa, YouTube, Google Calendar and Google Docs.

The release of Google Sites is part of a major initiative for hosted, collaborative applications. Earlier that month, Google released a new Team Edition of Google Apps, which allows employees to set up workgroups whether they have e-mail addresses within their company’s domain. The collaborative groups can be set up without the involvement of IT, although some IT-managed controls have been offered.

The free Team Edition includes Google Docs for documents, spreadsheets and presentations; Google Calendar for schedules and events publication; Google Talk for instant messaging; and a Start Page to preview Calendar and Docs and to add gadgets.

Built From JotSpot

Google Sites was developed from technology acquired in its 2006 purchase of JotSpot, which had developed collaboration…

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