After a few days of use for some of my clients, we can already identify gaps in Google Sites:
- SOLVED It is not possible to create a page when you are in edition mode, as in a regular wiki. Google Sites therefore withdrew an essential function that is characteristic of a wiki, forcing users to first create pages before you can link to this pages. This is obviously stupid, even though at first glance it seems easier for novices.
- There is no RSS feeds in Google Sites! One can only subscribe to the changes by e-mail! And there is not compatible gadget available in iGoogle for Sites, therefore impossible to track changes made to its site within iGoogle!
- SOLVED You can not compare two versions of a page, we can only view them. So easily impossible to know what differentiates one version from the other.
- Nothing is exportable, and therefore all the work done in a Site is not transferable to another Site. A real headache, especially if we began to set lists. Google should at least create the concept of template Site, as well as put in place a genuine function of export / import data from one Site to another. Otherwise it is not possible to capitalize on his work, and for professional use and large-scale companies it could be a real problem.
Point 2 is essential (RSS) to be able to create real dashboards for monitoring, without being obliged to receive tons of emails for each modification. This goes against the 2.0 paradigm and new methods of work that relies on non isage of e-mails to be effective.
Relating point 1 once we have learn to create new pages on the fly in a regular wiki (ie 5mn when done for the first time), we never want to do it in another way, so easy and natural it is, and it is the very heart of the success of wikis all these years, it is extremely surprising that this option is not implemented in this first version, it was mostly available at JotSpot of course.
Identificateurs Technorati : Google, Google Sites, Wiki, JotSpot
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