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Filed under: Web services, Google, Web

Google integrates Picasa, Google Docs, calendars, etc with Google Sites

Google Sites Insert
For ages people have been wondering when Google was going to roll out the mythical "GDrive" that would allow users to upload files to a Google server and access them from a single place. Well, that still hasn't quite happened yet, because you can't exactly add Google as a shared network drive (without using third party software) and backup your files. But Google rolled out a new feature this week that does make it easy to access data uploaded to several of its most popular services all from one place: Google Sites.

Google Sites is the company's web page/wiki builder. You can create a single web page or a series of interlinked pages using a simple web page editor, and you can share your sites with a small group of collaborators or with the whole world.

Now Google has added a new "Insert" button that lets you add items stored in other Google services including Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Maps, and Picasa Web Albums. You can also upload photos directly to Picasa from Google Sites.

In other words, you can access many of the files uploaded to various Google products all from one place. What's interesting is that Google still gives you separate bits of storage space for each service. Files uploaded to Picasa don't affect the amount of space available in your Google Docs account, for example. And you still can't access all of your uploaded files in all Google services. But it's starting to look like Google is working toward better integrating all of its products.

[via Google Operating System]

Filed under: Google, Web

How to save your Google Pages data before it shuts down in June

Google Pages migration
Google will be killing off its web site creation and hosting service, Google Pages, in a few months. Users who have Google Pages accounts will automatically have their data migrated to Google Sites unless they opt out. But while Google Sites lets you put together quick and easy web pages, it's more of a service for creating and sharing Wikis than a full fledged web page creation service.

Here are a few things that Google Pages could do that Google Sites cannot:
  • Support CSS
  • Support JavaScript
  • Web hosting
In other words, if you uploaded any images or other files to Google Pages, they'll automatically be deleted in June. And if you included any JavaScript on your page (which could include anything from advertisements to multimedia widgets), they won't work anymore when your account is migrated to Google Pages.

Fortunately Google is making it easy to download all the files you've uploaded to your account as a single ZIP file. When you login to Google Pages you should see a message at the top of your screen letting you know about the upcoming migration. When you click "learn more" you should see a screen like the one above which lets you download all the files you've uploaded to Google Pages.

You should also get HTML files for any web pages you've created. This should be everything you need to re-create your web sites on a new hosting service, although this will require finding a new web host, uploading your files, and possibly adjusting a number of links in your HTML code.

[via Google Operating System]

Filed under: Design, Internet, Web services, Google

Google is slowly killing Page Creator, replacing it with Sites

Google Page Creator dies
Google has stopped accepting new users for Google Page Creator, the company's online web site creation tool. Current users can continue using Google Pages, but the company wants new users to sign up for Google Sites instead.

Google Sites is a web site/wiki creator that Google launched a year after purchasing Jotspot. Sites allows you to create editable pages, embed videos, calendars, and documents. Later this year, Google will transition all web sites made with the Google Page Creator over to Google Sites.

Google Page Creator was never as easy to use as it should have been and I honestly don't know too many people who used it to build web pages. So I don't expect many people to cry over its loss. But there is at least one potential problem. If anyone's ever posted a link to your files at yourname.googlepages.com, that link could break later this year, because Google Sits uses a different URL structure. Hopefully Google will offer existing users the chance to transition to the new service while keeping their existing URLs.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, Social Software, web 2.0

Google Sites expands: Anybody can create wiki-like pages

Google Sites

A few months ago, Google launched Google Sites, a hosted wiki product built on JotSpot technology. But until this week, Google Sites was only available to Google Apps users, which basically meant you needed to have your own domain name to set up a wiki. Now Google is opening Google Sites up to everyone.

If you've been living in a cave for the past few years, a wiki is basically a page that's open to collaborative editing. While Google doesn't call its new product a wiki, the service lets you create and customize pages, and share access to those pages by inviting a group of people to view and edit the content. In this way, you can plan trips, meetings, or other activities.

You can sign up by logging into Google Sites using your Google ID, or by registering for a new free account. Your page will be created at sites.google.com/sitename. If you want a custom domain, you can still sign up for the service through Google Apps.

Check out Google's Demo video after the jump.

[via Official Google Blog]

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