Google Sites must be the forgotten child of Google Apps. While almost all of Google’s services have been given a lovely makeover with nice new functionality, Google Sites has been left in its functional but reasonably outdated state for quite some time. Things like adding galleries or decent blogs or anything remotely modern looking have been missing for quite some time. However, good news is on the way with an all new Google Sites. Some Google Teachers have been lucky enough to have a sneak preview and it looks like the new Google Sites is going to be finally get the makeover it needed.
I have only seen a video that was posted by a teacher on YouTube, which I’m pasting here below.
The video shows that the new Google Sites looks very similar to the new Google Forms, which is good news. It seems to be a drag and drop affair, similar to it with also some similarities to Weebly. From what I can see, it seems very simple to create simple but effective looking web sites, which look much more attractive than what is currently available.
Eric Curts from Control Alt Achieve has written a blog post about the changes he has already noticed. Real Time Collaboration is one and Responsive Design is the other, which are both welcome. I hope the collaboration means that media such as videos and pictures from different accounts can be displayed as this is something that is a little frustrating currently.
However, I hope they won’t be getting rid of some of the functions that I use all the time in Google Sites such as their filing cabinet type page. Hopefully, their menu structure won’t change either as I like this too. I’m looking forward to seeing what they make and I’ll be very interested in seeing how it integrates with Google Classroom too as I’d like to see what students can create, for example, will it be able to create a portfolio of their work? Now, that would be something to see!
