Comparing Google Sites to Other Team Sites

Microsoft Office Live Workspace
Microsoft Office Live Workspace (http://workspace.officelive.com) — a free service that’s probably the most similar to Sites — offers users the ability to share files easily and to comment on projects. Unlike Sites, however, there’s no Web page tool, so creating a wiki site isn’t part of the package.

The main advantage to using Office Live Workspace is that if you use Microsoft Office, you can download a plug-in that gives you easy access to save your Office documents directly to the site. Office Live’s big brothers, Groove and SharePoint, offer additional features for larger companies but also require expensive servers and software. To use Office Live Workspace, you need a Windows Live ID and password, which you can get free at http://home.live.com.



Blackboard and Moodle
Blackboard (www.blackboard.com) and Moodle (www.moodle.org) are both great tools for teachers to keep track of classes, handouts, quizzes, and grades. They provide tools for pretty much any aspect of your class needs. But they’re also very complex and require extensive training every time a new semester rolls around.

Blackboard and Moodle both require servers to run on, and someone to maintain them. You also have to pay a license fee for Blackboard. If your school already uses either one, they have gone ahead and taken care of the cost. In cases where you don’t need all the bells and whistles or if you use other publisher-provided tools, Google Sites gives you the basics to share all of your classroom information with the students in your class.



Acrobat
Adobe takes a slightly different approach to sharing files. They offer five services through their Web site, www.acrobat.com, which allow you to create and share individual files with others:


• Buzzword is an online word processor similar to Google Docs.

• ConnectNow lets you host online conferences and share your screen over the Internet.

• Create PDF is a tool to transform your documents into portable document format.

• Share lets you upload and invite others to see your documents.

• My Files gives you a place to keep your files and access them from anywhere.

Instead of using a wiki-like interface, Acrobat gives you the option to enter the e-mail addresses of your team members so they can keep track of your files. Although this is useful for individual documents, it makes running a whole team project a little difficult because every time you want to share a file, you have to remember the addresses of everyone on your team. Still, the black interface is very easy to use and is just plain cool.


Source of Information : Google Sites and Chrome FOR DUMMIES