Using Google to build an intranet: What can’t those guys do?
It’s no secret that Google wants to do every computing task anyone could ever think of. Now that includes hosting and creating of company intranets. The price is right (as in) but will security be a problem?
Google recently launched Google Sites, which is a free service that lets users build and collaborate on Web sites. It’s designed for corporate users, and one of the use examples they give is the company intranet. Here’s a sample from Google. (Click here to browse the sample site.)
Editing the site seems simple. That’s partially because you can’t do much to customize the way it looks, but that’s probably not a big concern when you’re building an intranet. (Check out this video demonstrating how site-editing works.)
One issue of course is that all your documents are hosted on Google’s server rather than behind your own firewall. You might not want to do that, and your IT department may not let you anyway.
Also, most companies probably already have an intranet set up by competent IT staff and don’t really see a reason to switch. Still, like most things that are free, it won’t hurt to play around with it and see how you like it.
