The replacement for Google Pages, Google Sites was released about a little less than a year ago. I don’t know how well it was doing prior to now, but it seems to be gaining popularity. It’s showing up on Google’s homepage: ‘New! Get your own website on Google Sites. It’s free and easy.’ Also, why doesn’t Google Sites allow Adsense? Google Pages did, and Google Sites is replacing Google Pages.

I’ve never used Google Pages, but I spent some time using Google Sites. It’s easy to use and effective. If only it allowed Adsense.

A few features

Google Sites replaced Google Pages as Google's free CMS provider.

Google sites is the replacement for Google Pages. It’s loaded with features. Most aspects of Google Pages are centered around teams, clubs, and other organizations. You can specify multiple people that can edit sites creating a wiki (Wikipedia) like environment. You can edit pages in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), upload files, create minature announcement blogs, and more.

I’m not sure why Google is spending time with Google Sites. With Blogger, a huge free blogging website, Google already has a site creator. I suppose that Google wants to please everyone – some people are fine with a blog, but other people want a content management system instead.

Google Sites allows a lot of control over your website, but you are forced to use premade styles.

No adsense?

The main reason of this post is to inform you on the Adsense status on Google Sites. Google Pages allowed Adsense. Google Sites does not allow Adsense. This is a huge letdown to anyone who was using Google Pages and Adsense. What do they do now? I’m not sure. Rumours have spread that all free accounts on Google Sites are ‘ad-supported’ and have the possibilty of hosting Google ads (with no payment) at any time. Google has yet to make this come true, but it seems likely.

This may be a mistake on Google’s part (Google makes mistakes)? Adsense isn’t formally restricted on Google Sites, but custom JavaScript doesn’t seem to work. And even if JavaScript worked, how would we know if Google would ban you from adsense for putting ads on your Google Site? Google has yet to release any information regarding this subject.

Tags: Adsense on Google Sites, Google Pages, Google Sites