Google Website Host - Is Google Now a Web Host?
Through its Google Sites, Google has set up hosting in a rudimentary fashion that allows a webmaster to host a web site. Google web host provides more of a convenience than true hosting – the website is simply a collection of web pages.
What follows gives a comparison between what Google web hosting provides as compared to the hosting that is provided by the traditional, industry standard hosting companies. While the hosting that is provided by Google is in no way bad, its scope needs to be carefully considered by anyone considering hosting a website online.
Google sites provide 10 GB of storage and also 500 MB for the premier user account. In addition each user has access to shareable calendars, access to Google talk that provides text messaging with free voice calls, and users have access to Google docs that allows them multi-person , real-time editing of docs.
Facts to Show Why Google is not a Web Host
- Google’s hosting cannot be compared to any other established hosting company and through the Google Sites options, the websites can be set to appear to be true sites that are hosted in the usual way.
- This is done using some HTML and the WYSIWYG editor. This editor functions much like a word processor, so it becomes very easy for a novice to the web design and development process to feel right at home with handling the interface as they create their website.
- The page layout can be changed, images can be loaded to the pages, background colors can be changed, fonts can be adjusted and videos can be inserted.
- This is not the industry standard of control panels, specifically the cPanel, since it does not give you the access to log into an account from where files can be uploaded, databases created and maintained, and email accounts set up, forwarded and deleted as the business requires.
- Users will not be able to utilize FTP to upload their sites elements in mass, but instead will need to load the sites elements individually.
- This level of sophistication is not available in Google’s hosting, even though it is the backbone of the activities of a serious webmaster and all business websites today.
- Many people who use the services of hosting companies could easily be served as well with what Google’s hosting provides, since its light package provides adequate resources for the websites involved. Novices to hosting would have no problem handling this simple system.
- A true host provides a system for webmasters to add their own private domain names as a way of customizing and branding their websites. The system includes many tasks that allow for the maintenance of these domains such as add-on domains, creating sub-domains, creating domain folders and others.
- With Google hosting, no such system is in force. In fact, it is only possible to make the non-custom URL provided appear like your own domain by using a well-known trick that involves purchasing a domain name and forwarding it to the Google Sites’ provided URL.
- Unlike most web hosts, Google provides its services for free and such relationships are for the benefit of the hosts involved since an inadequate amount of resources are provided, no guarantee of server uptime is ever promised and no technical or customer support is given in the way the more traditional web hosts will provide.
- Typically technical support is available on a 24/7/365 basis, and it is reachable by telephone, chat session and by emails. This quality of help is not available with Google sites although they make help available through and email panel and through a help center. They will not be available to help with issues at 03:00am if a problem should arise.
The provision of free hosting by Google serves a community of people who are not looking for a very complex and robust system of web hosting. These are users who may need to establish a simple website to share with their friends and family, or to showcase their hobbies or interests. A webmaster needing more features and greater resources, such as a business, will not be satisfied with such a hosting platform.
The bottom line is that there is no true Google Web Host, but instead Google has set up a clever convenient way to provide the semblance of hosting for a large number of clients who do not need the heavy duty package that is required for a more complex, robust, flexible website. Browse the webpages here for our top picks in web hosts.
Tags: google free website, google page creator, google sites, google web host
