Comments on: Google Sites vs SharePoint: Give it a rest, would you?

By: James

James — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:00:25 +0000

I think what many of us feel, especially in government IT, is a need to free our data. I can’t describe the frustration one gets when trying to expand services only to find out an other MS license is needed. At some point MS will need to stop with the nickle and dime marketing. Sure SharePoint is powerful but at an enormous cost in software, equipment and engineers to customize it. Google is taking the approach of one license gives you access to everything and continues to find ways to make it possible for the average user to customize. Users don’t want to wait a year for the IT department to produce an App and let’s face it the budget is not growing at a rate to hire more developers.

By: Mike H

Mike H — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:02:19 +0000

Comparing SharePoint with any CMS is irrelevant. I don’t even consider them to be the same class of software. Google Sites and whatever else are Content Mangagement Systems. And they’re very good at it. They also do *some* document management, forms submission and search and such (although the latter is often “outsourced” to Google). However, they are not suitable as Enterprise Information Portals. Consider the other things that SharePoint does – this is what EIP software does. SharePoint’s competitors are of the likes of SAP EP. Oracle will have one as well (is this WebLogic?) and IBM may fill this space with WebSphere but there aren’t too many players in this space. I also like being “Microsoft boy” at work and use Bing and anything else MS just to be different, flames and all.

By: Googleverse

Googleverse — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:45:36 +0000

Google site designed to cater general audience where as SharePoint is made for cooperated and is more professional.

By: Chanakya

Chanakya — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:41:20 +0000

Of course google is moving faster but comparing Google sites with Sharepoint is meaningless. Sharepoint is not just about sites and webpages. Its more than that. Its coming up to be a platform.

By: Tom P.

Tom P. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:43:03 +0000

I stumbled across SharePoint 4 years ago by accident. There was no advertizement for it then. It grew by people out there playing around with it. It grew by grass roots – not MS advertizements. Today the people developing on SharePoint has exploded – and there are thousands more individuals applying jquery solutions to SharePoint. I would argue that SharePoint has become extremely popular – IN SPITE of Microsoft. But it’s to their credit they recognized the value of the product they had on their hands. It’s popularity is driven by the same popularity of Iphone to Apps Apple has enjoyed. When a product becomes popular by the users themselves, it is the best endorcement anyone can give. SharePoint will die when people stop creating imaginative ways to use it and modify it, NOT when MS fails to do something with it- unless, of course, it screws it up.

By: R Dee

R Dee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:24:08 +0000

Mark, you’re absolutely right about the comparison as it stands now. But I do think Christophe has a point worth considering. The app deveopment cycle may need to shorten in the future to compensate for the shorter web development cycle to keep up with the jones (Google and others).

By: EndUserSharePoint

EndUserSharePoint — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:18:10 +0000

Rex,

Thanks for participating in the discussion. The Microsoft bashing is pretty much to be expected and doesn’t really matter. It’s the comparison of the products that is the issue, in my mind. Is there really a relevant territory for comparing the two. At this stage of the two products, Michael’s position is that there is not.

This doesn’t mean there won’t be in the future, but currently it’s like comparing pen and paper to the computer, i.e. @gannotti

Mark

By: Christophe

Christophe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:04:59 +0000

Mark, we should not dismiss the fact that Google is moving faster than Microsoft.
With today’s snapshot, the comparison doesn’t stand, but how about 2012, when Google will have made significant upgrades to its sites while we’ll still be working with SP 2010? As a comparison, see how the browsers landscape has changed in just a couple years, and how IE struggles to catch up.
I just wish MS could move away from their heavy release cycle.

By: R Dee

R Dee — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:04:54 +0000

I read Michael’s article this morning and I thought he hit the nail on the head perfectly. However, I’m not surprised he is catching a lot of flack thought. As a consumer and amateur tech guy I can’t post a single comment on many of the sites I visit and say anything good about a Microsoft product without getting 30 people slamming me personally just as hard as they can. The hatred for Microsoft products runs as thick as pudding now a days. It’s a shame really causing me to shy away from posting many times when I would really like to say something I feel is important to say.

By: David Cavins

David Cavins — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:53:16 +0000

Great point. It is safe to say that both tools have their strengths and weaknesses but they are in no way mutually exclusive. This goes back to understanding the real purpose of the tools and how to use them.