Getting British Business Online is an initiative launched in February by Google, BT and three government agencies with the aim of getting 100,000 more British businesses online at no cost.

The service includes the free  provision of a .co.uk domain name for two years along with a website created using the Google Sites service. Hosting is also free.

The business owner simply fills out a browser-based wizard with setup information, selects a domain name and, after accepting the terms and conditions, their basic website is up and running.

It’s certainly easy enough to use and the terms seem reasonable. The main issue of note is that website owners are not allowed to create sites whose main purpose is to send visitors to other sites or host advertising. You’re also, and more worryingly, giving BT permission to ring you on your mobile.

Once the site has been created, you can edit it using the tools built into Google Sites. Theoretically, this allows you to improve the look and feel beyond the very basic theme applied automatically. I say theoretically because achieving an acceptable look and feel involves endlessly experimenting with the limited selection of built in themes, selecting each element from a drop down list box and editing the settings. Point and click, drag and drop – concepts noticeable by their absence in the Google Sites interface. Given that their target audience is, presumably, the non-technical user, this process is confusing, long winded and limited in its effect.

The likely upshot of this initiative is many thousands of new, almost identical, ghost-town websites as enthusiastic converts to the idea of having a website find themselves confused by the process and unsatisfied with the end results. The government, on the other hand, will be able to proclaim its success based on sheer numbers even if the sites themselves are useless.

I’m also unclear about what BT gets out of this – I rather suspect I’ll find myself on the receiving end of some marketing over my mobile phone in the coming days…

What are the alternatives? For the entirely non-technical, 1&1 MyBusiness Site is a good choice but it does cost £9.99 per month. Otherwise, my favourite low cost solution is to get a cheap hosting package from a reliable supplier such  as Zen Internet that includes the control panel cPanel. Ask your supplier if they include a tool called Fantastico – this allows you to install Wordpress with a couple of clicks. You can then choose and install a free theme from amongst the many thousands available. Wordpress is a much better content management system than that offered by Google Sites so, in the long run, you’re much more likely to keep the site up to date.

Overall, a good idea crippled by a poor implementation. Google Sites will, no doubt, be improved over time but for now it’s far too hard to achieve a good end-result, especially for the non-technical and, in most cases, Wordpress remains a superior choice.