Google Sites, the wiki-based hosted application for building group Web sites, is gaining its first wave of templates with a set for workplaces and a set for personal use.

For companies and institutions that use Google Sites, there are templates for intranets, project sites, team sites and employee profile pages.

"Now companies can take a pre-configured template off the shelf and with one click start their next project site," said Scott Johnston, Sites product manager.

Google is also making available templates for personal use for things such as family events, community groups, clubs and charitable organizations.

Templates can contain page layouts, navigation links, gadget applications, pre-built content and layout themes.

Johnston envisions the number of Google-built templates growing, as well as their functionality. External developers will be able to create custom templates as well.

Google Sites is part of the Google Apps suite.

Built on the Jotspot wiki technology that Google acquired several years ago, Sites lets people create Web pages and sites on the fly that multiple users can view, edit and contribute to.

In the Apps suite, Sites lets workgroups create shared Web sites and pages where members can publish text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and other types of content.