16 months after acquiring JotSpot, Google relaunched it tonight as Google Sites:

Creating a site together is as easy as editing a document, and you always control who has access, whether it’s just yourself, your team, or your whole organization. You can even publish Sites to the world.

People can work together on a Site to add…new free-form content.

What they’ve left out of the description is just as telling as what they included, and what they left out is any reference to the word wiki. There’s a pattern on Wikipatterns.com that suggests not using the word wiki when first introducing people to the tool. This helps avoid Wikiphobia, or misunderstanding by people who

• Don’t know what a wiki is and are generally afraid of new tools
• Automatically assume any wiki is like Wikipedia

Google may be taking a similar approach here, and sticking with “Sites” since it’s a more known term at first, and the collaborative nature becomes apparent when people use it.