Does Google need to be informed of new Web sites?

The Google Gods, eh? Hmmm... that must be Larry and Sergey, but I'm sure that even while they now have an amazing net worth, they don't consider themselves gods, per se. :-)

The question you ask is an interesting one because I've read lots of conflicting information in the community. For example, Google suggests that you pop over to their Submit a URL page and let them know about new Web sites you've built and/or new areas on your sites. Makes sense.

Except that a lot of people in the search engine optimization community believe that it's completely pointless to submit your URL and some extremists even think that you can be penalized in some inexplicable way by using their URL submission system. I don't believe that - obviously, given how I'm wording this answer - but... ?

The best way I've found to get pages and sites added by Google has nothing to do with their site submission form, however. You just need to have a Web page that's quite frequently spidered by Googlebot, the Google spider. You can figure out how often Googlebot visits by looking at your log files, and you should check your PageRank too (use the Google toolbar) because higher PageRank pages are more likely to have Googlebot pop by than low PageRanks.

If you don't have a page with a high PageRank, or Googlebot doesn't seem to visit you too often, then ask some of your friends if they can offer you an inbound link or two.

Then, what the heck, go and submit your URL to the Google site directly too!