Google’s website builder – Google Page Creator – is accepting signups again, as long as you have a gmail account.
The user interface is simple and quite intuitive, though it is obviously limited in its functionality.
Some of the AJAX tricks they’ve used to make it all work are pretty nifty and really fast!
Unlike some of the other site builders I’ve tried over the last couple of years, this one works perfectly in Firefox, so I presume it will work equally as well in Internet Explorer. If the CSS hacks in the stylesheet are anything to go by it is probably as cross-browser as possible.
I put a couple of pages online very quickly just to test it (don’t expect a work of art – you’ll be sorely disappointed!)
While you can customise the first part of the page title you seem to be stuck with a default string for the second part.
The title tag contains:
The bolded section is the part that you are currently able to customise.
Other shortcomings I found in my quick experiment:
- Navigation – if this is aimed at novices helping them to give meaningful navigation to their “sites” is a must
- Repeat Elements – Footers on most websites are uniform throughout the site. This new “toy” doesn’t allow for this.
Of course the obvious question has to be asked…
Who exactly is this aimed at and what is the business model?
If it is aimed at non-technical people then it is moving in the right direction, but it still has quite a bit to go….
Or is Google trying to move into the hosting space?
Would this explain its ICANN accreditation ?
Will we soon see Google Hosting competing against Yahoo! et al?
I think it’s an excellent piece of software and by far the best site builder I’ve ever seen.
I’m wondering too about the business model. On-site advertisements? A “premium” service (maybe allowing custom domain names)? Neither of those sound very… Google. What’s their Blogger model?
Also, what effect (if any) will the emergence of free, super-easy to use, high-profile site builders have on the web design / development industry? I think Microsoft Live is providing a similar service and there are also companies advertising in Ireland (through Google AdWords) offering such services for a small fee.
Eoghan
I was in a meeting with MS a few days ago where I raised this question. They gave a very diplomatic answer 🙂
From what I’ve seen in my own sector the sitebuilder solutions fill a particular void and don’t really impact on serious web designers / developers. They may result in loss of revenue for the bottom feeders, but that’s a different story 🙂
Michele