Via Gmail webclips, I spotted this WebReference News article by Lee Underwood about a web-based WYSIWYG editor called SiteKreator. This immediately piqued my interest--and my skeptical nature--and I clicked through to read more.

If it weren't for the mention of blogs and Web 2.0, the WebReference News article could've been written in the last century. (Check out the lede!) Still, my curiosity prevailed. Lee Underwood had created a test site with SiteKreator, which I visited and immediately viewed the source. I wish I could say I was surprised to find the following garden-variety WYSIWYG offenders:

• No doctype
• Table-based layout
• Spacer gifs
• Attribute values not enclosed in quotation marks
• Unencoded ampersands

...and 54 validation errors.

I let out an audible sigh. Has nothing changed in 10+ years of WYSIWYG editors? Eternally optimistic, I had hoped for a little improvement from a service that touts the ability to let users build "impressive, Web 2.0-ready business or personal Web sites." Even divitis a la iWeb would be preferable to this.

Anyway, I ended up making a SiteKreator account for myself, and whipping up a quick test site (prepare not to be impressed). I chose the "Pirates" template, and was disappointed at the lack of actual pirates.

What can I say about the SiteKreator UI? Well, it features an "assistant" not unlike the much-maligned Clippy - except it's a dragon instead of a paperclip. As for the process of actually building the site, I'll admit I found it less than intuitive. To be fair, though, maybe this is just because I'm so accustomed to hand-coding. The WebReference News article described the interface as "pretty intuitive," so you'll need to decide for yourself.

My final analysis? Nothing new under the sun, other than some Ajax effects.