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google-page-creator posts

Filed under: Design, Google, Web

Google Sites rolls out template gallery for web pages, wikis

Google Sites template gallery
The now-defunct Google Page Creator made it easy to create a reasonably attractive web site without an advanced degree in HTML or CSS. But Google has killed off Page Creator and replaced it with Google Sites, a service which has often been described as a tool for creating Wiki-like pages that are hosted for free by Google and which allow you to collaborate with other people on tasks such as planning a vacation or managing your office calendar and workflow.

You can also use Google Sites to create a public web site. But it's much trickier to make a page on Google Sites look, well... good. But this week Google rolled out an update that should make the service much more attractive, literally. There's now a template gallery allowing you to select and customize a template for any new page you create.

Currently there are templates arranged in categories such as business collaboration, activities & events, schools & eduction, and Personal & family. Google is also making it easy for users to submit their own templates to the gallery, so the number of available designs to choose from should climb pretty quickly.

Filed under: Design, Internet, Web services, Google

Google is slowly killing Page Creator, replacing it with Sites

Google Page Creator dies
Google has stopped accepting new users for Google Page Creator, the company's online web site creation tool. Current users can continue using Google Pages, but the company wants new users to sign up for Google Sites instead.

Google Sites is a web site/wiki creator that Google launched a year after purchasing Jotspot. Sites allows you to create editable pages, embed videos, calendars, and documents. Later this year, Google will transition all web sites made with the Google Page Creator over to Google Sites.

Google Page Creator was never as easy to use as it should have been and I honestly don't know too many people who used it to build web pages. So I don't expect many people to cry over its loss. But there is at least one potential problem. If anyone's ever posted a link to your files at yourname.googlepages.com, that link could break later this year, because Google Sits uses a different URL structure. Hopefully Google will offer existing users the chance to transition to the new service while keeping their existing URLs.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Web page maker Weebly adds Google AdSense

Weebly
Want to create a web page but don't know the first thing about HTML or domain registration and hosting? There are plenty of free web services including Google Page Creator, Lycos Webon, and SynthaSite. But Weebly, which we first looked at a few years ago is one of the easiest to use.

Weebly also recently rolled out tools for adding Google AdSense advertisements to a site. While you could always place ads on a page by copying and pasting snippets of HTML and JavaScript, now the process is even easier. All you need to do is drag and drop the Google AdSense box from the toolbar to a spot on your page. Then you can select from a list of ad unit sizes and shapes.

There is a small price to pay -- Weebly will take a hefty 50% cut of any money you earn from advertising on your Weebly site. Or you could, you know, just sign up for an AdSense account and copy and paste your code the old fashioned way.

[via VentureBeat]

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Web services, Microsoft, Beta

Microsoft launches Popfly web site/mashup creator

Popfly
Microsoft has launched a public beta of a web page creation tool for dummies. That's not what they're calling it (probably due to trademark issues with the folks who make the dummies books), but that's kind of what it is.

The new service, called Popfly, lets you create a web site from scratch without any knowledge of HTML, CSS, or anything else with an acronym. Just choose your style, upload some images if you like, and type away. What sets Popfly apart from the similar Google Page Creator service is that Popfly includes a built-in mashup tool.

What does a mashup tool have to do with creating web pages? Well, it lets you create all sorts of interesting content for your web site by taking bits and pieces of other web-based objects. For example, you can create a slideshow from Flickr photos matching a certain description, or even create an interactive puzzle game from those photos and put it on your site.

The mashup tool is built on Microsoft's Silverlight platform, which is the company's answer to Adobe Flash. You can drag and drop all sorts of objects into your editor, making the whole process pretty simple, if not exactly intuitive. We highly recommend reading the instructions. Not that we wasted a half hour trying to figure things out before looking at the easy to follow instructions on the sidebar.

[via WebWare]

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