Google Page Creator beta
Published: 10 Apr 2006
The Google Page Creator beta allows you to design and post a quick Web page in a few easy steps. First, because it's still in development, you must sign up to try this service via your Gmail account. Once Google gives you the green light to try its Page Creator beta editing tool, you'll receive access to 100MB of hosting space and a domain name derived from your Gmail handle (such as gmail.google.com/ewenzel), plus space for your page on googlepages.com.
Google Page Creator uses JavaScript and AJAX technologies to present a largely drag-and-drop Web-page creation environment within your browser window. It's simple to use and great for producing basic Web pages based on the provided templates, although you can't include blogs, message boards or even simple forms. Google does allow HTML edits, but not enough to influence the layout of the entire page. Thankfully, the Google Page Creator beta produces clean CSS and HTML code (no messy Google-specific tags à la Microsoft FrontPage).
However, there are still some areas for improvement. For example, one template provided a horizontal divider that was impossible to move using the visual interface or by HTML editing. As a result, whenever we changed the style of the page, the divider remained, albeit obscured by text. Although Google Page Creator may be a good option for knocking up a quick placeholder Web page, the Microsoft Office Live beta provides more full-featured tools and also offers you a domain name. For professional Web editing, we recommend Dreamweaver 8 instead.
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