Google should be praised

a few makers posted/emailed told me they have a quick/easy place to post their projects and some did already.

I only wish this pages.google.com would offer 1GB of space so that I could host my podcasts there ;-)

Now the cool thing would be if you could host a .com address there, complete with e-mail hosting via gmail, and the ability to easily update the site with RSS feeds generated automatically via Blogger.

Then using Google Base, a business could sell products via their Google Pages site.

Now that would be cool and is probably the route that Google is going to go with this.

I cannot imagine that the barrier to small businesses having a website is cost. It may be a lack of need or a lack of knowledge.

So, the idea is that Google starts the conversation (since Microsoft gets no good press), and Microsoft gets the customers, since Office Live is vastly more powerful than Google Pages? Its a good strategy.

Steps:
1. Microsoft releases great product, gets no PR
2. Google releases simple, do-nothing version of same product, gets huge PR
3. Google backlash happens
4. Microsoft product "discovered" by customers

Microsoft does such a bad job with PR, I guess its better off relying on Google to do the job.

Microsoft is big and evil. I think you're onto something there!

The majority of local business do not have websites, but the ones that do want sites as unique as their business. Templates and "username.googlepages" domains are not the way to go. Truthfully, I haven't looked at office live too much, but if it offers "real" domain names, it's already a step ahead.

JD: Office Live does.

The bigger picture is that Google Page Creator may turn into a combination of (Microsoft's) FrontPage with Yahoo's Geocities.

While a take on Geocities may not bother Yahoo much, a take on part of Microsoft's Office suite may stir things around.

I think Windows Live has already shown these capabilities and more. It's been recently made available in beta also, before Google Pages. And I agree with you Nathan, there is a lot more talk about Pages than there should be. Although I find it strange that Robert didn't make any of these points in his post.

I think Google's experiencing this kind of response because they set the bar so damn high with Maps & Mail. Since then, you can easily argue that most (if not all of their subsequent efforts) have actually worked AGAINST them and eroded their brand. THe bar was set pretty high.

I think the Q's Google needs to ask are : "should we put this out? how does it affect perception? Is the benefit (money or otherwise) going outweigh the cost now or down the road?"

Ovi: why do you wonder?
1. easier access to google's product.

2. i am sure lesser bugs on google pages :) (i haven't tested live beta though - but i am testing live mail -buggier than when gmail was released)

3. track record - MS tries to lock-in. Google is trying but people haven't seen through yet.

So, google decides to make web development easy for the great unwashed. Thousands of people trying to eke out a living doing this, are suddenly blown out of business, by the G behemoth. Of course, have a tool does not equate to having the skill.

Tens of thousands are now editorializing via blogs. Does this make them any more competent as journalists? No...

Anyone and his dog, in IT, can and will call themselves a project manager. But how many understand the math behind critical path analysis? Very few.

Thousands of C++ Programmers think they understand OO. Yet have never experienced LISP or Smalltalk.

We are heading into a knowledge death spiral, everyone is becoming a Jack of all trades and a master of none.

Welcome to my world misterq (I'm a mechanical engineer by profession) :)

It should also be noted that many businesses operate on the web without a domain name, just take a look at Ebay.

So the domain name part of it isn't all important, many of these micro businesses don't always understand the significance of having there own domain name.Many actually benefit from not trying to use a domain name, and instead rely on the built in infrastructure like ebay's market place.

Once a company goes out into their own domain, suddenly they have to spend much more time and resources on it, I don't mean just hosting and registration but more time and expertese spent on promoting, optimising, advertising their domained site.. This is tough stuff for small business that don't have that expertease

I guess what google and Microsoft could do is make that part easier also. and maybe target those web based but domainless micro businesses more accurately.

(As well as providing itegrated web based office tools, kinda of a one stop shop)

just my $0.02
regards
Al

It is wonderful what Google is doing in their effort to widen the web like you said, but they underestimated their own muscle. With how the word of Pages spread like wildfire, it was down before it truly lifted off. Hopefully they'll be back up in adequate time so those who have just heard of it dont forget it.

"Now the cool thing would be if you could host a .com address there, complete with e-mail hosting via gmail"

Hey Chris ya its called Office Live, MS has already done this hosting,easy website tools and mail and all free, google is playing catchup because they caught wind that ms was doing this

Remember That Google is very popular in the ECHOsphere??????I mine Blog....

Yes, but I'll bet that Google won't be pulling the "Well, you can use the basics with any browser, but for the really useful stuff, you have to use IE"

Microsoft just can't not hit that pipe.

Everybody seems to praise Office Live. It might have cool features, but I am stunned by the low quality of the HTML that it produces. It looks like those pages have been coded in 1997. No kidding.

How can Microsoft release such an ugly thing? Nobody looks at the code anymore?

As long as corporations like Microsoft, Apple, and Google keep putting out products that generate the worst HTML in the history of mankind, the more they're just going to hold the web back from what it could truly be.

Lame-ass excuses for horrid markup went out of style with 2002. Get with the program people! Ditch the 1996 tag soup, and start using some valid markup.

I tried out the Google Page Creator and think it's pretty decent, and this is from someone who designs web sites for a living. That being said, it's limited in scope, but so are the average joes who are the target audience for this thing. Now I'm no Google-worshipper, their video store and even Google Earth left me cold, but this Page Creator makes web design as easy as Note Pad.

OK, I just created a very basic webpage with Office Live. Here is what I get:

- HTML document: 21KB
- 3 style sheets: 34KB
- 11 javascript files: 76KB

That's 131KB without the images for a 100% static webpage (what is that javascript doing?).

The Office Live people probably spent millions in market research to figure out that 45% of the small businesses do not have a website. Nobody told them that a good part of them is still on dial up?

Couldn't agree more....

OK, so now many business DO have a website, and some of them have or link to a nice map of how to get there... but what's really missing is the "Parking direction"...!

Reminds me of AOL Homepages, anyone using this for a biz, sure ain't caring about marketing, just get a domain and hire some competent designers, but you know what, if they have existed this long without a web page, maybe they don't need it. Google praised, oh brother. Google sure is striking out with all this beta'ish crap. And Microsoft copy-catting a strike-out, double irony.

I find it funny, when it's being universally panned, as a return to evil godforsaken 1997 HTML, that Scoble bends over backwards to praise them. The phrase 'killing with kindness' plays out here.

Praise just for BEING there? Ummm no, quality counts. Should you praise the late Yugo for attempting to make automobiles. They were "trying to do something". It's NOT the attempt you praise, it's the END RESULTS. Now coming from someone at Microsoft, easy to see why 'attempts' are valued higher than RESULTS.

I think this is great! I think this is going to help make the web a prettier place, in terms of amateurs building content and design. Hopefully people will be less inclined to make geocities like sites.

Isn't it Office Live that has the 1997 HTML? Google's HTML well XHTML to be precise is pretty clean.

So, how come no one from the Office Live team showed up last night to demo at the SF Tech Session? A lot of people were talking about it, trying to figure how it fits in.

Thats Crazy sNet

I agree with you Robert but the on thing that may happen with more small business using the Google page creator is incongruent marketing messages such as visit us on the web at www.mycompany.com or email at company@myisp.com. I see this up here in Calgary on the rear windows of cars all the time. You have to wonder how many small business know or care that this is a mixed message on the quality of their product.