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Google Pages Reviewed
Tam Hanna writes "We got access to a Google Pages review account. Get the full scoop on what Google Pages can do." The gist of it is that "Google Pages Is Not For You." It's for your mom ;)
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Of hundreds of slashdot readers as they feel betrayed by their great and perfect "Google", since this isn't for them.......
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
Nothing nuch to see here either.
http://davesboat.blogspot.com/
So I couldn't help but notice that this article is just a dupe.
Apparently, a link to a blog with a couple paragraphs and screenshots of a service that has been covered before is newsworthy. Not in my opinion.
Oh, and if you go to that blog that's linked in the article, there is a "Contact Us" tab which results in the same e-mail that the author of this article (Tam Hanna) linked to their name. This isn't a review, it's a "Oooh, this is neat" article which is odd considering I have a Google Pages account and it's not that neat--it's functional and simplistic but limiting. And please do notice the ads (some by Google) surrounding Tam Hanna's blog. So they'll be making some cash off the Slashdot effect. What a tool Slashdot has become.
If you want an example of something they rejected to bring you a duped article, here's one I submitted this morning that some of you may or may not care about:
About a week ago, Robert Jordan wrote a letter to Locus in which he stated he has amyloidosis. Amyloidosis is a rare blood disease that leaves patients with a median of one (no treatment) to four (with treatment) years left to live. He confirmed this on his publisher's website. This is devastating news for fantasy enthusiasts but on his blog he spoke about the Wheel of Time series: "Worse comes to worst, I will finish A Memory of Light, so the main story arc, at least, will be completed." Let us all wish him a permanent recovery--if he can write the epic tomes of the Wheel of Time, surely beating amyloidosis will be trivial.
My work here is dung.
looks like the page has allready been /.ed, any one got a mirror?
Neato... is this much different than say Geocities was? Just means myspace-like sites on google domains I think. Not my cup of tea.
more pages like this
Unless it allows page creation through one huge button entitled "MAKE WEBPAGE CLICK HERE" its not going to work for my mom.
In fact, now I come to think about it, she would have to a) Use a computer and b) Use the internet, first!
...not gonna happen
If this is for my mom, it must be really simple as my mom has dimentia :(
"Google Pages Is Not For You." It's for your mom
But what if I am my mom?!?
This guy's the limit!
I know I'll get modded down for this, but if Pages is for your mom, who is sendmail for? People with PhD's in computer science and maths?
"Sure there's porn and piracy on the Web but there's probably a downside too."
My mom is still trying to figure out why they plugged a typewriter and a rolling soapdish into the tv.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
What is the difference to other web hosters? Google Pages lets you create your site online, but it has neither MySQL, PHP, nor FTP support. You see its NO replacement for a common web hosting service, but it is almost PERFECT for users who want to publish their last holiday photos or theirselves. They need no knowledge about web hosting and HTML developing. Of course FTP is important for professional webmasters, but private users dont need FTP or MySQL. They need an good but easy web hosting solution.
My sig has been answered.
The gist of it is that "Google Pages Is Not For You." It's for your mom ;)
So you not only have summarized TFA FOR me - so I don't have to RTFA - AND you're saying it's nothing for anyone but a sporadic user... Why are you wasting space on slasdot?
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Did anyone really expect anything else? These kinds of webpages have a long history of being geared towards the mass-market, and the mass-market is semi-luddites. The primary market couldn't use HTML if their lives depended on it, let alone script anything. And one has to recognize that a site that does the things the average geek would want it to do would get too much traffic to give out for free. They can't really afford to have interesting websites on a service like this, or they'd go bankrupt.
Gadzooks.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
If his mom is a milf, she can probably use those looks to get some neighborhood boy to make a page for her, so she has much better ways at going about getting a website...
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
Correct heading:
The Slashdot Effect: REVIEWE@$@#%@%*NO CARRIER*
Registered Linux user #421033
Since I've spent the last couple of weeks failing to upload a 1.5mb pdf to my GooglePages account (despite the faq saying I should be able to upload anything up to 10mb, and having managed to upload 200k pictures without problems) I wouldn't consider it useful for personal file transfer.
I'd stick to your gmail account for that.
Page editors like this although great for people who don't understand page design and hosting, will inevitably just make it easier for everyone to dump more crap then there already is on the internet...
The gist of it is that "Google Pages Is Not For You." It's for your mom.
Hey - that's my motto too.
The gist of it is that "Google Pages Is Not For You." It's for your mom ;)
So it has a personal tech support agent and hand to hold built right into it?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
At yahoo, I have no problem to enter html statements, while at gpc i have to compose the html off line and upload the page. Of course 100Mb is far more than geocities 15Mb, but frankly, I had hoped for a webspace of 2Gb and counting.....
Google Pages isn't for your, its for your Mom.... IN BED
Seriously though, did anyone thing that Google Pages would be met by anything but annoyance and derision by the uber-geeks of the slashdot crowd?
Its like discussing Garanimals (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=garanimals) in a fashion forum. I wish they had those for adults... sigh...
Upload all your images and other binary files, and use this as the bulk storage server for your website. Keep the PHP somewhere else, and use the free bandwidth offered by Google. Wonder what the cap on transfer/month is, or if there is a restriction on outside referals...
Google pages is alright for me. I'm not a web designer, nor do I care about all the gizmos you can do. I just want to push pics and text to the web, and even a basic Wiki would be fine for me.
What I need, and Geocities doesn't provide, is a fast ad-free ajaxy interface and "one login", i.e. gmail/gtalk/whatever login.
"One login to rule them all..."
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Hmm well obviouly the page isnt being hosted by Google Pages if the site had been slashdoted. Hmm. If you got a page and played with it why not show it off. Obviously Slashdot it not for you (or your server).
Procrastinating life a way at a rapid rate of speed.
I've actually found this tool very usefull for starting out when designing webpages too.
It produces perfect cross-browser compatible seperation of CSS/HTML; no tables for one thing, and there's a whole bunch of template layouts to get started with (2 column. The rest just involves saving the source, tweaking the CSS to your own look & feel and adding content! Granted, the layouts are never exactly what you're looking for, but still, it's a good starting point.
Well done Google!
throw new NoSignatureException();
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/24 ... It's not for you
Shouldn't that summary end with "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!"?
Proud member of the American Non Sequitur Society. We might not make much sense, but boy do we love pizza!
The Google Pages is a great way to make a website in the time that you have. It's easy and clean. Most of the annoying part of a page (the spacing and layout) is done for you and you just add your content.
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
"Google Pages Is Not For You."??? Well, neither is tamspalm.tamoggemon.com.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
I've been trying for over 2 weeks now to access pages.google.com and all I ever see is..
500 - Google Page Creator Oops! Google Page Creator is having a little trouble right now.
This is not because of anything you did; it's just a little hiccup in our system that will hopefully go away soon. We apologize for the inconvenience, and recommend you try reloading this page. error.metadata.read
Is buying a Harley Davidson as your first motorcycle since you were 16 at age 49 a midlife crisis issue?
The haven't really bothered to look that deeply into Google Pages, but from what I see, it's a WYSIWYG web design client.
Anyone else see this as just a stepping stone to building a full featured word processor/desktop publishing client? Complete with built-in file manager.
Just another means of ad revenue. They'll figure out some way to get ad revenue out of this--why else would they do it?
Not really, my mom uses Front page to do her website for school. To be honest, this IS more for me. I don't classify myself as one of the elite uber geeks, who can code a webpage in perl while debuggin a SQL server and have time to post snarky remarks on /. at the same time. I HATE coding webpages. I can't think of a more boring exercise in the world. Why do you think there are so many poorly designed ones? People stop learing how to do. Its just a whole lot easier for me to post my 100 MB of internet trash to web when all the hard design work is done for me. I can post some pics, make some jokes that are funny to me and my friends, and still have time to go out and have a life that doesn't revolve around the glow of my laptop monitor.
Elitist ruin every application regardless of what its for. When did the web bcome a place where on the instructed and capable can play. Why shouldn't anyone with a computer and internet connect be allowed to have thier own special little place to play, celebrate their own life and enjoy making webpage? Do you truly think that thier 100 MBs of usage and 1 - 2 view per month is really going to affect the upload bandwidth of your cable modem causing that critical sword strike you launched at lord Razak to fall wrong ruining the last 6 months of your life? Get off your internet high horse and let people enjoy it.
I have been maintaining a website on sourceforge for years now. I had to create the pages, then tar them up and use scp to transfer the tarball to SF's server, then log in and untar it, change authorites on the files so they could be served, do minor corrections with vi, etc. Nothing challenging but tedious as hell. I would have probably released more files if I didn't have to update the website each time.
I decided that I wanted to simplify the website, put everything on one page, pretty it up with a stylesheet, etc. I had no time to do this. Then Google Pages came along and I was able to create my new website by doing copy and paste from the old website. I was able to try many different stylesheets before deciding on the one I wanted, and I published the website by pressing one button. This combined with what sourceforge gives me is exactly what I wanted.
You can check out the website at http://nicestep.sourceforge.net/ . (You'll be redirected to the google pages version from my original site.)
Maybe Google has a secret strategy to easily increase the quality of their search results.
1) Make it easy to create a useless crap webpage.
2) All crap webpage designers flock to Google Pages.
3) Google just blocks Google Pages domain from search results.
4) ??????????
5) Profit!
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
As someone who's relatively web-savy (I've used Dreamweaver and Flash extensively in the past and I've grown to loathe Frontpage) I've got to say that I think GooglePages is a truly awesome innovation. Sure - there's no one thing about it that's really that great. But think about the fact that they've bundled the web-hosting, domain-name, and web-creation all into 1 package, made it simple, and made it free.
This isn't just for people who don't can't learn HTML. This is for anyone who wants to get a decent site on the itnernet but simply has better thaings to do than to learn to make attractive web pages from scratch. Face it - the GooglePages look pretty sweet (especially compared to Geocities, etc.)
There are a lot of people out there who would benefit from being able to create and maintain their own webpages who simply don't have the time to learn more tech stuff. I tried it out and was immediately convinced it would work perfectly for my dad (an English professor - http://terryl.givens.googlepages.com/ ). He doesn't need SQL, PHP, etc. No messageboards, no forums, no online-shopping, no registering. Just text, images, and some pdf/doc docs.
My dad's a smart man. He could learn all about web hosting, html, etc. if he wanted to. But he's got a PhD in Comparative Literature and he's a litle busy with doing his actual job to start learning how to do tech stuff. There are lot of professionals and other busy people out there like him. They would benefit from a very simple web site. Not just simple to design, but simple to order (try explaining domain names vs. web hosting to most non-techies) and maintain. Not to mention free.
GooglePages is not rocket science - but in my opinion it goes a long way towards hitting the sweet spot where convenience and function are optimized for people who want to be able to make web pages with no serious training.
I also think it's not a bad idea for techies either, if you're too busy with other stuff. I'm working full time, I do consulting part time, I have my own small company on top of that, and I'm about to start a masters program. I don't have time to mess with a web site, but it's important to keep a presence on the web (resume stuff). GooglePages is perfect for that.
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
me: and she benches 250.
guy: peices?
me: peices?! No, pounds baby! POUNDS!
mom: I'll bring my tools. I start tomorrow.
The article is a bit sparse for a "review", but it does bring up some good points.
In other places, I have seen arguments that GooglePages is nothing more than a "Googlefied" version of GeoCities or AngelFire. While there is some truth to this, let's not forget two things:
1. GooglePages (currently) doesn't have any ads. Unlike GC or AF, there are no annoying "ad gadgets" that can really detract from the site content. GC and AF convey the notion of "Hi, you've reached my uber-free site that sports lots of ads because I'm too cheap to pay for a Web host." GooglePages simply conveys simple, clean content. Eventually, Google may include ads, but like all of their other products that include ads, they'll likely be very unobtrusive.
2. GooglePages doean't require any offline applications to maintain content. I believe either GC or AF required a download/install of an app to manage the pages. GooglePages is slick and quick, right from most browsers.
FInally, let's also not forget that GooglePages is not meant to replace full-blown hosting services. It's not a CMS, and it's not a Blog site. What it is, is a clean, simple, and fast way of posting simple Web pages. I really like the fact that I can create simple, ad-hoc pages. Yes, they are "canned" but they are also flexible. And if you want to upload your own HTML content, you are free to do so.
-Jim
http://googlepagestips.com/
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
What's really happened is that thousands of Slashdot fan boys where in their bedrooms furiously masturbating, and just about when they where about to climax, they read this and went all soft. Just like when mom walks in on them.
you insensitive clod!
Just a couple days before I planned to release the first alpha of my new toy (shameless plug), I get an invite from Google to join their Pages beta test. So I checked it out and immediately thought little of it.
Sure, it's a nice system, but I was actually hoping they'd have done something more along the lines of what psychograph does (or, will do when it's past alpha release). Pages seems rather limited when it comes to design elements, taking a rather cookie cutter approach to layout and templates. The only real advantage I see is, aside from the Google name, the storage volume they're giving away for free.
Yes, but it give me yet another chance to shamelessly pimp my Google Pages resume! And it's even slightly on-topic, if you squint.
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V
Comment of the year
I am your Mom, you insensitive clod!
Does anyone else find that this link takes them to the FBI homepage?
My browser reads the link correctly, but every time I click on it I get redirected to http://www.fbi.gov/
When I follow the link I end up at the FBI website. The url in my browser gets rewritten tor -review/
http://www.fbi.gov/?2006/03/29/google-page-creato
WTF?
Anyone else get this? I'm in the UK btw.
Looks like they didn't appreciate the extra traffic to their site, and now it redirects to the FBI website.
http://www.yeraze.com http://www.vizworld.com
I agree with LOKI If there are no bandwidth constraints, it WOULD be a good place to serve up a popular podcast...not that I have one but someone COULD...
The review REALLY isn't for us! Apparently the FBI feels very strongly about that.
"A statesman is a dead politician. Lord knows we need more statesmen." Opus
Either the FBI site was designed by an evil goldfish, or it doesn't support Firefox at all. I suspect both.
Black text on dark, dark blue that's probably supposed to look white, plus a pile of links all stuffed into what appears to be a "Best viewed by Internet Explorer [insert version] at [insert resolution]" page. In case it's not obvious, I detest pages that don't scale properly to the 1600x1200 I run my browser at, especially if they are unreadable on my browser.
I expect this crap on a 13-year-old's FrontPage site, but a government homepage?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
George W Bush has declared victory in Iraq.
Seems to me like Google is starting to run out of fresh ideas. If you'd like to see something really new, check out http://listring.com/
.......Ruining Everything and making geeks look bad. You can even buy the t-shirt - rumour has it that Mapquest just took a bulk delivery.......
https://comerford.net
*sigh*
Maybe there will be ads at some point, and maybe I'm just feeding a troll, but currently there are no Google ads on any *.googlepages.com web sites that I have seen so far.
Karma: Incomprehensible (Mostly affected by posting at +5, reading at -1, and metamoderating everything unfair.)
At first I thought I was missing the joke, then I went back and checked the URL's. Either they've been hacked, or they thought they'd be funny and redirect to http://www.fbi.gov/?2006/03/29/google-page-creator -review/. Either that or I've been hacked.
Hi,
i am editor at TamsPalm.
We currently have server problems. Probably someone hacked into our server and linked to the FBI site.
We'll try to fix this as soon as possible.
Alexander Gratz
.... someday .... Google Ads will make it onto Google Pages -- like AdSense for BLogger ...
Is anyone else getting linked to the FBI.gov website.. or is it just me =/
I clicked on the link and ended up here:
r -review/
http://www.fbi.gov/?2006/03/29/google-page-creato
BTW, there's no review there.
I have managed to fly under their radar until now. I check my lines.. oh so careful not to go to fbi.gov
Don't make waves... just an average peon citizen who votes Republican.
Oh my... where is my FOIL!!! Never enough FOIL!!!
*charlton heston like* Damn slashdot... DAMN THEM! *end charlton heston like*
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
(Since when to slashdotted pages start pointing to the FBI??)
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Greetings all, In the past, when a group (say, warez, etc..) has their website taken /.'d at almost the
down by the FBI, it's replaced by a redirect to the FBI's homepage. This
appears to have happened to this site also. When you look at the original link, without clicking it, it's correct.
When you click it, it's redirected with the same directory content as the
original site, but goes to the FBI site. Simply a case of a website that was
same time it was taken down by the G-men.
Could anyone give a rundown on how it compares to Microsoft Office Live? Their beta came out earlier than Google's. :0)
Neither of em are done, but I'm making two websites in Googlepages.
http://taadinc.googlepages.com/
http://gquigs.googlepages.com/
Blah. Maybe I don't belong on slashdot.
I'm not a web developer so why should I focus on site design?
It looks like Google had the FBI have the ISP shut down the site. It seems there is a rewrite of the entire Domain if you try to connect to it.
Knowing Google's relationship with the FBI, this smells like a cover up!
Perfect is the enemy of done.
Despite the fact that the sites are limited as far as scripting, I've found Google Pages useful for throwing up a few files when you need friends to access them, or if you need remote access to a few files because my modem upstream is too slow for the local server. Also, I agree with the others that the templates force people to make a clean site with descent layout unlike other sites (myspace comes to mind). Any idea if a Google Pages site can be affected by /.? As far as I know, the bandwidth is unlimited.
My mom doesn't have electricity, you insensitive clod! No, really. The electricity part, not the clod part. Well, you might be a clod, but my mom definately doens't have electricity.
I understand that /. is latently misogynistic, having read it for the past n years, but can we keep the mom-bashing to a minimum? Why is the word "Mom" used when "luser" is meant? It implies that moms are lusers, and that helps to perpetuate negative stereotyping about women in the computer industry. Also, it's a played out cliche which is no longer amusing. As a mom (and sysadmin), it's highly irritating/offensive to be continually confronted with this crap. Yes, most moms couldn't tell PHP from PCP, but neither can the average person. We have already have a word for the average person: luser. Let's not drag "Mom" into this. Imagine if we put other groups into this construction: "Package X is not for you, it's for [black|elderly|lesbian|midwestern] people". There is absolutely nothing in giving birth to a child which removes permanently one's ability to understand technology.
Today it's Digg which attracts these people, and Slashdot has improved immensely as a result. While it ain't perfect - too many dupes, and too many funny contributions get marked "-1 Troll" - I can't ever remember Slashdot being as good as it is now.
The default mode of discourse on Slashdot looks like this:
While Digg's default discourse looks like this: Digg's a game and a social club, which is cool if you just want to meet people who think exactly like you. It doesn't have great discussions though, because it's designed to encourage groupthink.Enough of the four-digit old-timers still contribute to Slashdot, too. Digg's never had wise tribal elders - and with the group reinforcement now so strong, it's not going to start attracting them now.
So we owe Digg a big Thank-You. ;-)
I hope this is only a Beta thing. It's kinda funny that they'd even consider embedding CSS considering how lean they make all their sites. I guess each page will have a different style and probably won't have many repeat visitors. But if many people visit more than one or two pages of a site, it would still probably save quite a bit of bandwidth.
Geocities is blocked in China. Google pages will rule the world--mark my words!