MetaChat - Hey - not bad!

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23 February 2006

Hey - not bad! Just checking out the brand new Google Pages wysiwyg page creator thingy (Matt's Mefi post here). You may have to refresh my link before you'll be able to see it, because there seems to be a bug that gives you a 404 at first, but it's super-easy, and not a bad little quickie pagemaker.→[More:]

This is not a blog creator, however; it makes static pages... no archives. I'm just wondering what to do with it, and what others will come up with. I haven't messed around with it much at this point, in terms of, for example, inserting my own css or anything, but somehow I have a feeling it may turn out to be useful.

post by: taz at: 06:28 | 33 comments

Your google page has some weird bugs on it.

Red and yellow anthropomorphized bugs.

posted by orthogonality 23 February | 06:38

True. Silly, happy bugs.

I'm really curious what people will do with this. I'm curious what I'll do with it. If anybody plays with it, please post your links here!

posted by taz 23 February | 06:46

All I can get is the four oh four. *sigh*

posted by mosch 23 February | 09:15

I've managed to break mine already. It keeps saying that my page is locked for editing by another user. (like who, smartass?) And then when I try to "break the lock" I get a fancy error message. Awesome.

posted by selfnoise 23 February | 09:17

Refresh, refresh, 404, 404.

posted by puke & cry 23 February | 09:23

Same here. Are we authorized to view your pages in the US? :-D

posted by WolfDaddy 23 February | 09:46

I saw it. Not bad.

posted by danostuporstar 23 February | 09:59

Heh. Miguel posted in the Metafilter thread.

I can't get into pages at the moment to try it out...

posted by killdevil 23 February | 10:05

Heh. Miguel posted...

OMG! Yawning Kitties!

posted by danostuporstar 23 February | 10:11

Wait, what?

I can have a home page, for free free free?

Wow. Google.

posted by Miko 23 February | 10:12

I just remembered how I used to have pages, like on Angelfire and stuff. That was painful.

This is a good thing, though. I've been meaning to set up a 'lobby' page, so people who search on my name can actually find me, instead of the porn star who has my same name.

posted by Miko 23 February | 10:16

You're not the porn star? Shoot!

posted by tr33hggr 23 February | 10:17

Sweet, taz!

And miko is way better than any silly porn star.

posted by matildaben 23 February | 10:18

Agreed. We are all better than porn stars.

posted by tr33hggr 23 February | 10:34

Much better.

posted by Miko 23 February | 10:38

I'm only better than the silly porn stars. I can't hold a candle to the serious actors.

posted by danostuporstar 23 February | 10:42

there aren`t many pornstars called dodgygeezer. but it`s only a matter of time.

posted by dodgygeezer 23 February | 11:05

Here's my start at it. I don't have time to work on it at the moment, but so far, so fine.

I think this is the moment when I finally give up the illusion of anonymity on the web.

posted by Miko 23 February | 11:06

Anyway, back on to the subject.

It's funny but static pages seem terribly old fashioned now. In a way I think this is just going to be the equivilent of a profile page and guess people will link from there to all their other stuff. Which is no bad thing. Just imagine that you get an e-mail from someone on a gmail account, feel nosey, and then look up their google page.

I'm guessing but I suppose the main point of all this is that google will have it's own patented and tested online html editor. A pretty useful thing for them to have.

posted by dodgygeezer 23 February | 11:10

The thing is, it may be old-fasioned, but it's terribly useful. I can't plunk down the money for decent design and hosting, though I know exactly what I'd want in my own site. So this is at least a way to have a stable 'address' on the web.

posted by Miko 23 February | 11:26

The thing is, it may be old-fasioned, but it's terribly useful.

Sure, that was more an observation than a criticism. Most of the pages on my personal site are static.

Thinking about it some more I guess it can't be long before they make it easy to drop in links to their other services. For example maybe a mail form that can be dropped in that means you don't need to link to your gmail address. Perhaps an easy way to embed video from their much maligned video service. Of course they already have an online feed reader so maybe they'll let folk drop feeds in too.

Or maybe they'll get bored of this really quickly and it won't change much at all. Who knows?

posted by dodgygeezer 23 February | 11:39

Hmph. Had to submit my email address so Google can notify me when they quit getting slammed with requests for new pages.

posted by deborah 23 February | 13:34

Nice start, Miko. Are the graphics your own, or does Google supply those as well?

posted by LarryC 23 February | 13:57

What deborah said. Although, hell, there's the blog, the blogger profile, flickr, etc - how many MGL pages does one intarweb need? I guess I could put up more pictures of my cat. *goes rummaging around in the depths of her hard drive* Hey! It's the homepage I made for my cat in 1999! With giant photos all over the place! Yeah!

posted by mygothlaundry 23 February | 14:08

Naw, the graphics are a Google template. I may play with it to see if I can change the colors.

posted by Miko 23 February | 14:17

That's really pretty, miko. It reminds me of something taz would create. :)

I'm on a waitlist too -- it'd be nice to have a comprehensive list of all the places on the web where I have junk lying around.

posted by tracicle 23 February | 19:35

w00t!

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 23 February | 22:51

Hmmm. MetaChat stripped my follow up (not a more inside) twice. That's OK, my music and limited design skills speak for themselves. I hope you dig my home page (seriously--I think this is great).

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 23 February | 22:54

Great, Miko and Cryptical!

It's really so fast and simple... I think they did a good job on the setup.

Since columned pages are a PI in the A to lay out, I'll probably use it for some sites that have a series of static pages with the same layout that need columns. That's one thing I can do with it.

I'm curious how Google sees this playing out.

posted by taz 24 February | 00:24

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 24 February | 00:45

heart taz.

This is pissing me off. Why can't I

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 24 February | 00:46

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 24 February | 00:59

I just KNEW IT! Ah well, untill tomorrow. More Google Pages, please. It's easy except when it isn't.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 24 February | 01:01

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