Google Page Creator is on Notice

Whether Google is a godsend for small and mid-size businesses--or becoming a lumbering behemoth stopping innovation with their strangle-hold on internet eyeballs--is a topic for another post (and tell me if you'd like my take).

I've used Google Apps--the hosted tools from Google that started with "email and calendar for your business" since its beta launch. Over time they have opened more "applications" to Google App users. Recently we rolled out RightSprite.com using Google Page Creator as a stop-gap measure to get a homepage in time for the iTunes launch of our iPhone application Sudoku.MD. It's a bit hacky with a cumbersome UI, but it did the trick to get some basic content up quickly. One particular hackiness is their URL naming scheme. When you create a page you name it and then Google Page Creator comes up with the URL. Fine--so you name things carefully; however, try and copy a page and it gets named the original name plus the number '2'. Not great when optimizing URLs for Google SEO love. So I turned to google to see how to rename a Google Page Creator page.

A quick search for help turned up a tremendous amount of new-to-the-internet gems like: How do I make blinking text on my website? OK--not that bad, but just about. Basic tags, site search, are all well documented, but not what I need--change a publish URL path. If anyone tracks this down, I owe you a big favor--as I still haven't found the solution other than recreating the page as new rather than duplicating...

Along the way I did see a storm of topics covering Google's end of life for the product. People seem to be nostalgically attracted to the product--as Google's been relatively clear that they aren't abandoning the users nor data. See their post copied here:

Hello Google Page Creator Users,

We are no longer accepting new sign-ups for Page Creator because we

have shifted our focus to developing Google Sites. Google Sites offers

many of the capabilities of Page Creator along with new features like

site-level navigation, site-level headers, control over who can see

and edit your site, and rich embeddings like calendars, videos, and

Google docs. Simply put, we think that Google Sites offers a better

experience for creating web pages and websites. Consequently, we will

be shutting down Page Creator later this year.

If you are currently a Page Creator user, you can continue to use Page

Creator and your pages will automatically be transitioned to Google

Sites later this year. We are committed to making this transition as

smooth and easy as possible, and we will post more details as we get

closer to the transition time. You can also manually move your web

pages from Page Creator to Google Sites or other service providers at

any time.

Page Creator has always been a Google Labs project (Labs is our

"technology playground" where we let users test-drive experimental

products and give us feedback so we can innovate more quickly). Since

launching Page Creator in Labs, we've learned a lot and have

incorporated those lessons into Google Sites. We think the Labs

program, which allows users to try new things before they're fully

baked, lets us innovate faster and ultimately create the best possible

products.

We seriously thank each and every one of you who have taken the time

to use, write about, offer suggestions, and become passionate about

Google Page Creator.  Sites will be an exciting way to continue and

extend the great things you've been doing; we can't wait for you to

start using the service.

Sincerely,

Mike and the Google Page Creator and Sites Teams