Oops is the keyword.

The intro iteration of the Google Page Creator which will let you create pages at GOOGLEACCOUNTNAME.googlepages.com made its appearance last night and it’s cut out of the mold of GeoCities free hosting — minus the annoying ads, but plus the Google first launch oops! — and an annoying AJAX interface.

This thing will drive webmasters with even rudimentary skills batty. Is it even useful for those with no webmaster skills? I’ll leave that to those in the comments to reply. In the meantime, if you need your 10,000th free homepage and if you are willing to play hide and go seek with an Google Page Creator oops! page, here’s your chance.

First thoughts on the User Interface (UI)
- how the hell do you get into HTML mode in this thing? I like being able to type the raw HTML and using some three step wizard just to get an HTML link is time inefficient
- don’t click the link button anywhere near a link you’ve created — it erases the link
- if you highlight text and then press the link button it prefills the link space
- autosave feature is nice, but it timed out on me during the first use and then gave me a rather ominous: “your changes may not have been saved” message.
- no template editing, rather it’s like MSN Spaces where you have to choose from a list of very generic templates
- can also select whether to have one, two or three column for the chosen template
- 100 MB space
- there is an undo/redo button but I didn’t get a chance to actually test it out (keep reading)
- argh, don’t type your blog post in the same browser as you experiment with Google Page Creator, it crashed Firefox during the save routine. When I restarted the browser and logged back in I saw this:

Oops is right.

Repeated attempts would not let me in to complete the process of publishing my page. That did me in for this testing session. If/when I am successful in publishing My Scratch Pad you should be able to visit here: http://TDavid.googlepages.com/home — Someday. Maybe. I think that’s the address … grrr. I’ll have to update when I can log back into this which for the last few minutes isn’t working at all. They’re being hammered and the system seems to be folding like a cheap lawn chair.

Oops, oops, oops.

Others are saying
Oops! I couldn’t find a single positive review for Google Page Creator this morning.

Justin Rosenstein, Product Manager for the tool explains its genesis, via Search Engine Watch: “… the service was the result of frustration [Rosenstein] experienced when friends or family members wanted to create web sites but were stymied by technical challenges. He said that he assembled a team within Google to create a simple, easy to use tool as part of a “20% project,” in which Google engineers are encouraged to spend a day a week working on non-job related projects.”
Google Launches Geocities the 2006 version: “The service seems pretty basic at this stage, indeed I’d say more basic than Geocities was in 1996″
Nathan Weinberg: “I can’t say I’m too impressed. Google has recreated Geocities, only with more storage and no popups. Meanwhile, Windows Live Office does the same thing, also for free (although with more space restrictions) with the most robust web-based site editor I’ve ever seen (yes, I’ve been playing around with that beta, too).”
Dave Winer scores it a rather generous C: “Give me a ring when there’s at least some rudimentary content management in there.”
Garett Rogers from ZDnet: “This new tool would be great for anybody who doesn’t know HTML — but for those who do it can be quite frustrating.” I’m not sure I agree that it would be “great” for anybody, including those who don’t know HTML.
Drew McLellan: “Signup was painless, editing was painless, publishing was painless. The resultant markup? Painful.”
Rich Ziade: “There’s obviously not a lot new here.” Obviously.
Pat McCarthy: “Is it just another tool for Google to get as much data and usage as they can? Is it just another thing they’ll offer that will confuse the general web population? Or is it just another tool like Blogger that will be eventually used by spammers to create more crap? Thanks Google, I guess?”
Randfish: “These guys really do want to rule the www. I’m just waiting for Google hosting, Google worldwide free wi-fi and Google brain implants (black hats to be zapped hourly and twice at midnight).”
TechCrunch: “… this is not going to be a threat to the younger crowd who are all creating pages on MySpace, nor to the audience of millions of bloggers who already have their online presence, nor to the players in the CMS space who offer a whole lot more in functionality and power.”

Padded walls or Page Creation
Like most Google product/service launches in the last 12 months, Google Page Creator has its fair share of — oops! — usability problems. Scaling problems? Oops! Setting the bar pretty low on anything Google rolls out as first generation ‘beta’ is a must these days or risk being completely unimpressed (oops!). I’m sure Google Page Creator will get much, much better, but the early signs are using this interface to create webpage(s) is like sticking your dripping wet finger in an electrical outlet.

Oops.

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