Wednesday, November 23, 2011

So Long, iWeb, RIP


I'm saddened by Apple's decision to discontinue iWeb, Apple's website development application. When Apple introduced iWeb in 2006 as part of its iLife suite of applications, I was looking for a simple platform to create and host a website of my own for a video production company I was starting called Action Touch Media. Earlier, I had experimented with Dreamweaver, a more professional website creation software applicaiton, but it was complicated and I didn't have time to master HTML. In contrast, Apple's drag and drop UI, beautiful templates and seamless publishing to MobileMe proved to be the ideal solution for me. In June, 2011, when I released my Stick Pick app, I had built my support website entirely using Apple's iWeb (not realizing iWeb's days were already numbered).
Although Apple plans to continue supporting iWeb and MobileMe through the end of June, 2012, I decided to cut my ties a little early. I have enjoyed iWeb for the better part of half a decade, but this week, I chose Blogger, a product and service of Google. Stick Pick's new support website is live, and the links have been updated in Stick Pick version 1.02.
I hope Apple decides to revive iWeb. Perhaps they will merge it with iCloud. Regardless, I chose Blogger for my new support website for several reasons: 1) Google seems committed to supporting the platform; 2) having used Blogger in the past, I'm familiar with the user interface; 3) Blogger's service is free; 4) You can now have multiple and easily navigatable pages with tabbed menus; and 5) it can be updated from the cloud! RIP iWeb.
What iWeb did well:
-iWeb offered a WYSIWYG UI; no knowledge of HTML required. You control it all: design and content.
-The Ecosystem: Integration with iLife applications
-One button publish to iDisk
-Ability to embed: YouTube and Paypal buttons
-Blog with comments
-Beautiful templates that made it look like you are a design expert.
-Ability to Customize

Of course, iWeb did have its limitations:
-You couldn't publish or update from the cloud; always had to be tied to your machine to publish updates!
-The problem with cool templates was that everyone began to use them and they all started to look the same.
Will you miss iWeb?

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