Just noticed that Google is promoting its own WYSIWYG website creation tool.

Will it kill demand for website professionals or do you think this will simply create more interest in website design in general and thereby grow the market place.

Will it kill off most of the other WYSIWYG webbuilder tools out there?

Will it kill demand for website professionals

No way. Just because you can use a WYSIWYG tool, does NOT make you a web designer any more than owning a copy of Photoshop!

Will it kill demand for website professionals

No more than the Yahoo! site builder did when that was made publicly available.

A true WSYIWIG website build yer own frickin website tool won't exist until we figure out how to replace HTML. We have XHTML, but HTML is a 90's technology that just hasn't developed to today standards, and isn't very efficient. Ask any graphic designer what they think about IE6 html layouts and they will answer your questions about the difference between browsers and the way they display webpages.

I'm not the best programmer on the block, but I know there is a better, more efficient way to display information, consistently across browsers. It will happen at some point, but right now it doesn't.

I think that Google could trump any kind of website creation software out there, ie. dreamweaver, because it is the internet in a sense. It holds a monopolistic hold on anything it wants, because 70% of searches route through google. A site created through google software would have excellent seo incentives as well as the best internet company in the world supporting it.

Not at all. No program or WYSIWYG editor can ever offer the freedom of having a custom design built. All this will do is skim off some of the businesses that want a very budget site. These companies probably wouldn't be willing to pay a decent price for true custom web design any way, so no real loss.

On another note though, has anyone figured out how to manipulate these to get mad SEO juice to our sites?

Just because you can use a WYSIWYG tool, does NOT make you a web designer any more than owning a copy of Photoshop

Do you think there's a danger of people coming to us for designs and then going off and using these tools to replicate a design? At the moment, as a new website designer, I'm very much at the "affordable" end of the market so must admit that I'm worried.

Originally Posted by johniman7

Not at all. No program or WYSIWYG editor can ever offer the freedom of having a custom design built.

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Very well said! And perhaps I think it will simply more on to create more interest in website design in general and thereby grow the market place. New to web designs will start from there but after a while realizing how awful it could be, they will start working on real web design works.

Well it will bring attention away from freelancers, who is to say that Googles stuff is any good? It is just the Google brand name.

Do you think Google will give serps preference to its own websites? That could affect things somewhat. Also, the free hosting takes monthly profits away.

Most people in business have learned that to succeed you must devote your time to what it is that you do best. They won't stop using web designers for the same reason they wouldn't drive a package across the state to deliver it when UPS will pick it up right at their door. Also, many people are as frightened to make a change to a live website as they are to speak in front of a large audience.

Agreed with johniman7 that they won't get truly artistic layouts either or something unique. However, maybe we will see less "website needed" ads wanting an 18 page website for "free at beginning" or "in trade for an old clock radio"...until a couple weeks later when their website starts making them millions on advertising as all websites do.

Yeah, I could do with less of that.

Then again, this and other forums may start getting loaded with 1-posters asking "I made a new web page for my bookstore but it is not number 1 on google when I search 'books'. Can someone pm me to help my site be higher ranked than Amazon in trade for an old clock radio? I'm not getting this CSS engines optimization stuff."

Originally Posted by LadynRed

No way. Just because you can use a WYSIWYG tool, does NOT make you a web designer any more than owning a copy of Photoshop!

I agree with this, however i know people who come to me all the time asking "I'm a bit hard up on cash at the moment would a % share in the business suffice?"

The answer is no.

What i'm trying to get at is if people are willing to try get a freebie, or not pay any cash for their website, they are going to give making it for free a **** good try. Which leads me back to the original question people using free software who are not web proffesionals aren't going to pay for our services anyway so what does it matter.

It sounded better in my head :P

Think thats a no then!

Hi, could you explain WYSIWYG please? haha, I'm a newbie,

In this internet driven age, your website is the most important medium to attract a customer and finally make a sale. Your website can either make or break your business which makes it very important that you have given this much thought and process. A Google site builder won't suffice for the demanding needs of big corporations, its not at all customizable and it's not as

And I would just like to make a ditto: Google Site builder is not the death of freelancers. No worries...

Google Sites is not that good anyway.

Absolutely not. No WYSIWYG editor, regardless of who makes it, will have any affect on the professional web design.

The ability to translate images/text/media into web formats (html, etc.) is only a fraction of what's necessary in pro web design.