22 ms·

Google Web Designer

1126 points by jaysonlane 13y ago

ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
You know what would be useful? An app like this from Google that outputs Google index-optimized code for SEO purposes. In one fell swoop Google could educate the masses as to what search engines consider "good" code and simultaneously destroy the "machine-gun-the-fish-in-a-barrel" approach marketing people use for SEO. Instead, we get Adobe Motion 2.0 HTML5 Street Fighter Edition Now Featuring Blinky-Movey-Thingies.
xSwag 13y ago
I'm really happy that it looks like Photoshop and not like GIMP. Good UI is essential for widespread adoption.
- cbhl 13y ago
  It's necessary, but not sufficient. Look at Microsoft Blend for Visual Studio (formerly Microsoft Expression Blend), for example.
  - topbanana 13y ago
    I don't think it was such a bad tool, it just targeted a dead-end platform (Silverlight)
    - heartbreak 13y ago
      And a not-so-dead-end platform (WPF).
      - topbanana 13y ago
        Well, that's been killed off too effectively. All focus is on WinRT (that hardly any are using)
dougaitken 13y ago
Let's hope this isn't the new Dreamweaver!
- leishulang 13y ago
  Dreamweaver generates a lot of nested tables and I don't think google will do that sort of thing. (do like bootstrap though)
  - sigzero 13y ago
    If the source code of that page is any indication then "no" it doesn't look like it is generating tables. It is using div etc.
  - josefresco 13y ago
    DW doesn't "generate" tables ..maybe you're thinking of exported Fireworks images? Those generate tables to create "sliced" images.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- LandoCalrissian 13y ago
  Is Dreamweaver heavily used anymore? I don't honestly know, I haven't worked with anyone that used it in at least 7 years or so.
  - josefresco 13y ago
    I started with DW back in 1999 as a crutch while I learned markup and styling. Gradually phasing out the visual editor over the years I got so accustomed to the code editor (highlighting/shortcuts) that I still use (and prefer) it. DW got/gets a bad name because of it's visual editor (and therefore lower bar of entry) but it's no better/worse than any other visual editor.
  - bliker 13y ago
    Sadly it is introduced as industry standard for many students. Mainly for design schools where they also require Photoshop.
stekoz 13y ago
"Available for Mac and PC". I'd say it doesn't sound very attractive.
- medicine23 13y ago
  why
  - mlisbit 13y ago
    no Linux support, I'm assuming - GNU/Linux is my preferred workspace environment.
    - gizmogwai 13y ago
      But not the preferred workspace environment of targeted audience: marketers that create ads.
    - AlexeyBrin 13y ago
      You could always try to run it in WINE (I've seen people running Windows only apps this way in Ubuntu, e.g. MS Office, Noetpad++).
      - ben0x539 13y ago
        But you'd have to go out of your way to get your hands on it since the Download button is inert unless their javascript can confirm that you are in fact using Windows or so. Doesn't seem to work with wine's built-in browser, and I couldn't get past the clickwrap EULA with an old chrome-based browser running under wine either.
  - TheEskimo 13y ago
    Doubtlessly he's bemoaning the lack of support for linux. I would also like linux support, but it still looks like an impressive suite regardless.
    - 13y ago
choult 13y ago
You can color me skeptical until we see actual HTML5/CSS spit out by this - regardless of who writes it, I'm always doubtful of the efficacy of any automated/wizard-driven code generation in the general sense. I'll lump this in with Dreamweaver for now.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- danesparza 13y ago
  It looks like the site itself was generated with it. You can do a view/source to get an idea of what it might spit out.
- mr_spothawk 13y ago
  This is exactly my feeling. If it's cranking out noisy code, then I don't want anything to do with it.
  - Recoil42 13y ago
    It's clearly meant for the advertising space, so compression is actually what is being desired here.
snide 13y ago
Think this is mostly an alternative for Flash in display ads (which still primarily use Flash for animation). Guess is based on it being announced through Doubleclick's twitter stream. https://twitter.com/doubleclick_pub/status/384715311960051712 https://twitter.com/doubleclick_pub/status/38471531196005171...
- mediascreen 13y ago
  It certainly looks that way. The name seems like a bit of an overreach though - "Designing the web" = creating animated ad banners?
  - virtuz 13y ago
    Baby steps.
- rjvir 13y ago
  Correct. In the "Create New File" dialog, all of the default options are for Google ad units: http://cl.ly/image/2V0n2W1i041v http://cl.ly/image/2V0n2W1i041v
ChrisArchitect 13y ago
so why did they make this? flipping thru the help docs, seems to be for creating responsive ads (not a surprise I know) -- so they want to kill off flash but maintain the animations and flash ad style things out there for youtube and what not?
- slig 13y ago
  Ads with animations are more profitable because more people click on them. Since flash is dying, they want an alternative that runs anywhere, so they can display interactive ads anywhere and profit more.
madeofpalk 13y ago
Interesting that this is being released as a native app, rather than a web app. It uses Chromium Embedded and a fairly custom UI, so it looks like it's all HTML anyway. Maybe they packed it up as an app to get better FS permissions (amoungst other things).
- djim 13y ago
  i was surprised by this as well since google has moved away from desktop apps to web apps with a few exceptions.
  - jbigelow76 13y ago
    If Chrome is the host Google will be perfectly happy to move back to desktop apps with a cloud storage back end. It's easier to corral users that way.
tareqak 13y ago
Makes sense to me. Easier to make websites --> More websites --> More ads --> More money for Google.
- camus 13y ago
  That's why google wanted flash on Android at first place , ads+drm. Google always like flash unlike Apple and even ship with it's own Flash plugin. But Adobe decided Flash was too expensive to maitain on mobile and fired 700 employees and outsourced the rest of the Flash team to india. The remaining employees are now working on Bracket (...). And Sencha is more profitable than Flash division at Adobe.What's left of Macromedia? nothing, They should have stuck with Livemotion and Golive ... lol The result is that the last version of Flash (CC) has less features than the previous ones ( some drawing tools gone...)
kylelibra 13y ago
Cue the sensational headlines heralding web developers becoming obsolete. These tools keep getting better. Instead of rendering web developers obsolete, they just force everyone to be better.
didgeoridoo 13y ago
Might be useful to let marketing department guys crank out ad banners without bothering any devs. I'm still waiting for http://macaw.co/ http://macaw.co/ for responsive site & application prototyping.
- choult 13y ago
  In my experience, that will also unfortunately encourage them to crank them out without any designers ;)
- dombili 13y ago
  As someone who's trying to get into web development (not professionally), apps like Macaw makes me want to buy a Mac. Windows is so limited compare to Mac in this regard.
  - teleclimber 13y ago
    It sounds like Macaw will (eventually) come to Windows: https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896 https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896
    - dombili 13y ago
      That's great to hear! However my point still stands. Windows is really behind Mac in regards to development software (or any type of software in general). Maybe I'm underestimating the Windows ecosystem, but that's been my observation over the years. I'd like to be proven wrong.
  - subsection1h 13y ago
    Macaw seems like a tool for web designers who are afraid of code. If you want to be a web developer, use a text editor. If you want to be a good web designer, use a text editor and learn Sass or Less. If you want to be a mediocre web designer, use whatever.
    - dombili 13y ago
JaakkoP 13y ago
If Google decides to couple this up with their cloud services, I wonder what does this announcement mean for Weebly?
simonsarris 13y ago
The most important feature of this (to Google(?)) is the built-in ad editor. It's the last point on the feature list page, but it's very telling that it's the first thing on the "Create New" screen. https://support.google.com/webdesigner/answer/3261498?hl=en&ref_topic=3261495&rd=1 https://support.google.com/webdesigner/answer/3261498?hl=en&...
- cbhl 13y ago
  I think that makes sense -- a lot of Google's (paying) clients have been using Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash to make ads for years; if Google wants them to adopt HTML5 technology they need to make tools that are as easy to use as Flash was.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    Adobe has Edge Animate for that and Adobe Flash can export to HTML5 as well. http://html.adobe.com/edge/animate/ http://html.adobe.com/edge/animate/
    - camus 13y ago
      Given Adobe track record on betrayal, and borderline extorsion schemes , I would not even touch their tools anymore. They had they chance with Flash,Dreamweaver and Fireworks... Flash = almost dead Dreamweaver = Zombie mod Fireworks = Dead despite its powerfull features like jquerymobile skinning,project files as png files,games graphics, native app design, easily customizable through js. Thank you Elop (who sold MM to Adobe ), thank you Adobe.
      - lostPixels 13y ago
        As a former Flash Developer, I will never put my time and money into learning Adobe software again.
        exodust 13y ago
nlh 13y ago
Fantastic. I've been waiting for this to happen, and not the least bit surprised it's coming from Google. I've been super excited for the HTML5/Canvas/JavaScript takeover of web interactivity from the grips of Flash, but the one thing I kept seeing in almost every single tutorial is that it's mostly - still - hand-coded stuff. That's cool for programmers, but the reality is that the "mass" market (among designers) isn't going to really adopt HTML5 until there are well-established visual tools. Procedural graphic design is a fun exercise, intellectually interesting, and can have some amazing results, but the market for that type of design work is really limited. This should help drive a real, solid, mass-designer-market adoption of the new standards. Cool.
anderspetersson 13y ago
I got very surprised when I saw the download-button. Will the Chromebooks be able to run this?
micampe 13y ago
Interesting that this is a desktop program and not a web application. Not even "coming soon to your Chromebook".
- ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
  I'd laugh if I didn't think it was so pathetic. Google seems to have more of a disconnect in what each hand is doing than Microsoft...and that's saying a lot.
wil421 13y ago
Ugh, glad I have a grip on HTML/CSS now and dont have to rely on tools like this or Dreamweaver. I think Dreamweaver actually helped me code better because after class I would always work at cleaning up the shoddy Dreamweaver auto-generated code. Kids kept wondering why I always passed validations after writing code, I stopped using Dreamweaver unlike everyone else in that class.
wakkalakka 13y ago
This sounds a lot like Tumult's Hype: http://tumult.com/hype http://tumult.com/hype One of the primary complaints about Hype is that its HTML / CSS / JS output isn't very clean. I wonder if Google's tool produces better output. EDIT: Looks like not: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6470640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6470640
- tumultco 13y ago
  Tumult Hype's exports are essentially 3 lines of HTML so it is easy to embed in other documents and output mostly takes the form of JSON animation data and a JavaScript runtime file. It isn't meant to be hand-edited or even read, since we minify heavily to keep file sizes extremely small. While everything has its tradeoffs, we went with this approach because: - Our app has a lot of animation and interactivity capabilities not meaningfully expressed through anything but JavaScript. For example, we don't use CSS3 Animations nor transitions because they aren't powerful enough (pausing, synchronization, etc.). - We have better control over how we express the DOM to the browser. There's plenty of browser bugs or incompatibilities which sometimes require us to on-the-fly change the DOM structure or which properties we are using. - The user could easily bork the output so it could not be read back in - No tool will ever produce output that will appease everyone :) We provide lots of hooks in and outside of the runtime for your own JavaScript and HTML so you can still customize quite a bit. So it isn't that our output isn't very clean (in fact I'm quite proud of the runtime and how we've been able to add features without increasing bloat); it is that edits are meant to happen from the app itself.
  - wakkalakka 13y ago
    Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I do in fact agree it is probably unreasonable for people to expect automatic code generation to be hand-editable without disturbing the machine-editable workflow, but it is something that comes up a lot. I see that Google's tool also seems to produce rather inscrutable output (see my edit to my original post). This does sound like one of those really hard problems where is pretty much impossible to balance the needs of the machine-modifiability with human-readability. Thanks again for the reply!
JacksonGariety 13y ago
Downloaded. Opened. Drew a rectangle. Filled with #FF0000. It spit this out: https://gist.github.com/JacksonGariety/6766626 https://gist.github.com/JacksonGariety/6766626 (after struggling and realizing CMD+S wasn't saving my file) I feel sorry for whoever was tasked with making this application.
- e12e 13y ago
  Uh-oh. So, while Frontpage just broke useragent stylesheets (all those sites setting the text-color, and assuming background was white, like it was in IE) -- this'll break what's left of the semantic web? I wonder how well google handles crawling these things...
  - sudhirj 13y ago
    Google has long been able to crawl pure javascript pages - I actually think their their crawler is just headless Chrome.
    - deleted 13y ago
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    - deleted 13y ago
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  - malandrew 13y ago
    The semantic web in the way that this tool breaks it has been dead since we had table-based layouts and div-hell further buried that notion. However, that doesn't mean that the semantic web is dead. I somewhat agree with Alan Kay when he said the web was built by amateurs [0]. The problem with the original design is that only documents were considered, when there are actually two citizens: documents and the apps used to display those documents for different contexts and usages. The original design only considered documents in one static use case, a desktop browser. There are two levels of semantics: document semantics, which the web got right and that xhtml 2.0 might have made even richer, and app semantics that were completely ignored by the semantic web crowd to the point where the app people hijacked the plans of those pushing semantic documents. HTML5 Twitter isn't a document. The 1 to 1 correspondence between the window object and the document object is all wrong. There should have been a 1 to 1 or 1 to many relationship between window and documents. When there is a 1 to many relationship the window object reflects only the semantics of apps and within it, there should be many documents, one for each tweet displayed by the HTML5 twitter app. [0] http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/interview-with-alan-kay/240003442 http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/interview-wit...
johnhess 13y ago
As an engineer it's interesting to be on the receiving end of software replacing a bit of what you do. I suppose the market will always incentivize replacing expensive labor (high wages for developers cut both ways). Granted, there have long been wysiwyg editors and this is a relatively simple part of the job of a web dev, but it's just another example of software eating the world.
hiyou102 13y ago
Another product without linux support from Google. This is getting frustrating.
- zalew 13y ago
  Yeh, it sucks. But don't worry, when enough people get hooked on it, they will move it online, before integrating it into google+.
  - outside1234 13y ago
    Or end of life it. One of the two. Good luck!
- k_bx 13y ago
  It usually happens when they buy something that's already non-linux ready.
shacharz 13y ago
This is nice, I wish google's web designer was an actual WEB app
tommis 13y ago
Judging from the output, Google has resurrected Frontpage 2000...
davexunit 13y ago
No thanks, Google. I'll use free software to make web pages.
- gwdengineer 13y ago
  Hi, Google Web Designer is free. ;o) Thanks, Google Web Designer team
  - davexunit 13y ago
    I haven't been able to find a link to download the source code, and the web page doesn't mention the license anywhere. I think you may have misinterpreted "free software". In any case, thank you for trying to help.
  - Slackwise 13y ago
    I think they meant actual free software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software Unless your wink is an attempt to mock them.
    - gwdengineer 13y ago
      Hi, No, we misunderstood what davexunit meant by "free" and are sorry for the confusion. Thanks, Google Web Designer team
  - pritambaral 13y ago
    Hi, The poster definitely meant free-as-in-speech software. Nevertheless, I'm unable to test it right now since it is not available for desktop Linux. I take it from a few comments here that Google Web Designer uses Chromium Embedded Frame. I have ported Adobe Brackets, which uses Chromium Embedded Frame too, and it's not too difficult. Hardly a day's work. Is there a date when Google Web Designer will be available for desktop Linux? Thanks, Pritam Baral
molbioguy 13y ago
Couldn't open existing HTML files. Seems files must be created in GWD to be edited.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
radley 13y ago
Mac users may find the Windows layout confusing or frustrating.
toblender 13y ago
Well there goes my web design job...
ferdo 13y ago
This will die a quick death just for its deceptive name. It should be called Ad Designer.
- rch 13y ago
  http://lmgtfy.com/?q=web+designer http://lmgtfy.com/?q=web+designer Edit: The down votes are warranted, but I would wager that there at least a few people who will take the 'I need a web designer; search for same; well maybe I'll try this' path. That's all.
- loceng 13y ago
  It's fairly easy to turn it into a full-fledged site design application.
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
  Perhaps it should actually be called Flash Pro for HTML5 - that's what I see it as.
tumultco 13y ago
This appears to be a fork of the Ninja Authoring Tool which was made by Motorola Mobility over a year ago as part of the Montage project. Now Google owns Motorola Mobility. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-web/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-...
- ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
  Historical context, thanks!
ss64 13y ago
Well I suppose 'better than Flash' can't be a particularly high bar to jump.
mason55 13y ago
I tried to open an existing html file and got: "Unable to open file due to the following error: The file was not created in Google Web Designer." So, basically, Google is just creating their own proprietary format that's built on HTML. Even if you are just using it to construct ads you'll be somewhat locked-in to this toolchain. Since HTML is inherently open people will be able to build converters but it's still a bad precedent.
- SkyMarshal 13y ago
  As a replacement for open web frameworks perhaps it's a regression, but as a replacement for Flash I'd say it's a step forward.
- krapp 13y ago
  >So, basically, Google is just creating their own proprietary format that's built on HTML. Even if you are just using it to construct ads you'll be somewhat locked-in to this toolchain. Since HTML is inherently open people will be able to build converters but it's still a bad precedent. Adobe's Muse does a similar thing - if you publish to Business Catalyst using it it locks you into a proprietary "format" that forces you to stay on the platform and edit the site through Muse, or else it no longer 'compiles.'
  - noamhello 13y ago
    Not sure where you got that info. Muse generates standards based HTML and CSS, you can take the HTML and CSS files and do what ever you want with them. Note, at that point your editing code, not visually designing. Even if you've published to Business Catalyst, you can just take your file and export to HTML and CSS later on.
    - krapp 13y ago
      I'm willing to push past my visceral dislike of WYSIWIG editors to try it out again. I need to get a Cloud account sooner or later.
- gwdengineer 13y ago
steren 13y ago
Reminds me a similar tool by Sensha: Sensha Animator. http://www.sencha.com/products/animator/ http://www.sencha.com/products/animator/ Do you know if Google developed the technology themselves or if it is from an acquisition?
- tumultco 13y ago
  It looks like this is based on the Ninja Authoring Tool which is an open source project, but also Google would have gotten as part of their acquisition of Motorola Mobility. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-web/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-... https://github.com/mikestowe/ninja https://github.com/mikestowe/ninja
BigChiefSmokem 13y ago
We need a head-2-head with Adobe Edge: http://html.adobe.com/edge/ http://html.adobe.com/edge/
mikhuang 13y ago
Finally! A tool to direct people whose websites I don't want to make to use.
oscargrouch 13y ago
You know what this looks? Chromium OS will be integrated in Android, as a HTML5 application framework.. running side by side with the Dalvik apps.. So they are investing in productivity tools for people to create apps for this new platform that will make it soon in the Android platform This is a nice strategic move from Google.. since their ecosystem(the one they profit over) are the web.. the app ecosystem may be a shot on its own foot, since they cant control the cloud consume behavior by the device owners on apps in the same way they can on the web "platform".. (like the android forks from amazon and possible other big players)
- dudus 13y ago
  That was a long stretch there pal.
  - oscargrouch 13y ago
    Not if you remember who is in charge from the android ecosystem now.. there's certainly a fusion movement between Android and Chromium OS happening.. So its easy to think of some HTML app ecosystem showing up in android, without switching off the current Dalvik ecosystem..
neave 13y ago
This will almost solely be used for making ads. It’s Google’s answer to Apple’s iAd Producer https://developer.apple.com/iad/iadproducer/ https://developer.apple.com/iad/iadproducer/ and Adobe’s Flash Pro.
jhawk28 13y ago
My corporate network policy blocks the installation. They need a standalone install that doesn't require google update.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
aroman 13y ago
This is what Adobe should have created when they realized Flash was going to die.
the1 13y ago
comes with rootkits. a typical googleware
csears 13y ago
Installed. Tried it. Uninstalled. Interesting, but unless you're designing ads, this release is probably not worth your time.
abalone 13y ago
Ok, the war is on. Does anyone know of a good HTML5 ad blocker? Flash was awesome. It made it really easy to block animated ads. My browsing experience had been wonderful ever since I installed a Flash blocker a few years ago. Also did wonders for my battery life. Please, please help my browsing experience remain wonderful. Thanks.
- andybak 13y ago
  It's going to be trickier as just blocking a single plugin is no longer viable. I think an domain blacklist a la Adblock is probably the best idea but that won't help you with ads that are already present in the DOM on pageload.
  - McGlockenshire 13y ago
    Thankfully, AdBlock and friends can also target DOM elements for hiding or outright elimination.
    - ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
      ...which they have gotten overly aggressive on; creating a myriad of issues with normal website functionality.
      - aestra 13y ago
        I haven't found a significant example of this, and I've been browsing with Adblock Plus for years. The only place I've seen issues with is some video streaming sites, when it interferes with streaming ads.
      - sequoia 13y ago
        Can you give an example? The only issue I've ever had with ABP et al. is when I'm working on a site and forget to turn it off & I think my site is broken (because ad doesn't load). :p
        13y ago
robodale 13y ago
look at the code it produces. It makes MS FrontPage look clean and elegant.
jneal 13y ago
I think this looks like a great tool. I can almost imagine this being built 100% for ads, and then someone higher up at Google saying "Wow, this thing is so powerful it could build websites" and then it morphed into this existence. Just pure speculation but it's a little weird to call it Google Web Designer when everything else puts ads front-and-center.
- talles 13y ago
  I second that. The support page almost screams that.
tommaxwell 13y ago
No Chromebook support? Interesting.
anilshanbhag 13y ago
They should learn a thing or two about marketing Everytime I see a google product - it mentions ads !
bluedino 13y ago
Would this work as a tool for indie game designers instead of Flash?
radley 13y ago
Looks like it's a rebrand of Motorola's Ninja: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-web/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-... via @ElliotGeno
hamorim 13y ago
Had my attention for only three minutes!
rfnslyr 13y ago
Please for the love of god less of these generated development tools. I remember having to clean up a frontpage/dreamweaver generated codebase, kill me...
adrianlmm 13y ago
I would call it "Google adds designer" instead.
acchow 13y ago
I wish this were a self-hosed web app.
Canutesun 13y ago
Is this "any platform" as long as it runs Chrome? Getting tired of more and more Google products apparently not being tested to work in Firefox.
- eugenesu 13y ago
  Nope, I'm using Ubuntu and instead of download link see this message: "Available for Mac and PC"
wbogg 13y ago
looking for make money online...here is the most useful website big57.com
zen_boy 13y ago
Up until now, how has the typical animations you see on landing pages been achieved? Is it all manual animation via code?
danso 13y ago
Just gave it a spin on the Mac. I was very surprised to see that there are no templates...which makes it very hard to determine stuff like...is there any way to align columns and text? Here's what I made in about 15 minutes: http://so.danwin.com/googltest.html http://so.danwin.com/googltest.html It's quite easy to place things and the animation is pretty straightforward. What is extremely painful is how things behave when you click on things...like, it took me some time to figure out how to edit a Text box that I placed, and also how to change it from a paragraph to a headline. In terms of usability, I can't image how this will be productive for anyone, including newbies. In the medium to long term, most people would be far off better learning how to do basic HTML in a text editor, GUI be damned here.
Osmium 13y ago
I notice it's retina-ready on OS X. Definitely appreciated!
EmmaWatson 13y ago
tlarkworthy 13y ago
urgh, can't download with linux
mrmondo 13y ago
No Linux version Not open source Proprietary file format
ajmarsh 13y ago
No Chrome OS version? Disappointing.
petemill 13y ago
I'm happy to see this tool because we do need to get those ad developers/designers (whoever they are!) to stop producing output which consumes high cpu. But if this doesn't fix that problem then we're spreading the issue to our non-flash tablets and mobile devices, which could be a painful change from the static ads we currently enjoy on those devices. However, I'm disappointed to see that this deals with fix-sized units exclusively. The web is supposed to be fluid, ads and other content should be encouraged to be percentage-width based, or at least responsive to different screen sizes and layouts. This tool produces fixed-size ads, when they could have used it to encourage a big change towards responsive advertising.
BaconJuice 13y ago
Does anyone know what was used to build this? is this using the Chromium Embedded Framework?
Kluny 13y ago
Oh good, another way for front end developers to avoid learning how to code.
MrBra 13y ago
I don't understand: can you just use it to create graphics and effects or you can also work on logic to build something interactive?
jebblue 13y ago
It says available for the PC. the button is grayed out for me? Surely people as bright as Google knows PC != Windows? Surely PC means PC running mainstream operating systems like oh I don't know...Linux?
navpatel 13y ago
It's surprising to me how many people are complaining about the lack of a Linux version. A Linux version would be great! but let's put our idealogical hats aside, and think like a business. The intersection between their target audience, and Linux is minute! Unless it came for free, investing in a Linux version of the app would have been a terrible use of resources
- jebblue 13y ago
  Linux runs the web, this is a "web design" application we are talking about. Imagine Ford releases a new car model but just for Airplane pilots.
xbryanx 13y ago
As someone who works in a museum designing web and html5 exhibit media, it makes me a bit sad that upon opening all the defaults are specific to creating advertisements. I know that's the business that Google is in, I just wish they would stop pretending that they have the same goals as their hypothetical "World History Museum."
wudf 13y ago
Tested it out here: http://raymondgh.link470.com/googlewebdesigner/ http://raymondgh.link470.com/googlewebdesigner/ Google Web Designer http://i.imgur.com/xEQZdx5.png http://i.imgur.com/xEQZdx5.png Aurora 26.0a2 http://i.imgur.com/FElMNKj.png http://i.imgur.com/FElMNKj.png iOS Safari http://i.imgur.com/Miqw6bq.png http://i.imgur.com/Miqw6bq.png IE 10.0.9 http://i.imgur.com/yqXaJlL.png http://i.imgur.com/yqXaJlL.png Totally different appearances
impresario 13y ago
With Webflow, Adobe edge, and others coming on the market what do prognosticators say about the future of the web design business? Is Roger McNamee's notion from two years ago going to come true? http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-mcnamee-video-2011-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-mcnamee-video-2011-7
stevoski 13y ago
Hotdog!
general_failure 13y ago
Why does this use absolute positioning?
- ux-app 13y ago
  why not?
ChuckMcM 13y ago
http://web.archive.org/web/19970210151434/http://www1.sausage.com/hotdog32.htm http://web.archive.org/web/19970210151434/http://www1.sausag... this was state of the art in 1996 :-) It was killed by places like GeoCities where you build your site "online." All through the 90's web sites that let you build web sites were quite the rage, and then pagemaker/frontpage/et alia seem to just take over. Not entirely sure why but they did. Now here we are 17 years later doing it again. I spent a number of years "liberating" my data from FrontPage by basically creating a new CMS and sucking it from html scrapes into a modifed version of markdown. I hope that Google learns from that experience and always provides for an 'easy' way to liberate your content from their tool so someone doesn't get stuck.
alan_cx 13y ago
Why are people accusing google of this really being an ad tool when on their help page they call it an ad tool?
D9u 13y ago
I'm a PC user who wipes Windoze off my hdd as part of setting up my preferred working environment. Is there any plan to include Linux, and, or, BSD versions of Google Web Designer any time soon?
Datsundere 13y ago
>that can run on any device >not available for Linux
zach_s 13y ago
Just started taking web design courses, can't wait to give this a try.
- wavefunction 13y ago
  Be sure to stick with your courses. Understanding the underlying technologies are more important than familiarity with toolsets that come and go. This is just the next phase of a long lineage of web design tools including Hot Dog, Homesite, FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc. Its day too shall come and pass...
joeld42 13y ago
This is really cool. While it's obviously aimed at people making ads (which makes sense for Google), this seems very useful for any kind of interactive element on a web page. I'm pretty sure I'll use it.
josephagoss 13y ago
If the Web Designer team are reading this, I would really recommend renaming the tool to ad designer.
apunic 13y ago
If this thing came from Adobe named Adobe Dreamweaver 2013 nobody would take notice.
johnx123-up 13y ago
Am I the only one to get the below error (in XP)? The procedure entry point GetSystemDefaultLocaleName could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll.
- feklee 13y ago
  Same here, in the German version of XP: Der Prozedureinsprungpunkt "GetSystemDefaultLocaleName" wurde in der DLL "KERNEL32.dll" nicht gefunden.
x0054 13y ago
Does anyone know what this program is written in. Just out of curiosity, it looks like it's something custom, does not use default widgets on OSX. It does not look like Java, I think it's all HTML5. Just wondering.
nish1500 13y ago
I just started playing around with it. It has a very simple learning curve. Within 10 minutes, I was comfortable using the application. I would love to see some figures on cross-browser compatibility. It's an excellent tool for making HTML5 animations. This is my only apprehension right now.
AnilaRashid 13y ago
Web designers are working all the time. I have a friend who works in Utrade Studios. www.utradestudios.com. And he is working all day long :P
itsbits 13y ago
What will be output? WebGL or canvas?
CmonDev 13y ago
Still a desktop app - there you go!
outside1234 13y ago
Is there a countdown clock yet for when this will be end of lifed?
sickboy38 13y ago
Hello All, First I want to thank you all for taking the time to check out Google Web Designer and giving us your feedback! Keep it coming! Over the last 24 hours we have received a ton of great feedback. One of the biggest questions/comments that I keep hearing is in regards to the broadly scoped name, "Google Web Designer". We chose this name intentionally. We know that it is a lofty name, but we have big plans on living up to it. It is true that in our beta offering there is a strong focus on rich media. With the proliferation of mobile and Google being a huge player in advertising, we think that rich media was a solid first use case to tackle. Over time we plan on growing our tool set and functionality so that you can create any web content that you so choose. This is just the beginning. You have the ear of the entire product/engineering team and with your feedback we hope to shape this tool into something special. Thanks again! Tony Product Manager | Google Web Designer
DigitalWorkshop 13y ago
As the market gets more mainstream designers need differentiation - something beyond even HTML5. So I'll give a shout out for another of the little guys - just launched... http://www.digitalworkshop.com/products/opus-creator.shtml http://www.digitalworkshop.com/products/opus-creator.shtml Paul
marincounty 13y ago
1. The Google web Designer is not bad. 2. It't more intuitive than Dreamweaver--by far. 3. I think they should deemphasize the Ad functionality. 4. They should offer a few basic templates--maybe be I missed them? 5. Templates were important in my learning curve. Trying to memorize WC3 examples didn't work for me. Experimenting with a template helped me a lot--plus I could put up rudimentary websites quick. 6. If anyone from Google stumbles upon this; remember you have multiple generations of people out there that would love to learn how to put up a web page. 7. Put up some video tutorials. You are hemoraging money, but I've noticed you seem to depend on customers to post "how to videos", or maybe hire some out of work 30-65 year olds to produce the videos. Some of your older users know how to communicate without using too much tech lingo--isn't that the purpose of ths Editor? If their videos do the trick pay them, and don't expect them to move to your campus-let them work at home. Working at home has some benefits.
vobla 13y ago
http://html5maker.com http://html5maker.com looks more promising...
adamconroy 13y ago
Ironically it looks like the UI is a straight design rip from Microsoft's expression suite.

1126 points by jaysonlane 13y ago

You know what would be useful? An app like this from Google that outputs Google index-optimized code for SEO purposes. In one fell swoop Google could educate the masses as to what search engines consider "good" code and simultaneously destroy the "machine-gun-the-fish-in-a-barrel" approach marketing people use for SEO. Instead, we get Adobe Motion 2.0 HTML5 Street Fighter Edition Now Featuring Blinky-Movey-Thingies.

xSwag 13y ago

I'm really happy that it looks like Photoshop and not like GIMP. Good UI is essential for widespread adoption.

cbhl 13y ago
It's necessary, but not sufficient. Look at Microsoft Blend for Visual Studio (formerly Microsoft Expression Blend), for example.
- topbanana 13y ago
  I don't think it was such a bad tool, it just targeted a dead-end platform (Silverlight)
  - heartbreak 13y ago
    And a not-so-dead-end platform (WPF).
    - topbanana 13y ago
      Well, that's been killed off too effectively. All focus is on WinRT (that hardly any are using)

dougaitken 13y ago

Let's hope this isn't the new Dreamweaver!

leishulang 13y ago
Dreamweaver generates a lot of nested tables and I don't think google will do that sort of thing. (do like bootstrap though)
- sigzero 13y ago
  If the source code of that page is any indication then "no" it doesn't look like it is generating tables. It is using div etc.
- josefresco 13y ago
  DW doesn't "generate" tables ..maybe you're thinking of exported Fireworks images? Those generate tables to create "sliced" images.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
LandoCalrissian 13y ago
Is Dreamweaver heavily used anymore? I don't honestly know, I haven't worked with anyone that used it in at least 7 years or so.
- josefresco 13y ago
  I started with DW back in 1999 as a crutch while I learned markup and styling. Gradually phasing out the visual editor over the years I got so accustomed to the code editor (highlighting/shortcuts) that I still use (and prefer) it. DW got/gets a bad name because of it's visual editor (and therefore lower bar of entry) but it's no better/worse than any other visual editor.
- bliker 13y ago
  Sadly it is introduced as industry standard for many students. Mainly for design schools where they also require Photoshop.

stekoz 13y ago

"Available for Mac and PC". I'd say it doesn't sound very attractive.

medicine23 13y ago
why
- mlisbit 13y ago
  no Linux support, I'm assuming - GNU/Linux is my preferred workspace environment.
  - gizmogwai 13y ago
    But not the preferred workspace environment of targeted audience: marketers that create ads.
  - AlexeyBrin 13y ago
    You could always try to run it in WINE (I've seen people running Windows only apps this way in Ubuntu, e.g. MS Office, Noetpad++).
    - ben0x539 13y ago
      But you'd have to go out of your way to get your hands on it since the Download button is inert unless their javascript can confirm that you are in fact using Windows or so. Doesn't seem to work with wine's built-in browser, and I couldn't get past the clickwrap EULA with an old chrome-based browser running under wine either.
- TheEskimo 13y ago
  Doubtlessly he's bemoaning the lack of support for linux. I would also like linux support, but it still looks like an impressive suite regardless.
  - 13y ago

choult 13y ago

You can color me skeptical until we see actual HTML5/CSS spit out by this - regardless of who writes it, I'm always doubtful of the efficacy of any automated/wizard-driven code generation in the general sense. I'll lump this in with Dreamweaver for now.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
danesparza 13y ago
It looks like the site itself was generated with it. You can do a view/source to get an idea of what it might spit out.
mr_spothawk 13y ago
This is exactly my feeling. If it's cranking out noisy code, then I don't want anything to do with it.
- Recoil42 13y ago
  It's clearly meant for the advertising space, so compression is actually what is being desired here.

snide 13y ago

Think this is mostly an alternative for Flash in display ads (which still primarily use Flash for animation). Guess is based on it being announced through Doubleclick's twitter stream. https://twitter.com/doubleclick_pub/status/384715311960051712 https://twitter.com/doubleclick_pub/status/38471531196005171...

mediascreen 13y ago
It certainly looks that way. The name seems like a bit of an overreach though - "Designing the web" = creating animated ad banners?
- virtuz 13y ago
  Baby steps.
rjvir 13y ago
Correct. In the "Create New File" dialog, all of the default options are for Google ad units: http://cl.ly/image/2V0n2W1i041v http://cl.ly/image/2V0n2W1i041v

ChrisArchitect 13y ago

so why did they make this? flipping thru the help docs, seems to be for creating responsive ads (not a surprise I know) -- so they want to kill off flash but maintain the animations and flash ad style things out there for youtube and what not?

slig 13y ago
Ads with animations are more profitable because more people click on them. Since flash is dying, they want an alternative that runs anywhere, so they can display interactive ads anywhere and profit more.

madeofpalk 13y ago

Interesting that this is being released as a native app, rather than a web app. It uses Chromium Embedded and a fairly custom UI, so it looks like it's all HTML anyway. Maybe they packed it up as an app to get better FS permissions (amoungst other things).

djim 13y ago
i was surprised by this as well since google has moved away from desktop apps to web apps with a few exceptions.
- jbigelow76 13y ago
  If Chrome is the host Google will be perfectly happy to move back to desktop apps with a cloud storage back end. It's easier to corral users that way.

tareqak 13y ago

Makes sense to me. Easier to make websites --> More websites --> More ads --> More money for Google.

camus 13y ago
That's why google wanted flash on Android at first place , ads+drm. Google always like flash unlike Apple and even ship with it's own Flash plugin. But Adobe decided Flash was too expensive to maitain on mobile and fired 700 employees and outsourced the rest of the Flash team to india. The remaining employees are now working on Bracket (...). And Sencha is more profitable than Flash division at Adobe.What's left of Macromedia? nothing, They should have stuck with Livemotion and Golive ... lol The result is that the last version of Flash (CC) has less features than the previous ones ( some drawing tools gone...)

kylelibra 13y ago

Cue the sensational headlines heralding web developers becoming obsolete. These tools keep getting better. Instead of rendering web developers obsolete, they just force everyone to be better.

didgeoridoo 13y ago

Might be useful to let marketing department guys crank out ad banners without bothering any devs. I'm still waiting for http://macaw.co/ http://macaw.co/ for responsive site & application prototyping.

choult 13y ago
In my experience, that will also unfortunately encourage them to crank them out without any designers ;)
dombili 13y ago
As someone who's trying to get into web development (not professionally), apps like Macaw makes me want to buy a Mac. Windows is so limited compare to Mac in this regard.
- teleclimber 13y ago
  It sounds like Macaw will (eventually) come to Windows: https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896 https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896
  - dombili 13y ago
    That's great to hear! However my point still stands. Windows is really behind Mac in regards to development software (or any type of software in general). Maybe I'm underestimating the Windows ecosystem, but that's been my observation over the years. I'd like to be proven wrong.
- subsection1h 13y ago
  Macaw seems like a tool for web designers who are afraid of code. If you want to be a web developer, use a text editor. If you want to be a good web designer, use a text editor and learn Sass or Less. If you want to be a mediocre web designer, use whatever.
  - dombili 13y ago

JaakkoP 13y ago

If Google decides to couple this up with their cloud services, I wonder what does this announcement mean for Weebly?

simonsarris 13y ago

The most important feature of this (to Google(?)) is the built-in ad editor. It's the last point on the feature list page, but it's very telling that it's the first thing on the "Create New" screen. https://support.google.com/webdesigner/answer/3261498?hl=en&ref_topic=3261495&rd=1 https://support.google.com/webdesigner/answer/3261498?hl=en&...

cbhl 13y ago
I think that makes sense -- a lot of Google's (paying) clients have been using Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash to make ads for years; if Google wants them to adopt HTML5 technology they need to make tools that are as easy to use as Flash was.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Adobe has Edge Animate for that and Adobe Flash can export to HTML5 as well. http://html.adobe.com/edge/animate/ http://html.adobe.com/edge/animate/
  - camus 13y ago
    Given Adobe track record on betrayal, and borderline extorsion schemes , I would not even touch their tools anymore. They had they chance with Flash,Dreamweaver and Fireworks... Flash = almost dead Dreamweaver = Zombie mod Fireworks = Dead despite its powerfull features like jquerymobile skinning,project files as png files,games graphics, native app design, easily customizable through js. Thank you Elop (who sold MM to Adobe ), thank you Adobe.
    - lostPixels 13y ago
      As a former Flash Developer, I will never put my time and money into learning Adobe software again.
      - exodust 13y ago

nlh 13y ago

Fantastic. I've been waiting for this to happen, and not the least bit surprised it's coming from Google. I've been super excited for the HTML5/Canvas/JavaScript takeover of web interactivity from the grips of Flash, but the one thing I kept seeing in almost every single tutorial is that it's mostly - still - hand-coded stuff. That's cool for programmers, but the reality is that the "mass" market (among designers) isn't going to really adopt HTML5 until there are well-established visual tools. Procedural graphic design is a fun exercise, intellectually interesting, and can have some amazing results, but the market for that type of design work is really limited. This should help drive a real, solid, mass-designer-market adoption of the new standards. Cool.

anderspetersson 13y ago

I got very surprised when I saw the download-button. Will the Chromebooks be able to run this?

micampe 13y ago

Interesting that this is a desktop program and not a web application. Not even "coming soon to your Chromebook".

ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
I'd laugh if I didn't think it was so pathetic. Google seems to have more of a disconnect in what each hand is doing than Microsoft...and that's saying a lot.

wil421 13y ago

Ugh, glad I have a grip on HTML/CSS now and dont have to rely on tools like this or Dreamweaver. I think Dreamweaver actually helped me code better because after class I would always work at cleaning up the shoddy Dreamweaver auto-generated code. Kids kept wondering why I always passed validations after writing code, I stopped using Dreamweaver unlike everyone else in that class.

wakkalakka 13y ago

This sounds a lot like Tumult's Hype: http://tumult.com/hype http://tumult.com/hype One of the primary complaints about Hype is that its HTML / CSS / JS output isn't very clean. I wonder if Google's tool produces better output. EDIT: Looks like not: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6470640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6470640

tumultco 13y ago
Tumult Hype's exports are essentially 3 lines of HTML so it is easy to embed in other documents and output mostly takes the form of JSON animation data and a JavaScript runtime file. It isn't meant to be hand-edited or even read, since we minify heavily to keep file sizes extremely small. While everything has its tradeoffs, we went with this approach because: - Our app has a lot of animation and interactivity capabilities not meaningfully expressed through anything but JavaScript. For example, we don't use CSS3 Animations nor transitions because they aren't powerful enough (pausing, synchronization, etc.). - We have better control over how we express the DOM to the browser. There's plenty of browser bugs or incompatibilities which sometimes require us to on-the-fly change the DOM structure or which properties we are using. - The user could easily bork the output so it could not be read back in - No tool will ever produce output that will appease everyone :) We provide lots of hooks in and outside of the runtime for your own JavaScript and HTML so you can still customize quite a bit. So it isn't that our output isn't very clean (in fact I'm quite proud of the runtime and how we've been able to add features without increasing bloat); it is that edits are meant to happen from the app itself.
- wakkalakka 13y ago
  Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I do in fact agree it is probably unreasonable for people to expect automatic code generation to be hand-editable without disturbing the machine-editable workflow, but it is something that comes up a lot. I see that Google's tool also seems to produce rather inscrutable output (see my edit to my original post). This does sound like one of those really hard problems where is pretty much impossible to balance the needs of the machine-modifiability with human-readability. Thanks again for the reply!

JacksonGariety 13y ago

Downloaded. Opened. Drew a rectangle. Filled with #FF0000. It spit this out: https://gist.github.com/JacksonGariety/6766626 https://gist.github.com/JacksonGariety/6766626 (after struggling and realizing CMD+S wasn't saving my file) I feel sorry for whoever was tasked with making this application.

e12e 13y ago
Uh-oh. So, while Frontpage just broke useragent stylesheets (all those sites setting the text-color, and assuming background was white, like it was in IE) -- this'll break what's left of the semantic web? I wonder how well google handles crawling these things...
- sudhirj 13y ago
  Google has long been able to crawl pure javascript pages - I actually think their their crawler is just headless Chrome.
  - deleted 13y ago
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- malandrew 13y ago
  The semantic web in the way that this tool breaks it has been dead since we had table-based layouts and div-hell further buried that notion. However, that doesn't mean that the semantic web is dead. I somewhat agree with Alan Kay when he said the web was built by amateurs [0]. The problem with the original design is that only documents were considered, when there are actually two citizens: documents and the apps used to display those documents for different contexts and usages. The original design only considered documents in one static use case, a desktop browser. There are two levels of semantics: document semantics, which the web got right and that xhtml 2.0 might have made even richer, and app semantics that were completely ignored by the semantic web crowd to the point where the app people hijacked the plans of those pushing semantic documents. HTML5 Twitter isn't a document. The 1 to 1 correspondence between the window object and the document object is all wrong. There should have been a 1 to 1 or 1 to many relationship between window and documents. When there is a 1 to many relationship the window object reflects only the semantics of apps and within it, there should be many documents, one for each tweet displayed by the HTML5 twitter app. [0] http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/interview-with-alan-kay/240003442 http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/interview-wit...

johnhess 13y ago

As an engineer it's interesting to be on the receiving end of software replacing a bit of what you do. I suppose the market will always incentivize replacing expensive labor (high wages for developers cut both ways). Granted, there have long been wysiwyg editors and this is a relatively simple part of the job of a web dev, but it's just another example of software eating the world.

hiyou102 13y ago

Another product without linux support from Google. This is getting frustrating.

zalew 13y ago
Yeh, it sucks. But don't worry, when enough people get hooked on it, they will move it online, before integrating it into google+.
- outside1234 13y ago
  Or end of life it. One of the two. Good luck!
k_bx 13y ago
It usually happens when they buy something that's already non-linux ready.

shacharz 13y ago

This is nice, I wish google's web designer was an actual WEB app

tommis 13y ago

Judging from the output, Google has resurrected Frontpage 2000...

davexunit 13y ago

No thanks, Google. I'll use free software to make web pages.

gwdengineer 13y ago
Hi, Google Web Designer is free. ;o) Thanks, Google Web Designer team
- davexunit 13y ago
  I haven't been able to find a link to download the source code, and the web page doesn't mention the license anywhere. I think you may have misinterpreted "free software". In any case, thank you for trying to help.
- Slackwise 13y ago
  I think they meant actual free software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software Unless your wink is an attempt to mock them.
  - gwdengineer 13y ago
    Hi, No, we misunderstood what davexunit meant by "free" and are sorry for the confusion. Thanks, Google Web Designer team
- pritambaral 13y ago
  Hi, The poster definitely meant free-as-in-speech software. Nevertheless, I'm unable to test it right now since it is not available for desktop Linux. I take it from a few comments here that Google Web Designer uses Chromium Embedded Frame. I have ported Adobe Brackets, which uses Chromium Embedded Frame too, and it's not too difficult. Hardly a day's work. Is there a date when Google Web Designer will be available for desktop Linux? Thanks, Pritam Baral

molbioguy 13y ago

Couldn't open existing HTML files. Seems files must be created in GWD to be edited.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

radley 13y ago

Mac users may find the Windows layout confusing or frustrating.

toblender 13y ago

Well there goes my web design job...

ferdo 13y ago

This will die a quick death just for its deceptive name. It should be called Ad Designer.

rch 13y ago
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=web+designer http://lmgtfy.com/?q=web+designer Edit: The down votes are warranted, but I would wager that there at least a few people who will take the 'I need a web designer; search for same; well maybe I'll try this' path. That's all.
loceng 13y ago
It's fairly easy to turn it into a full-fledged site design application.
TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
Perhaps it should actually be called Flash Pro for HTML5 - that's what I see it as.

tumultco 13y ago

This appears to be a fork of the Ninja Authoring Tool which was made by Motorola Mobility over a year ago as part of the Montage project. Now Google owns Motorola Mobility. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-web/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-...

ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
Historical context, thanks!

ss64 13y ago

Well I suppose 'better than Flash' can't be a particularly high bar to jump.

mason55 13y ago

I tried to open an existing html file and got: "Unable to open file due to the following error: The file was not created in Google Web Designer." So, basically, Google is just creating their own proprietary format that's built on HTML. Even if you are just using it to construct ads you'll be somewhat locked-in to this toolchain. Since HTML is inherently open people will be able to build converters but it's still a bad precedent.

SkyMarshal 13y ago
As a replacement for open web frameworks perhaps it's a regression, but as a replacement for Flash I'd say it's a step forward.
krapp 13y ago
>So, basically, Google is just creating their own proprietary format that's built on HTML. Even if you are just using it to construct ads you'll be somewhat locked-in to this toolchain. Since HTML is inherently open people will be able to build converters but it's still a bad precedent. Adobe's Muse does a similar thing - if you publish to Business Catalyst using it it locks you into a proprietary "format" that forces you to stay on the platform and edit the site through Muse, or else it no longer 'compiles.'
- noamhello 13y ago
  Not sure where you got that info. Muse generates standards based HTML and CSS, you can take the HTML and CSS files and do what ever you want with them. Note, at that point your editing code, not visually designing. Even if you've published to Business Catalyst, you can just take your file and export to HTML and CSS later on.
  - krapp 13y ago
    I'm willing to push past my visceral dislike of WYSIWIG editors to try it out again. I need to get a Cloud account sooner or later.
gwdengineer 13y ago

steren 13y ago

Reminds me a similar tool by Sensha: Sensha Animator. http://www.sencha.com/products/animator/ http://www.sencha.com/products/animator/ Do you know if Google developed the technology themselves or if it is from an acquisition?

tumultco 13y ago
It looks like this is based on the Ninja Authoring Tool which is an open source project, but also Google would have gotten as part of their acquisition of Motorola Mobility. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-web/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-... https://github.com/mikestowe/ninja https://github.com/mikestowe/ninja

BigChiefSmokem 13y ago

We need a head-2-head with Adobe Edge: http://html.adobe.com/edge/ http://html.adobe.com/edge/

mikhuang 13y ago

Finally! A tool to direct people whose websites I don't want to make to use.

oscargrouch 13y ago

You know what this looks? Chromium OS will be integrated in Android, as a HTML5 application framework.. running side by side with the Dalvik apps.. So they are investing in productivity tools for people to create apps for this new platform that will make it soon in the Android platform This is a nice strategic move from Google.. since their ecosystem(the one they profit over) are the web.. the app ecosystem may be a shot on its own foot, since they cant control the cloud consume behavior by the device owners on apps in the same way they can on the web "platform".. (like the android forks from amazon and possible other big players)

dudus 13y ago
That was a long stretch there pal.
- oscargrouch 13y ago
  Not if you remember who is in charge from the android ecosystem now.. there's certainly a fusion movement between Android and Chromium OS happening.. So its easy to think of some HTML app ecosystem showing up in android, without switching off the current Dalvik ecosystem..

neave 13y ago

This will almost solely be used for making ads. It’s Google’s answer to Apple’s iAd Producer https://developer.apple.com/iad/iadproducer/ https://developer.apple.com/iad/iadproducer/ and Adobe’s Flash Pro.

jhawk28 13y ago

My corporate network policy blocks the installation. They need a standalone install that doesn't require google update.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

aroman 13y ago

This is what Adobe should have created when they realized Flash was going to die.

the1 13y ago

comes with rootkits. a typical googleware

csears 13y ago

Installed. Tried it. Uninstalled. Interesting, but unless you're designing ads, this release is probably not worth your time.

abalone 13y ago

Ok, the war is on. Does anyone know of a good HTML5 ad blocker? Flash was awesome. It made it really easy to block animated ads. My browsing experience had been wonderful ever since I installed a Flash blocker a few years ago. Also did wonders for my battery life. Please, please help my browsing experience remain wonderful. Thanks.

andybak 13y ago
It's going to be trickier as just blocking a single plugin is no longer viable. I think an domain blacklist a la Adblock is probably the best idea but that won't help you with ads that are already present in the DOM on pageload.
- McGlockenshire 13y ago
  Thankfully, AdBlock and friends can also target DOM elements for hiding or outright elimination.
  - ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
    ...which they have gotten overly aggressive on; creating a myriad of issues with normal website functionality.
    - aestra 13y ago
      I haven't found a significant example of this, and I've been browsing with Adblock Plus for years. The only place I've seen issues with is some video streaming sites, when it interferes with streaming ads.
    - sequoia 13y ago
      Can you give an example? The only issue I've ever had with ABP et al. is when I'm working on a site and forget to turn it off & I think my site is broken (because ad doesn't load). :p
      - 13y ago

robodale 13y ago

look at the code it produces. It makes MS FrontPage look clean and elegant.

jneal 13y ago

I think this looks like a great tool. I can almost imagine this being built 100% for ads, and then someone higher up at Google saying "Wow, this thing is so powerful it could build websites" and then it morphed into this existence. Just pure speculation but it's a little weird to call it Google Web Designer when everything else puts ads front-and-center.

talles 13y ago
I second that. The support page almost screams that.

tommaxwell 13y ago

No Chromebook support? Interesting.

anilshanbhag 13y ago

They should learn a thing or two about marketing Everytime I see a google product - it mentions ads !

bluedino 13y ago

Would this work as a tool for indie game designers instead of Flash?

radley 13y ago

Looks like it's a rebrand of Motorola's Ninja: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-web/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/ninja-... via @ElliotGeno

hamorim 13y ago

Had my attention for only three minutes!

rfnslyr 13y ago

Please for the love of god less of these generated development tools. I remember having to clean up a frontpage/dreamweaver generated codebase, kill me...

adrianlmm 13y ago

I would call it "Google adds designer" instead.

acchow 13y ago

I wish this were a self-hosed web app.

Canutesun 13y ago

Is this "any platform" as long as it runs Chrome? Getting tired of more and more Google products apparently not being tested to work in Firefox.

eugenesu 13y ago
Nope, I'm using Ubuntu and instead of download link see this message: "Available for Mac and PC"

wbogg 13y ago

looking for make money online...here is the most useful website big57.com

zen_boy 13y ago

Up until now, how has the typical animations you see on landing pages been achieved? Is it all manual animation via code?

danso 13y ago

Just gave it a spin on the Mac. I was very surprised to see that there are no templates...which makes it very hard to determine stuff like...is there any way to align columns and text? Here's what I made in about 15 minutes: http://so.danwin.com/googltest.html http://so.danwin.com/googltest.html It's quite easy to place things and the animation is pretty straightforward. What is extremely painful is how things behave when you click on things...like, it took me some time to figure out how to edit a Text box that I placed, and also how to change it from a paragraph to a headline. In terms of usability, I can't image how this will be productive for anyone, including newbies. In the medium to long term, most people would be far off better learning how to do basic HTML in a text editor, GUI be damned here.

Osmium 13y ago

I notice it's retina-ready on OS X. Definitely appreciated!

EmmaWatson 13y ago

tlarkworthy 13y ago

urgh, can't download with linux

mrmondo 13y ago

No Linux version Not open source Proprietary file format

ajmarsh 13y ago

No Chrome OS version? Disappointing.

petemill 13y ago

I'm happy to see this tool because we do need to get those ad developers/designers (whoever they are!) to stop producing output which consumes high cpu. But if this doesn't fix that problem then we're spreading the issue to our non-flash tablets and mobile devices, which could be a painful change from the static ads we currently enjoy on those devices. However, I'm disappointed to see that this deals with fix-sized units exclusively. The web is supposed to be fluid, ads and other content should be encouraged to be percentage-width based, or at least responsive to different screen sizes and layouts. This tool produces fixed-size ads, when they could have used it to encourage a big change towards responsive advertising.

BaconJuice 13y ago

Does anyone know what was used to build this? is this using the Chromium Embedded Framework?

Kluny 13y ago

Oh good, another way for front end developers to avoid learning how to code.

MrBra 13y ago

I don't understand: can you just use it to create graphics and effects or you can also work on logic to build something interactive?

jebblue 13y ago

It says available for the PC. the button is grayed out for me? Surely people as bright as Google knows PC != Windows? Surely PC means PC running mainstream operating systems like oh I don't know...Linux?

navpatel 13y ago

It's surprising to me how many people are complaining about the lack of a Linux version. A Linux version would be great! but let's put our idealogical hats aside, and think like a business. The intersection between their target audience, and Linux is minute! Unless it came for free, investing in a Linux version of the app would have been a terrible use of resources

jebblue 13y ago
Linux runs the web, this is a "web design" application we are talking about. Imagine Ford releases a new car model but just for Airplane pilots.

xbryanx 13y ago

As someone who works in a museum designing web and html5 exhibit media, it makes me a bit sad that upon opening all the defaults are specific to creating advertisements. I know that's the business that Google is in, I just wish they would stop pretending that they have the same goals as their hypothetical "World History Museum."

wudf 13y ago

Tested it out here: http://raymondgh.link470.com/googlewebdesigner/ http://raymondgh.link470.com/googlewebdesigner/ Google Web Designer http://i.imgur.com/xEQZdx5.png http://i.imgur.com/xEQZdx5.png Aurora 26.0a2 http://i.imgur.com/FElMNKj.png http://i.imgur.com/FElMNKj.png iOS Safari http://i.imgur.com/Miqw6bq.png http://i.imgur.com/Miqw6bq.png IE 10.0.9 http://i.imgur.com/yqXaJlL.png http://i.imgur.com/yqXaJlL.png Totally different appearances

impresario 13y ago

With Webflow, Adobe edge, and others coming on the market what do prognosticators say about the future of the web design business? Is Roger McNamee's notion from two years ago going to come true? http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-mcnamee-video-2011-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-mcnamee-video-2011-7

stevoski 13y ago

Hotdog!

general_failure 13y ago

Why does this use absolute positioning?

ux-app 13y ago
why not?

ChuckMcM 13y ago

http://web.archive.org/web/19970210151434/http://www1.sausage.com/hotdog32.htm http://web.archive.org/web/19970210151434/http://www1.sausag... this was state of the art in 1996 :-) It was killed by places like GeoCities where you build your site "online." All through the 90's web sites that let you build web sites were quite the rage, and then pagemaker/frontpage/et alia seem to just take over. Not entirely sure why but they did. Now here we are 17 years later doing it again. I spent a number of years "liberating" my data from FrontPage by basically creating a new CMS and sucking it from html scrapes into a modifed version of markdown. I hope that Google learns from that experience and always provides for an 'easy' way to liberate your content from their tool so someone doesn't get stuck.

alan_cx 13y ago

Why are people accusing google of this really being an ad tool when on their help page they call it an ad tool?

D9u 13y ago

I'm a PC user who wipes Windoze off my hdd as part of setting up my preferred working environment. Is there any plan to include Linux, and, or, BSD versions of Google Web Designer any time soon?

Datsundere 13y ago

>that can run on any device >not available for Linux

zach_s 13y ago

Just started taking web design courses, can't wait to give this a try.

wavefunction 13y ago
Be sure to stick with your courses. Understanding the underlying technologies are more important than familiarity with toolsets that come and go. This is just the next phase of a long lineage of web design tools including Hot Dog, Homesite, FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc. Its day too shall come and pass...

joeld42 13y ago

This is really cool. While it's obviously aimed at people making ads (which makes sense for Google), this seems very useful for any kind of interactive element on a web page. I'm pretty sure I'll use it.

josephagoss 13y ago

If the Web Designer team are reading this, I would really recommend renaming the tool to ad designer.

apunic 13y ago

If this thing came from Adobe named Adobe Dreamweaver 2013 nobody would take notice.

johnx123-up 13y ago

Am I the only one to get the below error (in XP)? The procedure entry point GetSystemDefaultLocaleName could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll.

feklee 13y ago
Same here, in the German version of XP: Der Prozedureinsprungpunkt "GetSystemDefaultLocaleName" wurde in der DLL "KERNEL32.dll" nicht gefunden.

x0054 13y ago

Does anyone know what this program is written in. Just out of curiosity, it looks like it's something custom, does not use default widgets on OSX. It does not look like Java, I think it's all HTML5. Just wondering.

nish1500 13y ago

I just started playing around with it. It has a very simple learning curve. Within 10 minutes, I was comfortable using the application. I would love to see some figures on cross-browser compatibility. It's an excellent tool for making HTML5 animations. This is my only apprehension right now.

AnilaRashid 13y ago

Web designers are working all the time. I have a friend who works in Utrade Studios. www.utradestudios.com. And he is working all day long :P

itsbits 13y ago

What will be output? WebGL or canvas?

CmonDev 13y ago

Still a desktop app - there you go!

outside1234 13y ago

Is there a countdown clock yet for when this will be end of lifed?

sickboy38 13y ago

Hello All, First I want to thank you all for taking the time to check out Google Web Designer and giving us your feedback! Keep it coming! Over the last 24 hours we have received a ton of great feedback. One of the biggest questions/comments that I keep hearing is in regards to the broadly scoped name, "Google Web Designer". We chose this name intentionally. We know that it is a lofty name, but we have big plans on living up to it. It is true that in our beta offering there is a strong focus on rich media. With the proliferation of mobile and Google being a huge player in advertising, we think that rich media was a solid first use case to tackle. Over time we plan on growing our tool set and functionality so that you can create any web content that you so choose. This is just the beginning. You have the ear of the entire product/engineering team and with your feedback we hope to shape this tool into something special. Thanks again! Tony Product Manager | Google Web Designer

DigitalWorkshop 13y ago

As the market gets more mainstream designers need differentiation - something beyond even HTML5. So I'll give a shout out for another of the little guys - just launched... http://www.digitalworkshop.com/products/opus-creator.shtml http://www.digitalworkshop.com/products/opus-creator.shtml Paul

marincounty 13y ago

1. The Google web Designer is not bad. 2. It't more intuitive than Dreamweaver--by far. 3. I think they should deemphasize the Ad functionality. 4. They should offer a few basic templates--maybe be I missed them? 5. Templates were important in my learning curve. Trying to memorize WC3 examples didn't work for me. Experimenting with a template helped me a lot--plus I could put up rudimentary websites quick. 6. If anyone from Google stumbles upon this; remember you have multiple generations of people out there that would love to learn how to put up a web page. 7. Put up some video tutorials. You are hemoraging money, but I've noticed you seem to depend on customers to post "how to videos", or maybe hire some out of work 30-65 year olds to produce the videos. Some of your older users know how to communicate without using too much tech lingo--isn't that the purpose of ths Editor? If their videos do the trick pay them, and don't expect them to move to your campus-let them work at home. Working at home has some benefits.

vobla 13y ago

http://html5maker.com http://html5maker.com looks more promising...

adamconroy 13y ago

Ironically it looks like the UI is a straight design rip from Microsoft's expression suite.