Oh the Waiting. Migrating from GPC to Google Sites

Well it's June 4th, and I have temporarily decided to let Google migrate my site from GPC to Google Sites.

There are two main reasons, and I suspect that the migration will be temporary.

1. I am curious ... so How will Google migrate the site, and what will it look like when they are done?

2. I have some other sites that have linked to some of the content and drive a fair percentage of my traffic. As I have noted in some of my comparisons, with GPC, google does not append a file extension to the GPC URL (i.e. http://www.timalosi.com/about) whereas sites like Weebly.com and Officelive.com both utilize extensions and return 404 errors when you pass them a GPC style URL.

So ... for now I wait for Google to work some form of minor magic. Curious for the results.

Check out my delicious links related to this post at http://delicious.com/tim.alosi/gpc

Alternatives to Google Page Creator - Weebly

Weebly Comparison
With Google Page Creator being eliminated, I have decided to do a quick comparison of Google Page Creator (GPC) and Weebly.com . I have put this together to aid in making a decision on where to migrate my Google Page Creator site to.

This comparison is not exhaustive, but centered around the key features of GPC


Weebly.com is a free, web based web hosting site.  By web based, I mean that you can create and edit your pages with only a browser.  Similar to how GPC used to work.


For the purpose of this comparison, I will just be looking at Weebly.com's free web page hosting (They have a paid version as well).

Feature Comparison
Branding
Item	Google Page Creator	Weebly
Domain Name Integration	Your domain name was used as the root for all pages	Your Domain Name can be used as the root for your web pages.
FavIcon	You can brand your site with a FavIcon using simple Javascript	You can brand your site with a FavIcon using simple Javascript
Themes	Each page could have a different theme and with CSS you had pretty fine control over presentation of the site.	You need to select a theme and color scheme for your entire site. However, you can create your own theme with the included editor using CSS.
Technology
Item	Google Page Creator	Weebly.com
Javascript	Javascript is allowed on pages.	Javascript is allowed on pages
CSS	You can integration custom CSS files using Javascript to direct the client to load the file.	You can create site wide CSS code in the editor without requiring javascript
Google Analytics	You can add Analytics via javascript. You have control over how each page is tracked.	You can add Analytics via javascript. You have control over how each page is tracked.
Google Adsense	You can add Adsense ad blocks via javascript	You can add Adsense ad blocks via javascript or using the built in Adsense page element
Google Gadgets	Supported	You can add google gadgets
Google Webmasters Tools	Supported via uploaded file.	Supported via meta tag.
Other Webmasters Tools	Supported via uploaded files.	Supported via meta tag addition with javascript.
Static Files	Can upload files via HTTP to root directory. Cannot make sub directories. Can upload pages you created in other web design tools (i.e. iWeb)	Can upload via HTTP into a File Page Element.  Supports all multimedia file types and others.  Site visitors may be able to see the files depending on permissions.
Limits	Maximum Files = 500 Maximum Space = 100 MB Maximum File Size = 10 MB Themes = 41	Maximum Space = ?? MB Maximum File Size = ?? MB Themes = Unique combinations > 500
Google Docs Integration	Integration via Google Gadgets	Integration via Google Gadgets
Editor
Item	Google Page Creator	Officelive.com
Tables	You can create tables manually with HTML code	You can create tables manually with HTML code
Page Layout	Supports 5 Page Layouts	Supports 2 Page Layouts
Navigation	Create your own navigation and breadcrumbs and sitemaps.	Automatically creates navigation, breadcrumbs and sitemaps. NOTE: The built in navigation is done with scripting, so I recommend that you add some standard links to help search engines index your pages.
Comments	Cannot incorporate comments from visitors	Cannot incorporate comments from visitors (But you can include Blog Pages)

Summary
Weebly.com has a comparable list of features that Google Pages had, and it is priced the same (free). In addition, if you are using Google Apps for Domains, you can point your domain to Weebly.


In general, if you are finding that Google Sites (see my post on a Google Sites comparison) does not have what you are looking for, Weebly.com seems like a very good alternative.

Note:  If you site contains many cross links, GPC pages did not have a file extension at the end (i.e. http://www.timalosi.com/about) where as weebly uses a .html extension and links without the extension will return a 404 error.  (This is most unfortunate)

Related Posts:
GPC to Office Live Comparision
GPC to Google Sites Comparision

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