Web site builders



The next generation of online web site builders and web publishing platforms.

I’ve split these into two groups:

  • ‘Shells’ are to Web 2.0 what Tripod, Angelfire, and Geocities were to Web 1.0. Requiring no technical knowledge, shells provide a generic framework of templates, functions, and limited customisability for creating interactive web sites
  • ‘Toolkits’, either requiring some programming skills (PHP, Javascript, AJAX, …), or with characteristically a blank slate instead of a pre-given framework, take a Lego-like building blocks approach, hence offer greater flexibility.

Shells

  • Ning
    “… a free online service for cloning, customizing and sharing Social Web Apps.” Build your own Web 2.0 site from apps including blog and discussion board, bookmarking, photo and video sharing, map mash-ups, marketplace apps, rating and review apps, social networking apps, … in fact just about anything anyone would need. And all hosted for free as a Ning sub-domain. The only downside (so far as I can see) is that each app has to be a separate sub-domain (i.e. no ‘mix’n'match’).
    » http://www.ning.com
  • SiteKreator
    Four levels of usage: Free, Personal, Business, and Power. The Free enables the creation of fairly respectable web sites. A comprehensive suite of some 20 or so video tutorials at http://sitekreator.com/sitetutorials/index.html
    » http://sitekreator.com
  • Wetpaint
    First and foremost a wiki, but with additional social network features that make this richer and more flexible that many other wikis. “Wetpaint powers websites that tap the power of collaborative thinking. The heart of the Wetpaint advantage is its ability to allow anyone—especially those without technical skill—to create and contribute to websites written for and by those who share a passion or interest. To do this, Wetpaint combines the best aspects of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks so anyone can click and type on the web. … Yes, blogs make online publishing easy—but blogs are monologues. And forums are great for question and answers, but they’re too hard to search. And wikis allow the reader to become the writer, editor and fact-checker, but they’re just too darn hard to use for the average person. Wetpaint is different. With Wetpaint, anyone with a passion can create an entirely new website and invite others to help them build it. And it’s easy—adding to a Wetpaint site is as simple as click and type. And when you put thousands of heads together to solve a problem, the results can be astonishing.”
    » http://www.wetpaint.com
  • Noovo
    Still in beta, “Noovo is ‘a social page creator’ enabling its users to create and fully customize their web page to self-express on the Web. By providing its innovative do-it-yourself web editor, Noovo allows those without even understanding of HTML to design their web all their way. Noovo is also providing networking features by which its users can get connected easily and the most creative user-generated web pages can be shared appreciatively.”
    » http://my.noovo.us
  • Metadot Portal Server
    Not really Web 2.0 in style and feel–it’s been around since 2000–but great for building multi-user interactive web portals. “Metadot Portal Server is a leading open source portal system. Its ease of use allows non technical people to create very powerful websites and portals just with the clicks of a mouse. Its architecture makes it extremely easy to customize and deploy. It is available for free under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It provides collaboration, content management, as well as My News Page (like My Yahoo) and online database applications. Typically it is used to create web portals, intranets, extranets, organization and project websites.”
    » http://www.metadot.com
  • Weebly
    Create a personal web site with AJAX drag-and-drop page elements.
    » http://www.weebly.com
  • freewebs
    » http://freewebs.com

Toolkits

  • SynthaSite
    This is brilliant (though, at the time of writing, still in beta). “… an AJAX based Web Publishing Platform … delivering a world class web based software platform for web publishing, focusing specifically on Widgets and Mashups. Synthasite looks and feels like desktop software, but remains firmly rooted in the browser with no reliance on client side technology.”

    » http://www.synthasite.com
  • DutchPIPE PHP/AJAX avatar worlds
    Weird and wonderful. “With DutchPIPE open source software, web developers can make virtual multi-user environments. Each web page becomes an abstracted environment or location where visitors and other items on the page are visualized. This status is retained as visitors move around. A lot of real-time interaction is possible. The result: Persistent Interactive Page Environments. DutchPIPE uses AJAX and the DOM for the browser – it works without Java, Flash, plug-in or firewall adjustments.”
    » http://dutchpipe.org