Creating Web Pages For Dummies®

Chapter 3. On the Cutting Edge with Google Page Creator

In This Chapter

• Getting to know Google Page Creator

• Registering for Google Page Creator

• Taking the steps to a successful Google Page

Google has long seemed like the wildest and craziest multibillion‐dollar business going. Google was started by two Stanford graduate students, growing to hundreds of employees and millions of users before anyone even thought of how it might make money.

Yet, Google is wildly successful. At the moment, Google dominates the Web, commanding roughly half of all search traffic — and billions of dollars in profits from advertising.

As part of their “ready, fire, aim” approach, Google launches new Web services frequently, usually with a “beta” tag on the service's Web pages. Beta is a computer software term that means “not quite ready for wide release” — it's sort of like a rough draft of a product. Yet the Google mob does release its betas widely, allowing millions of users to try, and test, a service before it's completed.

Google News, which uses software to make up a newspaper‐like front page, was in beta for many months before Google removed the “beta” tag. Google Mail, which has millions of users, is still in beta at this writing — over a year after it was first released. (To use Google Page Creator, you must sign up for a Google Mail account — betas squared!)

The fact that Google Page Creator was in beta as this book went to print shouldn't scare you. Google will almost certainly continue the service, and ...