[TheForge] "free" web site?

[Ben Barrett]

Google has free non-traditional web-hosting, under the "Google Apps"
service; you can publish Sites (collections of pages), as well as
Documents (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation), and these can
refer to each other (for example, for managing your inventory of sales
items online, and allowing your buy now button and Google Checkout to
keep things in sync.  I say "non-traditional" because it does not
offer direct FTP or Database connection, however if you're into the
technical end of things, they do in fact have an extremely capable
system using their own API.
Relative to Geocities or similar, it might seem familiar, in that you
create and edit your pages through the web browser.
Check out google.com/a for Google Apps,
and know that you can pick and choose what services you want to use
for your domain (involves DNS changes, and their help tutorials are
pretty good), and you can use your own domain or buy through them (or
transfer, when the time comes).  So you could for example switch on
just one subdomain to try out their Sites/Pages on, and/or switch to
their email system.
Sounds like you just need a new location, and you probably don't have
a domain name if you were using the free geocities service, so I
should also point out that you can use Google Docs with any Gmail
account, so if you want to avoid getting a domain name ($7-$10/yr,
included with some hosting services fees), this may be enough.  I can
send you a gmail invite if you want, or I think you can sign up via
gmail.com or mail.google.com :)
Sorry to go on at length about all this, but the last couple techie
conferences I went to had great presentations about how google's free
services are a great fit for many small businesses and nonprofit
organizations.  I'm not a sales rep or otherwise affiliated :)  Feel
free to contact me off-list if you have questions about any of this,
or need further help.  I'm a programmer/sysadmin, not a graphic
designer BTW.

Thanks,

Ben




On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Wayne Ackman <stryker at vulcanpro.com> wrote:
>
> I use jbservers.net.  about $40 a year.  But I would look at
> vexxhost.com if I moved. its cheaper than that and offers a lot of
> bandwidth.
>
> Wayne
>
> Lynn Emrich wrote:
> > GeoCities is closing! I don't know what is happening to Yahoo but they are becoming unreliable. If someone could point me to a web hosting that is either free or not too expensive I would be appreciative.
> > Thanks much
> > Lynn
> >
> > Now: http://www.geocities.com/theatre_weapons/
> >
> >
> >