
Google Web Designer - jaysonlane
https://www.google.com/webdesigner/
======
tumultco
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-...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-
web/)

~~~
ChikkaChiChi
Historical context, thanks!

------
simonsarris
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&...](https://support.google.com/webdesigner/answer/3261498?hl=en&ref_topic=3261495&rd=1)

~~~
cbhl
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.

~~~
tumultco
That's the purpose of my startup :); we've been making an HTML5 animation tool
for OS X for the last two years:

[http://tumult.com/hype/](http://tumult.com/hype/)

~~~
anarchy8
How do you feel about having Google as a direct competitor?

~~~
tumultco
Google itself doesn't scare me; it is really just team vs. team. I think we've
got the best product and engineering expertise for this market. Clearly I'm
biased :) so I'd encourage anyone to try Tumult Hype and let us know your
thoughts (we've got a fully functional 14-day trial on the site).

While Google hasn't announced pricing, it is probably safe to say it is going
to be free. This is a business for us, so we charge $29.99. I don't like
competing against free, but that just means we'll be continually pushed to
provide that much more value!

~~~
beernutz
I would love to check out your product, but it only runs on OSX. You might
consider a port to drastically expand your potential client base.

Google's free offering is cross platform already.

~~~
alanh
“Drastically?” The vast majority of the web developers I know use OS X.

And, I guess, most of the marketers, too.

~~~
laureny
> “Drastically?” The vast majority of the web developers I know use OS X.

I'm guessing most (all?) the developers you know work in the US?

Mac OS is close to nonexistent in that area in the rest of the world.

Trying to sell an app competing against a free product from Google is already
challenging enough, you should seriously consider the original advice and
extend your tool to work on Windows as well.

~~~
digitalengineer
Dutchman here. Most _designers_ use MacOsX here. Developers go with Windows.
Design-savy or iOS developers use both.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Also Dutch here. Developers go with Windows if they do not get a choice;
unfortunately, most major companies demand everyone uses Windows.

I'm fortunate to be working for a consultancy company that just gives everyone
a budget to buy their computer. Most people have a Macbook, with the odd
exception that simply has a hatred for Apple or can't get used to it.

I would argue that development tools are much better for OSX. It's like Linux,
but usable. A lot of commandline tools just work out of the box under OSX,
where you have to go through hoops, hope there's a port, or install a bash
emulator under Windows.

Of course, .NET developers will be using Windows.

------
JacksonGariety
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.

~~~
BigChiefSmokem
My favorite part is the WebKit specific code... Don't be Evil and something
about standards right?

This is like IE4/Netscape Communicator days all over again, except now with
more than two dominant browsers...

"I was a web dev in the 90s and all I got was this lousy XMLHttpRequest
object"

~~~
niveshr
Hi,

While editing a file, Google Web Designer uses -webkit prefixes. However, when
you publish your content, the publish dialog allows you to specify additional
vendor prefixes (or no prefixes) in the output so the content works in
different browsers.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, Nivesh (Google Web Developer)

~~~
polskibus
Can you explain the reasons behind this behavior?

~~~
gwdengineer
Hi,

Google Web Designer (GWD) uses the WebKit HTML rendering engine inside the
application's workspace and reports the styles that are actually applied to
the content during editing.

Thanks, Google Web Designer team

------
abalone
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.

~~~
mattdennewitz
such entitlement! do you have any idea how publishers make money on the web?

~~~
Gormo
Entitlement? He _is_ entitled to not download and view content that he doesn't
want to.

No one is obligated to alter their own behavior in order to sustain someone
else's business model. How publishers make money is _their_ problem to solve,
and if they're publishing content on the open web that's viewable with web
browsers, then it's up to them to decide how to deal with the fact that some
web browsers aren't going to download the ads.

They have plenty of alternative options: they can block _all_ of the content
unless ads are downloaded; they can put all of the content behind a paywall,
etc. But most websites _don 't_ employ these methods, and _do_ leave their
content accessible to people who block ads.

~~~
timrogers
_No one is obligated to alter their own behaviour in order to sustain someone
else 's business model_, that's why it's totally okay to shoplift if it's more
agreeable and convenient to you.

~~~
Gormo
No. Your obligation not to steal is not derived from any more fundamental
obligation to sustain other people's business models.

------
madeofpalk
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
i was surprised by this as well since google has moved away from desktop apps
to web apps with a few exceptions.

~~~
jbigelow76
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.

------
snide
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/38471531196005171...](https://twitter.com/doubleclick_pub/status/384715311960051712)

~~~
mediascreen
It certainly looks that way. The name seems like a bit of an overreach though
- "Designing the web" = creating animated ad banners?

------
mason55
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.

~~~
krapp
>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
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
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.

------
radley
Looks like it's a rebrand of Motorola's Ninja:

[http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2012/07/ninja-...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-
web/)

via @ElliotGeno

------
nlh
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.

------
didgeoridoo
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.

~~~
dombili
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
It sounds like Macaw will (eventually) come to Windows:

[https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896](https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896)

~~~
dombili
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.

------
choult
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.

~~~
mr_spothawk
This is exactly my feeling. If it's cranking out noisy code, then I don't want
anything to do with it.

~~~
Recoil42
It's clearly meant for the advertising space, so compression is actually what
is being desired here.

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

~~~
loceng
It's fairly easy to turn it into a full-fledged site design application.

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

~~~
medicine23
why

~~~
mlisbit
no Linux support, I'm assuming - GNU/Linux is my preferred workspace
environment.

~~~
AlexeyBrin
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
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.

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

~~~
cbhl
It's necessary, but not sufficient. Look at Microsoft Blend for Visual Studio
(formerly Microsoft Expression Blend), for example.

~~~
topbanana
I don't think it was such a bad tool, it just targeted a dead-end platform
(Silverlight)

~~~
heartbreak
And a not-so-dead-end platform (WPF).

~~~
topbanana
Well, that's been killed off too effectively. All focus is on WinRT (that
hardly any are using)

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

~~~
ChikkaChiChi
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.

------
wakkalakka
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
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
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!

~~~
tumultco
Yes, we ultimately felt it was a fool's errand, especially because we're a
startup with limited resources so we need to focus on the right problems. When
we launched version 1.0 long ago it seemed like this wasn't necessary for a
"minimum viable product" considering we're targeting graphic designers who
might not have as much coding experience anyways.

There hasn't been much that's swayed us otherwise -- I think it was the right
call.

------
hiyou102
Another product without linux support from Google. This is getting
frustrating.

~~~
zalew
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
Or end of life it. One of the two. Good luck!

------
wudf
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

------
navpatel
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
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.

------
marincounty
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.

------
x0054
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.

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

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

------
ChikkaChiChi
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.

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

------
johnhess
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.

------
jneal
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
I second that. The support page almost screams that.

------
impresario
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)

------
tommaxwell
No Chromebook support? Interesting.

------
ChuckMcM
[http://web.archive.org/web/19970210151434/http://www1.sausag...](http://web.archive.org/web/19970210151434/http://www1.sausage.com/hotdog32.htm)
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.

------
sickboy38
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

------
csears
Installed. Tried it. Uninstalled.

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

------
danso
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.

------
petemill
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.

------
steren
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
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-...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2012/07/ninja-power-open-source-html5-toolset-hopes-to-unleash-the-
web/)

[https://github.com/mikestowe/ninja](https://github.com/mikestowe/ninja)

------
neave
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.

------
ss64
Well I suppose 'better than Flash' can't be a particularly high bar to jump.

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

------
jebblue
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?

------
D9u
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?

------
radley
Mac users may find the Windows layout confusing or frustrating.

------
wil421
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.

------
Canutesun
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
Nope, I'm using Ubuntu and instead of download link see this message:
"Available for Mac and PC"

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

------
xbryanx
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."

------
DigitalWorkshop
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

------
nish1500
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.

------
joeld42
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.

------
kylelibra
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.

------
johnx123-up
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
Same here, in the German version of XP:

    
    
      Der Prozedureinsprungpunkt "GetSystemDefaultLocaleName"
      wurde in der DLL "KERNEL32.dll" nicht gefunden.

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

~~~
gwdengineer
Hi,

Google Web Designer is free. ;o)

Thanks, Google Web Designer team

~~~
Slackwise
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
Hi,

No, we misunderstood what davexunit meant by "free" and are sorry for the
confusion.

Thanks, Google Web Designer team

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

------
oscargrouch
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
That was a long stretch there pal.

~~~
oscargrouch
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..

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adrianlmm
I would call it "Google adds designer" instead.

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BigChiefSmokem
We need a head-2-head with Adobe Edge:
[http://html.adobe.com/edge/](http://html.adobe.com/edge/)

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

~~~
LandoCalrissian
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.

~~~
bliker
Sadly it is introduced as industry standard for many students. Mainly for
design schools where they also require Photoshop.

~~~
camus
You never used Dreamweaver in your life. It has a great template system which
make it easy to generate static websites, live inspection with an embedded
webkit engine , and a very good style manager. Dreamweaver is definetly
productive when it comes to integration or prototyping.

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MrBra
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?

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jhawk28
My corporate network policy blocks the installation. They need a standalone
install that doesn't require google update.

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

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

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

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vobla
[http://html5maker.com](http://html5maker.com) looks more promising...

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

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

------
ajmarsh
No Chrome OS version? Disappointing.

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toblender
Well there goes my web design job...

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

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

------
tareqak
Makes sense to me.

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

~~~
camus
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...)

------
ChrisArchitect
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
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.

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

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

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

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

~~~
wavefunction
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...

------
stevoski
Hotdog!

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

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

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

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mrmondo
No Linux version Not open source Proprietary file format

------
hamorim
Had my attention for only three minutes!

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general_failure
Why does this use absolute positioning?

~~~
ux-app
why not?

------
acchow
I wish this were a self-hosed web app.

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itsbits
What will be output? WebGL or canvas?

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CmonDev
Still a desktop app - there you go!

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outside1234
Is there a countdown clock yet for when this will be end of lifed?

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tlarkworthy
urgh, can't download with linux

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rfnslyr
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...

------
the1
comes with rootkits. a typical googleware

