The lack of mention about WebHosting and lack of updates to iWeb add significant credence to this rumour. Assuming that it is true, I am really P****d about this!

OK I understand that iWeb was long in the tooth. There are much better tools out there. I’ve used GoLive and Dreamweaver and they’re good, albeit a lot more complex than I need. I understand though, that iWeb might not be worth the effort. (Of course this will make like the 5th time I’ve changed web authoring tools. That itself might not have been so bad but each time I’ve had to rebuild my site from scratch because each tool uses custom code that the others can’t deal with.)

But, I’ve had my site on Apple’s servers since iTools. At least a decade of loyal support. Even when free services came along I stayed with iTools/.Mac/MobileMe for my hosting at $99 per year. My trips, my writing, my photos, my essays, my Xmas cards all hoisted there with good reliability and free of pushy ads or obvious data-mining. Now they just drop me without so much as a ‘by your leave’. I’m really angry about this. And no I won’t move it all over to FaceBook, or such social-disease services. Pages scattered between YouTube-FaceBook-Flicr and others is not the same as having MY web site that I manage.

I might have to set up a web server of my own.

Just wondering if iWeb’s functionality will be brought into Pages or if we truly need to stick a fork in it.

I might have to set up a web server of my own.

It’s actually really easy to do. You can still continue to use iWeb to publish it via its internal FTP until you choose an alternative.

At least the site will be up to June 2012 for free to mitigate the server transition costs, and decent web-hosting can be found for much cheaper than Apple offers (Good shared services can be found as low as $4/month and often include the domain name registration. I quite liked Hostpapa before I lost my domain name), especially now that the Push features that made MobileMe will be free with iCloud.

Now they just drop me without so much as a ‘by your leave’.

I know you said “assuming this is true”, but I think you might be jumping the gun, geoduck. There hasn’t been any official notification from Apple, let alone a confirmation that iWeb and hosting will be dropped. Maybe they’ll host your old stuff statically for a few years or possibly partner with someone to take over.

I’ve been with it since iTools too. So I feel your pain. But I also don’t take a one-word email response supposedly from “the man” as a point of aggravation.

@Jeff,

“DOA” means “Dead On Arrival”. While MobileMe had a ton of problems on arrival, I think you mean it’s “dead in the water” or a “lame duck” or that its days are numbered. It arrived years ago, it dies next June.

“DOA” is obviously wrong. you mean “EOL.”

Meanwhile, iWeb users are SOL.

It’s also possible that Steve, in his taciturn style, is just answering the “will I need a new web host” question, and ignoring the “is iWeb dead” question (in other words, iWeb would still work, but there won’t be a web server built into iCloud).

iWeb users are SOL.

Satellite of Love?

I tried iWeb and couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was too easy or it just didn’t fit my personality, I currently use Dreamweaver. When I made the switch from CybverStudio/GoLive to Dreamweaver I decided to work mostly in code view; I needed to exercise that part of my brain. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel Geoduck’s pain, just saying.

Speaking of saying, as KitsuneStudios says web hosting can generally be had quite inexpensively. I pay $8 a month for unlimited storage, 5 domains hosted, and access to the control panel among other features. The host I use has cheaper plans.

Just wondering if iWeb’s functionality will be brought into Pages or if we truly need to stick a fork in it.

That is a possibility. We already can “send to iWeb” as a PDF or Pages document. Word has a feature to save as webpage, but I have never tried it.

Word has a feature to save as webpage

Please oh please do not use Word’s export-to-HTML feature. Or, if you do, never ask anyone to tweak or edit it. The HTML source it generates contains reams of inline CSS, of which your document may only need 1% or so, plus tons of inline <span> tags, weird stuff like <![if !supportLists]>, and empty tags like <o:p></o:p>.

I might have to set up a web server of my own.

That is what I did (and I still use both iWeb and .me.com. I have ATT Uverse and self web hosting is not against the rules. So, since OSX has apache built in is was easy to configure a directory for the website and then update the router to point all traffic to that mac. I also use one of the Dynamic DNS pointer services to have my domain name point to my mac.

iWeb just updates that folder and boom my website is updated. Even have multiple sites on my mac for different functions.

Please oh please do not use Word’s export-to-HTML feature. Or, if you do, never ask anyone to tweak or edit it.

Well that is why I never tried it, but that doesn’t mean that Apple, or someone else, couldn’t do it better.

Please oh please do not use Word’s export-to-HTML feature.

Agreed. Word generated HTML is an abomination.

but that doesn’t mean that Apple, or someone else, couldn’t do it better.

A chimp on LSD could generate better code.

There are alternatives to iWeb in case it is about to be EOLed and you want to replace it with something supported. One is Sandvox ( see http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/ ) . It’s certainly more like iWeb and in the same price range. Dreamweaver is overkill.

There are others, but I can’t remember their names at the moment. Likely they can be found within Apple’s list of internet utilities ( http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/ ) or Mac App Store.

If you still want to use iWeb theres no reason you can’t continue to use it.  If Apple discontinues it then you won’t get any more updates.  You can still upload the sites you produced to another web server.

Actually, yes, I did meal EOL. I have waaaaaaay too many acronyms in my world.

End of Life or End of Line as in a carriage return?

I would think that Apple has some numbers on how popular iWeb was on MobileMe. Perhaps not enough people were using it, or no longer using it. I am thinking that Facebook has bitten into such services.

We live in Facebook’s world now. It has made personal webpages obsolete. Even corporations now have a dedicated FB page.

We live in Facebook’s world now. It has made personal webpages obsolete.

I would agree for your average user, but for anyone slightly tech savvy, or someone with their own business, hosting one’s own web site is much nicer in terms of flexibility, control, privacy, etc. But you still need a Facebook page to generate social connections for yourself or your business, you just don’t put anything on there you don’t want random people or mega-corporations to have.

We live in Facebook’s world now. It has made personal webpages obsolete. Even corporations now have a dedicated FB page.

While FB might meet the needs of a lot people, it definitely did not personal webpages obsolete.

We live in Facebook’s world now. It has made personal webpages obsolete. Even corporations now have a dedicated FB page.

I just read an article over at MacWorld about the popularity of Facebook declining. Wether it is a temporary drop, or a trend remains to be seen, but either way it is still quite popular. I don’t think that is a replacement for a personal or business webpage/blog, just more convenient and easier for the hoi polloi. I have a Facebook account and am active there, but I have taken to sending friends to my own website to look at photos and video. From Facebook’s terms of service:

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

Those last three posts were serendipitous

I’m 100% with geoduck, except I don’t call less than 5 years old ‘long in the tooth’. The Mac Geek Gab is older than that (Happy Birthday guys!). I think iWeb has been neglected - but I don’t relish the alternatives.

iWeb is so easy -anyone can create and maintain their own website. It may not be cutting edge and have limitations- but it works. Same with MobileMe Gallery - a very easy way to post photos and movies on the web- without the worry.

Maybe it is EOL - I notice Ted hasn’t posted Macworld Expo 11 pics. There sits an empty album.