It looks like signing up for a Googlepage has paid off!!   A few weeks ago I checked out Googlepages and was bummed out to see that it was still in closed beta.  If I wanted more information or to be notified when I could sign up, I was to leave my email address.  So, I did.  Then tonight,  I got a notification in my email that my account had been set-up!. It's still not open to everybody, but apparently, it's getting closer.

     Googlepages are Google's answer to Geocities, and other free web hosts.  With a twist.  I'm typing this into a WYSIWYG editor on a pre-made template (color and style) that I selected.  Along the left side of the screen are clickable tools for formatting, colors and other things, like bulleted lists, a small selection of font styles and font sizes and links and images.  There's a 100M size limit, but unless your going to be hosting massive audio/video files, it should be plenty to get you online.

So far, this page is just my test page.  I'm trying out all the pretty buttons and options...

Like links, let's try one...

SimplyOdd Blog 

Pretty cool.  

New! Add a gadget...like this astrology gadget. 

Some other things I'm noticing are: 

• Like Gmail's draft feature, Googlepages autosaves your work in case of disaster. 
• Creating links and inserting images is easy using ajax-enabled wizards.
• your Googlepage is all linked together with your Google or Gmail account
  

     After only spending five minutes, I can already see how easy this is going to be for someone with no (or next-to-none) web design experience.  I can't imagine that a lot of advanced features are available, but for a quick photo page or a simple resume or just a place to play and learn a little about web publishing, Googlepages are pretty sweet.