Jimdo Relaunches Pretty and Simple

Jimdo is a super simple web site creation tool that uses the power of Ajax to help users create striking pages quickly and easily. The site was just re-launched with design changes and a small social element that allows users to browse other Jimdo pages easily. Other improvements include; page search, tag clouds, page rankings and various other methods for navigating the world of Jimdo pages.

The bottom line for these type sites for me is: “Does it do the job well?” In the case of Jimdo the tool creates very nice web pages easily and best of all for free. In a nutshell, the service is designed to help non-technical users make pages and it does this as well as Weebly or Google Page Creator (maybe better). This latest upgrade addresses enhancing the look and the social aspect of Jimdo, which was not totally necessary in my view. I must say I like some of the new looks and browsing other Jimdo sites is fun.

Tools at a Glance

Jimdo creates a web page for new users automatically and emails the details to them. This is rather cool especially since all the elements are easily customizable on login. Interestingly, the site appears virtually the same in either the online live version and in the admin mode. By clicking and altering page elements the user can add, subtract, expand upon and essentially customize anything with a few clicks. Integrating photos, video, RSS and other elements is purely simple and fun. In the image below I simply moved some elements and added a video of the ending of the Bourne Ultimatum via YouTube. Users will find the UI intimately discoverable, as it took me only seconds to make what you see here.  

Moving things around and watching them change is very cool and helpful

In the example below I have added the ending to the Bourne Ultimatum, Profy's RSS news feed, changed the header and redone the title and initial text. The whole process from signup to finish took less than 5 minutes. This is a very simple and versatile creation tool and though Web pages are not as in vogue as they once were, imagine what Jimdo could do for blogs!

Yes, that's me – the ultimate blogger all right!

Conclusion

Jimdo's relaunch is about aesthetics and more user flexibility. Tagging and describing pages has been added as well as a cool search option that categorizes Jimdo pages according to several criteria. This simple addition is actually rather a minimal thing compared to the fantastic innovation and creative essence of the tool however. It is cool to be able to browse other web sites created on Jimdo, but calling this social is not exactly accurate. If the developers would focus on integrating this tool as a blog creation innovation, that would be something.