This is my first blog post as lead developer for the new online website builder, which until recently we'd been calling "The Builder". Now that the internal workings of this new builder are actually starting to gel and become truly remarkable, we were able to spend some time and give our new creation a name: SiteGIDGET. I think it's perfect, and I'm definitely excited about what future months are going to bring. This and subsequent blog posts are going to be a big part of that future.

So, I'd like to start the ball rolling with a question: why is that all the other web-based page builders I've tried or evaluated feel that in order to get WYSIWYG they need to sacrifice standards and accessibility? Some of the builders even generate Flash as their content, and those that do generate HTML create pages that are bloated with each element's CSS information inline. What's more, all of them seem to create elements that have no relationship whatsoever with the other elements on the page. If I make a bordered rectangle and then put content in it, doesn't it stand to reason that I want that content to be actually inside the element, and not just over top of it?

When I started on what would become SiteGIDGET my first decision was this: not only did the new website builder have to be useable by the untrained website proprietor, but it also had to be a tool that a website designer could use for her clients when building the website. A designer would want to be able to construct a template with the design elements of the page separated from the content through external stylesheets, as well as being valid XHTML with a semantic heirarchy of elements. It was crucial that SiteGIDGET be a tool that would excite the designer as well as empower the user. I can say without a shadow of doubt that SiteGIDGET is that tool. I can also predict that SiteGIDGET will forever have a place in history as the first truly modern online website builder available today.

How can I say this with such confidence? I'm a website developer, and I'm going to be using SiteGIDGET from now on for all my client sites. There was only one person it had to impress and it has done so and then some.