Need the loo AND need to build a website? There's an app for that
Dammit, Roger, I can't wait for Windows 98 to boot
Email delivery: 4 steps to get more email to the inbox
Geocities saviour Jimdo has launched an iOS app, allowing instant fanboi-friendly website creation for those moments when inspiration strikes and a Facebook post just isn't enough.
Want to set up a new website, but can't be bothered to boot up a computer – let alone learn HTML? Jimdo will fix that with a WYSIWYG iOS app which walks one though template selection and copy submission to have a site up-and-running before one's laptop has finished booting.
The eight million sites already on Jimdo might all look similar, thanks to heavy use of the aforementioned templates, but as they conform to the modern design ethic (long page length, static border, banner graphic, navigation menu in text, etc) that's forgiveable.
In these days of social media it seems slightly archaic for small organisations to have a dedicated web presence at all, but many people clearly value their virtual real estate.
Just like the Geocities of old, the basic service is free, funded by mandatory advertising. There are two tiers of premium membership offered which strip out Jimdo's adverts while maintaining the stamped-out look common across the sites.
Jimdo isn't the only hosted web service to go mobile. Weebly has Android and iOS apps for managing previously-created sites, and Simpl has an iPad app for creating sites, but Jimdo (inevitably) reckons it's got the best app around.
Jimdo is an interesting company, primarily because it's been making money since 2009 without raising any venture capital. Started in 2007, in Germany, the company profited from the shutdown of Geocities and currently employs 179 people spread between Hamburg, San Francisco, Tokyo and Shanghai.
We don't know quite how many people need a web site so urgently they can't wait for a PC to boot, but as tablets increasingly eat into tasks traditionally associated with desktop computing perhaps this is just another step towards the day when mobile computing makes up all computing. ®
