Death of Web hosting (and Galleries and iDisk) confirmed.

This is really ****. I've pushed, cajoled and encouraged people to buy Apple for over 20 years. No more!!!

It would've been much more appropriate to provide user instructions on how the millions of iWeb users should plan to migrate to something else. Just shutting it down---even with a year's notice--is really poor customer service. With over 50 websites published in my various accounts---where should I go? what should I use to reformat all of the meta data and site info? How to safely download---upload to a better company..etc...

This decision may have a solid background of support in corporate discussions about future directions, but it thus far has been extremely poorly managed. We need to all drop the stock price a percentage point with a dedicated internet blasting campaign on every mac blog we can find.

Apple-- you are NOT thinking clearly on this at all. You failed to include the ramifications on dedicated customers in your decision.

Very angry apple enthusiast with 20 years of apple experience.

You stated your point well!
I am in the same boat and very upset with Apple!

They have been making so many changes in the past ten years and it is getting a little tiring.

If they want to stop iWeb they should >slowly< let this go not so sudden!

I do not think I will be recommending apple to friends as they will get frustrated with all these changes.

I even encouraged a user to start using iWeb for her sites, so much for that!

I think it is time some real people manage Apple, as if this is Steve's decision, he should not be while he is ill.

What's next? iPhoto? (shudder)

True. iWeb still does what it always did. The decision is whether or not to stay with a possibly dead end software package.

With the exception of comments on blog posts, counters, and a couple of other things, republishing to another hosting service is a snap.

Apple didn't pull the rug out from under us, they told us they're rolling up the rug in about a year. That's plenty of time for someone to make arrangements for the transition.

Couldn't agree more.

Yes, for those of you who are younger with still agile memory systems, this may be enough time. However, I've been a dedicated Apple user since 87. I'm finding that time exponentially speeds up the older you get. I year in your time is now equal to 3 months for me. So I needed 4 years notice, not one. OR, Apple needs to focus better to introduce things they MAY keep around as BETA or CUSTOMER DRIVEN projects. That way they can pull the plug later, but it won't be a total surprise. They SHOULD do this or their reputation on soldiness/steadfastness will become damaged, which is the only reputation keeping them alive when in comparison to Microsoft. I'm not saying that's all they have to their reputation because I am a Mac Addict, but when reading criticisms by Microsoft people, that's the one reputation they can't smear.

For simple websites iWeb will still be a viable solution. If it's working for you now it should be adequate for later unless you get into more advananced features than your using now or want to create a mobile device site. The following is my standard "iWeb is not dead" post:

As you now know iWeb and iDVD have been discontinued by Apple. This is evidenced by the fact that new Macs are shipping with iLife 11 installed but without iWeb and iDVD.

On June 30, 2012 MobileMe was shutdown. HOWEVER, iWeb will still continue to work but without the following:

Features No Longer Available Once MobileMe is Discontinued:

◼ Password protection

◼ Blog and photo comments

◼ Blog search

◼ Hit counter

◼ MobileMe Gallery

All of these features can be replaced with 3rd party options.

Currently if the site is published directly from iWeb to the 3rd party server the RSS feed and slideshow subscription features will work. However, if the site is first published to a folder on the hard drive and then uploaded to the sever with a 3rd party FTP client those two features will be broken.

There's another problem and that's with iWeb's popup slideshows. Once the MMe servers are no longer online the popup slideshow buttons will not display their images.

Click to view full size

This issue will come into play when Apple takes down the MMe servers. Currently they are still up so that uses can download their MMe Gallery photos and iDisk files. Eventually when the servers are taken down you will see this issue. You can see what it will be like by publishing your site to a folder on your hard drive, disconnecting from the internet, opening the site with your browser and playing a slideshow.

However, Roddy McKay and I have figured out a way to modify existing sites with those slideshows and iWeb itself so that those images will display as expected once MobileMe servers are gone. How to is described in this tutorial: iW14 - Modify iWeb So Popup Slideshows Will Work After MobileMe is Discontinued.

OT