Any opinions on Rapid Weaver? And where would I house it?

No, iWeb is not going anywhere - it is MobileMe that will not be around for you to publish your site to after June next year.

iWeb is an application just the same as RapidWeaver is and you can continue to use it for a long time after next year - all you need is for it to be compatible with the OS version that you are using, so you can most definitely use it with Snow Leopard and Lion. It will continue to work for a long time to come.

Be careful with RapidWeaver though, that although it is relatively cheap to purchase from the App Store, they make you pay for lots of add ons, so it can get quite expensive and you also cannot start with a blank template in the same way that you can with iWeb. You won't be able to import either and even if you use RapidWeaver you still won't be able to use an Apple host - you will still have to look for an alternative if you use RapidWeaver or stick with iWeb - it's MobileMe that you'll need to find an alternative for.

All you have to do is look for a new host - it is this that Apple is withdrawing and not iWeb itself.

Go and have a look at http://www.godaddy.com and http://www.hostexcellence.com and if you want free hosting, then do a Google search putting in free web hosting and you'll get lots of options.

1. Yes, as long as you have your domain.sites file, then iWeb will open it and you can make as many alterations to your website as you like.

2. Yes, you'll need to register a domain name with GoDaddy, but as well as this you'll also need to purchase hosting to go with it or you won't be able to upload.

3. It really is not hard to upload to your hosting space - use iWeb internal ftp if you are using iWeb 09 and just select ftp to server. If using any other version, then you need to select publish to a local folder and use Cyberduck to upload instead.

First step though, register a domain name and purcahse some hosting space with GoDaddy.

Since iWeb uses java script for it's navbars it is less search engine friendly than if you were to create your own text based navbar. However, a bigger factor in getting recognized in search engines is letting them know you exist. See the following page in Roddy's iWeb for Musicians site: Search Engine Optimization.

It is now common knowledge that iWeb, and iDVD, has 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 will be 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.

I found that if I published my site to a folder on my hard drive and then uploaded with a 3rd party FTP client subscriptions to slideshows and the RSS feed were broken. If I published directly from iWeb to the FPT server those two features continued to work correctly.

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

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: #26 - How to Modify iWeb So Popup Slideshows Will Work After MobileMe is Discontinued.

This may be of some interest to you: Life After MobileMe.

OT

I have used RapidWeaver for a personal website, but it is much harder to use - not WYSIWYG. I use Hostek.com for hosting, they offer good support and they are not expensive.

Sandvox 2 is the best iWeb replacement , i have buy RapidWeaver 5 and never work for me too complex,With Sandvox i make a simple website first page in about a day but RapidWeaver never get it for me.

RapidWeaver cost me about 79.99 and Sandvox about 49.99 with is Launch at Apple Apps Store.In addition i can confirm it cost me the same price (79.99) to add plugins to RapidWeaver 5 , expensive.

So you have two options keep iWeb or migrate to Sandvox 2 who is better but still simple from Apps Store.

It is now common knowledge that iWeb, and iDVD, has 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 will be 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.

I found that if I published my site to a folder on my hard drive and then uploaded with a 3rd party FTP client subscriptions to slideshows and the RSS feed were broken. If I published directly from iWeb to the FPT server those two features continued to work correctly.

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

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: #26 - How to Modify iWeb So Popup Slideshows Will Work After MobileMe is Discontinued.

This may be of some interest to you: Life After MobileMe.

OT