The Woza Online service, announced yesterday by Google and several partners, makes it possible for people with limited computer skills to create a mobile-ready Web site in less than an hour; with an entry on Google Maps, SMSes to notify the business owner of customer queries although the cell number does not have to appear on the Web site, and a simple product and price listing.
Woza Online targets small business owners who do not have Web sites yet, either because of the cost or complexity incurred in the past, to “get online and get found online”, says Bryan Nelson, Google business development manager.
Creating a Web site is a matter of connecting to the Internet on a desktop or laptop computer, creating a Google account and typing in answers to a few questions.
For example, “how would you describe your business in one sentence?” has a few suggestions on describing a small start-up business. One click chooses a “look” for the Web site, from several available templates. The typed-in answers then appear in a professional-looking Web site, along with uploaded photos.
Woza Online is not the first online service to offer simple and free Web site construction. Services such as Yola have been available for a while, and currently offer a broader feature set, such as integration into forms and online shopping baskets.
What distinguishes Woza Online, however, is that Web sites built on the service are mobile-ready for Android, iPhone and BlackBerry, as well as feature phones.
Non-techie Web site owners do not need to hassle with local domain name registrations or annual subscriptions to get their sites' domain names South African. A Woza Online Web site name is in the format www.YOURBUSINESS.wozaonline.co.za, and registered and hosted for free by Vodacom.
“We should have a target of at least a 100 000 [new] Web sites online in a year. [But up to now] people don't know how to create Web sites or how to go about it,” said Dr Taddy Blecher, co-founder of CIDA City Campus, at the Woza Online announcement yesterday. “The great thing about this [a Woza Online site] is it can be in any language. If you want to create your Web site in Zulu or Xhosa for your target market, and have it translated, that is also possible.”
Share