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Search giant Googles latest feature, a personalized Web page creator, appeared to have stumbled on its first day, Feb. 23.
However, Google says it planned the limited release to last for just a few hours worth of sign-ups.
Capacity issues forced the company on Feb. 23 to temporarily stop letting people sign up for Page Creator.
The reason? An “extremely strong demand,” according to a message found on the site. “Please submit your e-mail address and we will notify you as soon as we are ready to add new accounts.”
Google Reader and Google Analytics, two of Googles other applications, also opened and closed on their first days.
Googles new service promises easy-to-create Web pages, stored on Googles servers. Each page has a Web address that begins with the users Google account name followed by “.googlepages.com.”
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., already offers a free, do-it-yourself Web publishing feature, Google Blogger, but it caters to those with more sophisticated Internet skills. Page Creator is for users whose Web knowledge is more rudimentary.
Page Creator competes with many other Web hosting services, most notably Google rival Microsofts Live.com initiative and its growing base of at least 100,000 users.
By adding a second “publish-your-own” feature, Google is pushing even deeper into the Web hosting market.
Chris Sherman, executive editor of SearchEngineWatch, suggested that Google may be mimicking MySpace, “a popular personal home-page cum social network service recently purchased by News Corp. for $580 million.”
Editors Note: This story was updated to correct the interpretation of the Page Creator shutdown, based on information from Google.