When I got an email to check out the new online website builder Jimdo, I wasn’t sure what to expect. WYSIWYG editors in general have left a lot to be desired, and the big one in the online arena, Google’s Page Creator is okay, but really pretty bland. But about one minute into loading up Jimdo, I realized this was something far greater.

Jimdo seemingly does what Google Page Creator wants to do: create a simple environment online to manipulate your own webpages. Whereas Page Creator reminds me in some ways of (dare I say) Microsoft’s old FrontPage webpage program, Jimdo reminds me more of something Google would make!

When you’re in creation/edit mode all you have to do for pretty much anything is click on the area you want to edit and an edit box will drop down for you to easily do so. Change the background, put a new header image up, it’s so easy to do.

Jimdo also get the multiple page situation right. When you start, they give you an ‘About Me’ page, a ‘Picture Gallery’ page, a ‘Video’ page, a ‘News’ page, and more. If you don’t like one of their suggestions, simply hit the trash icon to delete it. Want a new one? Hit the plus icon and create any kind of page you want. You can bring in RSS feeds, you can add Flickr feeds, add some YouTube videos, bring in Del.icio.us links, it’s extremely open-ended. You can even password-protect certain pages!

One of the best features is the use of sliders to dictate where text should go (horizontally and vertically) in your header. For anyone who doesn’t know CSS, this could be reason alone to sign up for this service.

I didn’t even mention that Jimdo is completely free. My only explanation as to why this service isn’t bigger here in the United States yet is that they are based out of Germany (and you’ll have to forgive a few English spelling mistakes).

If you’ve been looking for a free, easy way to create a dynamic website, it doesn’t get any better then this. Google would be very wise to talk to (or scoop up…) these guys and have them improve the suddenly dull Page Creator.

Check out the Jimdo page I just threw together in a matter of minutes here.