Squarespace: so close (1st impressions)

Some may have noted that I was tinkering with setting up a Squarespace account. I'd noticed their ads in several places, and once they started getting airtime on MacBreak Weekly, I figured it was time to give them a second look. Having the no-obligation two week trial finally got me to at least sign up and kick the tires to see what I was missing.

The good news in favor of Ss (that's what I'll abbreviate to for now) is that the presentation is slick, and they're definitely pushing the bounds of what you would expect from a modern, AJAXy web app experience. So much of the presentation is just gorgeous, it makes a great 1st impression. However, it's the details that will get you in the end.

As you might expect, an all-in-one solution like this caters to those who just want to get online no matter what. The user has seen other sites with flashy bits and bobs and connections to social networking yadda yadda and wants something like that right now. If you're happy with someone else doing almost ALL of the driving, then this may be the perfect solution for you.

But an odd thing happens, namely that Ss tries to offer pro aspects as well, but in doing so, sets expectations for professionals WAY too high, implying that this could be a professional soltuion, when it's far too rigid to offer the occasional flexibility a pro demands. For instance, the analytics look great, but seems limited against more established analytics like Mint or even Google Analytics. Again, if you just want to see a view from 50,000 feet of what's hitting your site, this would do the trick, but Analytics does a lot more, with less sizzle (admittedly) for free. Wouldn't be that big of an issue normally, but it's darned hard to change anything truly integral to a web page in your site, so as not to break scripting that's critical for the Squarespace system to work. Yes, you can edit any of the basic presentation to however you see fit, but you'll be hamstrung by some choice by the Ss designers and be at a loss as to why such decisions had been made. Plus, editing styles one at a time from one look into a completely non-template-y looking new one is a lesson in patience. It's like trying to build a new house by buying an old only and replacing it one brick at a time.

Overall, I like what' they've done here, and I can see the power, but it's just not for me.