WebProNews

GoDaddy has released as service called SmartSpace, which it claims will make creating web sites  - complete with blogs, chat rooms, email addresses, photo galleries, and video showcases - easy for people that are not the least bit "tech savvy."

There is definitely potential for this service, considering that so many businesses have yet to create an online presence for themselves. Anything to ease the transition to the Internet is sure to be a welcome tool. This is especially true for businesses seeking online customers as brick and mortar numbers dwindle in a weak economy. Ben Kepes at Diversity writes:

Personalized homepages are a big market - with NetVibes, iGoogle, Yahoo et al entering the fray - this is a smart move for GoDaddy, as it ties the hosting of the URL to the actual homepage - thereby increasing stickiness.

My pick to watch for would be the roll out of simple e-commerce functionality to go with the personal homepages - thereby creating a one stop shop for hosting, web presence and transactional functions. Nice work guys!

GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons is certainly proud of the company's new offering. "This is a game changer. It really levels the Internet for everyone," he says. "SmartSpace technology binds onto the domain name itself, transforming something as simple as a name into one place where all your favorite elements can live online...Your family photos, your business blog, your resume, your kids' video or your social page--it's all there. SmartSpace is smart enough to be pretty much whatever you want it to be."

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of SmartSpace is not only was it designed specifically with "novice" users in mind, to make getting on the web as simple as possible, but it also brings together elements like social networks and RSS feeds into one place (called SocialSpace), which could be useful for anybody. "This consolidates a user's collection of online identities into one Web site address," says GoDaddy. "Now, instead of giving family and friends multiple links to track you, they only need to remember a single address you create."

Basically, SmartSpace seems to be personalized homepage meets social networking. Read Write Web had some pretty positive things to say about it: "Will SocialSpace kill MySpace and Facebook? That's highly doubtful, but it could be a nice aggregator for those looking to establish a web presence with minimal work. And because it's from GoDaddy, a household name thanks to their high profile TV commercials and ad campaigns, this move also represents what may be the final leap where 'social media' fully crosses over to the mainstream use and acceptance."

It will certainly be one to keep an eye on. I'm not as sold on this being the tool to bring the mainstream to social media as RRW, but for businesses, it looks to be a very viable resource to get owners on the web. With plans just over $4 a month, it is at least an affordable one.