You Need 50 Megs, and What Do You Get?
Written: Nov 27 '00 (Updated Nov 27 '00)
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TopCities
TopCities (http://www.topcities.com) provides 50 MB of web space for free. This space can be used for uploading and storing files using the TopCities web-based file manager. However, the TopCities service is really geared to free web hosting, and the terms of service are quite clear about that. The Terms of Use specify that the free space “must be used primarily for the display of HTML pages.” The free web sites feature the user’s choice of inline banners or pop-up ads (a banner at the top of the page is the default).
For users willing to live with a pop-up window or a banner ad, TopCities offers some attractive features, including:
• web page templates
• HTML-editing capability
• Guest books
• Message boards
• Form mail
• File management and uploading including the creation and deletion of directories
• A subdomain name of http://yourname.topcities.com
• Resources and support for ActiveX controls, Java, JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, and Cascading Style Sheets
The EasyUpload feature allows the user to make multiple selections from his or her computer and to upload up to five files at one time. While the TopCities service is supposedly cross-browser compliant, there is an obvious bias toward Microsoft Internet Explorer, as evidenced in the following statement posted by the TopCities Administrator in one of the help forums: “A note to Netscape users: Due to internal bugs in the Netscape browser, some of you will experience difficulties in using EasyUpload. We suggest you use Internet Explorer instead.”
Easy to Use
I signed up for a TopCities account, providing a modicum of personal information in return, most of which was required (income was optional, gender and age were not). As soon as I created my account, my password was e-mailed to me, and within minutes I was creating my first web page.
Deciding to use one of the basic templates, I followed the fill-in-the-blank approach. My page was immediately available for previewing and saving. The HTML code is accessible from the template view and can be edited directly from within the template. However, if one chooses to go to the Advanced Editor and fine tune the HTML code, the opportunity to edit the page from the template view is no longer available.
The basic templates are thoughtfully designed and effective, though quite limited in variety. One has the basic choice of “cool blue,” which I chose, and “pink clouds,” which I did not. My page took all of about ten minutes to create and customize.
A strange thing happened when I tried to insert navigational links in the left column of the template (as suggested). Though the text appears white on the blue background, the blue hyperlinks disappeared completely. By placing my mouse where they should appear, I discovered that TopCities was using the “hover link” effect by making use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) styles embedded in the head section of the HTML page. I edited the style attributes to change the link color, and suddenly they appeared. This would not be something that would occur to a newbie, and would perhaps discourage him or her.
Between the fill-in-the-blank template and the advanced HTML editor (which is really not very advanced), there are intermediate EZ-Web forms that allow one to create new files with choices of background colors or images, text colors, link colors. These files can also be edited in EZ-Web, but as before, will no longer be editable in the template version if one accesses the HTML code directly.
Making HTML as Hard as Possible
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the TopCities web-building suite is the “advanced” HTML editor. In concept, it is well conceived. Both a preview pane and an HTML box are displayed, so that HTML changes can be immediately previewed. In practice, however, the HTML box is only two or three lines high, making it difficult to edit the code. Further, clicking on the “HTML Code” button, rather than performing the expected task of exposing the entire page’s HTML code, saves the file and returns to the home page. My cynical side would tell me that this is by design, so as to keep novices out of HTML coding by continuing the myth that HTML is obscure and difficult.
You Could Roll Your Own and Bring it
One can, of course, import his or her own HTML files from any other source and save them to the TopCities web space. In this regard, TopCities surpasses Homestead. Unlike Homestead, which keeps the user from importing the main or index page from outside the program, TopCities allows the user to delete and import the main page.
Other Features
Guest books and message boards are easy to insert in one’s pages. From the main page, the user can set up, configure, and administer these features. Both are completely customizable, including background, text, and link colors, table colors, and headers and footers. Once the feature is activated, TopCities generates the HTML code and the user simply copies it into the page of choice. As with virtually every other aspect of TopCities, there are basic and advanced versions of the code. The advanced version allows the user physically to insert the guest book or message board, while the basic version permits the creation of a link to it—the preferable alternative in my estimation.
Noticeably missing from the TopCities main page are links to the “elements” for which Homestead is famous: counters, chat rooms, e-commerce solutions, clip art, scrolling text, and so on. For the enterprising, of course, many of these elements are free for the taking from various web sites, and in defense of TopCities, many links to resources such as graphics and Dynamic HTML elements do appear on their Links page (though the user is left to his or her own devices as to how to import and configure them).
Is TopCities Tops?
This curious set of circumstances makes TopCities neither fish nor fowl. It cannot compete directly with a full-blown HTML editor, but neither does it compete effectively with a non-HTML-based page creation and web site management tool such as Homestead.
Who would enjoy TopCities? Someone just learning HTML who would like a free 50 MB space in which to experiment with his or her coding. Or someone willing to live with a fairly innocuous inline banner (or an obnoxious pop-up ad) and looking for a substantial amount of web space for free.
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Note: Those interested in seeing what a TopCities site created from one of their templates looks like can visit the site I created at the following address:
http://lap0530.topcities.com
(oh, and don’t forget to sign my guest book!)
Recommended:
Yes
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lap0530
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Location: Anderson, SC
Reviews written: 122
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Psychology and management professor and business consultant
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