Free online tools that help you create and host a site

SmashingApps--are they related to the ever excellent Smashing Magazine?--published a list of 13 online tools that help you create and host a site, for free. Not exactly material for professional web designers and high-traffic websites, but still an inspiring and interesting selection.

First on list is Flash creation service Wix.com, with whom we recently sat down for an interview, published on our sister site IdeaCafe.

"Wix is also the first Flash website platform that allows search engines to easily crawl through, facilitating the same Search Engine Optimization that can be achieved with HTML sites. SEO is a huge benefit for small businesses. When you want to make a change to your site you don't need to call a designer or a coder, you simply go into your Wix site, make any changes (e.g., add a new employee background, promote an upcoming business event) press enter and re-publish your site with the changes."

Some of the other services are:

• Weebly -- template-based sites and blogs
• Google Sites -- another template service by the "Do no evil" guys
• Microsoft Office Live Small Business -- free Web hosting, easy-to-use design tools, and site traffic reports
• Tumblr -- share text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop or email
• SynthaSite -- free website and hosting

Read the full article.