As a non-coder, and someone actually rather terrified of the “code” view in Dreamweaver, I feel it’s my duty to present notable website development platforms as they crop up. Sites like this really are a blessing for those of us that spend more time in Illustrator than Coda (give me your lunch money nerds). Virb is the newest kid on the block in this regard.
You may have heard of Virb before; their history is pretty interesting actually. What started as a social networking platform (apparently they used to be stacked up against Facebook and Myspace) has now morphed into something completely different. Strategically that was probably a good move. Now their mission is to provide the tools to build an “elegantly simple” website easily. As their CEO Brad Smith told Business Insider:
What Tumblr has done for the simplicity of setting up a blog, we want to do for the simplicity of creating a website. Sure, some people use Tumblr as their website, but at end of day its a blogging platform. We’re taking it a step further to where the entire idea is based around what we’ve always known a website to be — one location for all your content. [link]
Virb 2.0 (3.0?) feels like a mix between Squarespace and Cargo Collective, with maybe a dash of Tumblr thrown in. Overall I would say everything feels slightly simpler (perhaps to a fault) than the competition. I should mention that I am a user of Squarespace, Cargo, and Tumblr, so the Virb platform was immediately familiar to me. I haven’t really put it through the paces yet, but next time I need to create a website simply and quickly, I would consider Virb for sure.
You can rock a 7 day free trial now, but will have to pay $10 a month after that to keep things running.
Thanks for the post (and kind words), Alex.
I started using Virb first several years ago. I thought it looked better and sounded a lot better than alternative social networking kinds of sites. I was in highschool, and, simply enough, there were not enough fellow classmates there to sustain a really social dynamic. What I ended up using the site for was finding and listening to music I hadn’t, and wouldn’t have, heard otherwise. Virb is where I first found out about Tycho, and, later iso50.
As is my habit with most websites, I left if for a good while, and came back to a prettier version two. For the lack of friends on the site, I found it hard being bothered to try and learn what was new with it, I left again.
Funny enough, reading this here, which I read because of Virb itself, I find myself bothering to learn to use it, and hardly being bothered at all. It does work like what a tumblr user would be accustomed to. It looks good without being so terribly frustrating to a non-coder, and, from what I see now, it looks to be a really wonderful platform for sharing things you make – especially if those things aren’t websites.
The list of what’s to come in the future looks exciting, and I think I might just be bidding my other hosting adéu.
-Charlie
Good to know. Not to mention their rebrand looks nice. How’d the audition go for idol man??
I definitely appreciate the new direction and look of Virb, but I must admit, I was pretty sad to see the free platform go away. I understand they may have had to make some sacrifices, but it put some serious limits on the user. As with Tumblr and Cargo, at least they have free or extended memberships.
I must say I’m impressed that they admit they failed and are trying something completely different and relevant. Good for them!
I so excited by the launch of the new Virb and began using the site within the first minute it went public. At first I was almost disappointed because everything seemed to simple and lacked control but as I played with it over the new 6 hours I began to see so many ways to combine simple things to create a great site with almost no work. I fell in love with Virb and began telling everyone about it as projects I could move to the platform began running through my mind. I have always managed servers and written code myself but this platform was so exciting because I began to think of all those small sites for friends and small non-profits/business that just need a simple site.
Making a website is really not that tough, and top of all, you can create a website or more website for free.
Building a website is a extremely individual skill and is different with each client.
It is more about revealing your business to new probable clients and generating new sales.
Hey there, I just noticed your RSS feed isn’t loading properly, Thought I should inform you.
Can you write another article about this subject simply because this post would be a bit tricky to comprehend?