Rumor: Steve Jobs says iWeb and MobileMe hosting are going away

Those of us with a vested interest in iWeb have been perplexed by the lack of interest shown by Apple in the former iLife web design app. Couple this with the pending demise of MobileMe on June 30, 2012, and that confusion turns into concern. MacRumors featured a post a few hours ago about an iWeb/MobileMe fan who was so concerned about the lack of iWeb love coming from Apple that the user sent Steve Jobs an email.

In the email the iWeb user asked, "Will I need to find an alternative website builder and someone to host my sites?" The alleged response from the CEO of Apple: "Yep."

iWeb's discontinuation wouldn't be completely surprising. When iLife '11 debuted late last year, the lack of a new version of iWeb frustrated a number of users. When iCloud was announced last week, there was no indication that websites created with iWeb and hosted on MobileMe would have a migration path to the new world of Apple cloud computing.

There are many free website alternatives to a MobileMe-hosted iWeb site, such as WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, and Posterous; paid options include Squarespace, Drupal Gardens and hundreds more. In addition, Facebook is an excellent alternative for both individuals or companies who just want to create a simple web presence to inform friends or customers of what's going on. If your needs are for a straightforward yet powerful WYSIWIG web authoring environment, both RapidWeaver and Sandvox deliver much of iWeb's power with more flexibility for non-MobileMe hosting.

For those who still want to have their websites designed in iWeb and hosted somewhere other than on MobileMe, you might want to start looking for low-cost web hosting soon.