Google’s free website builder for small business in South Africa, Woza Online, is pulling the plug on thousands of sites in March 2015.<\/p>\n
Google Business Sitebuilder websites for users who signed up through the South Africa Woza Business Online program will no longer be visible from 28 February 2015<\/a>, Google said.<\/p>\n Site owners will have to recreate their sites on another Google service or migrate to a different host.<\/p>\n Admins will still be able to log in to their accounts to retrieve photos and text until May 1 2015.<\/p>\n Woza online launched in South Africa in 2012, and quickly grew to host over 40,000 SME websites on the platform.<\/p>\n However, the platform became a hot-bed for online fraudsters and scammers, notably with reported cases of credit card detail harvesting arising from fake sites.<\/p>\n Online marketplace Bidorbuy.co.za previously warned its users against scams arising from the Woza Online platform, and fraudulent sites database, Artists Against 419 noted a number of scams coming from the service.<\/p>\n Woza Online\u00a0will be ‘replaced’ by Google My Business<\/a>, another free business service which creates a public profile for businesses, offering easier visibility on Google Search, Google Maps and Google+.<\/p>\n Google says that Woza users can either recreate their basic business information on Google My Business, or sign on with its “trusted partner”, Hostgator (a paid-for service), to continue their website, with My Business integration.<\/p>\n Google said the Woza online switch-off would not affect any existing Google accounts or emails, but any purchased domain names would need to be transferred onto a new hosting platform.<\/p>\n Woza Online reaches 40,000 SMEs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Google signs up 25,000 SMEs for Woza Online<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nWhere to now?<\/h3>\n
More on Woza Online<\/h3>\n