Web designers eager to meet Front Page challenge

Microsoft's domination of the Web authoring tool market is so overwhelming that major research firms find little profit in measuring it.

"Everyone tries to categorize themselves as being in some different category from Microsoft FrontPage," says Harley Manning, research director at Boston-based

Forrester Research. "But the dirty little secret is that Microsoft Front Page is about 10 times more prevalent in the marketplace than the next closest competitor which would be Macromedia Dreamweaver." According to Manning, the last time research was conducted into HTML tools, Microsoft Front Page had about 2.5 million active users, while sales of competitors' tools ranged in the hundreds of thousands. On the graphics side, the biggest seller is Adobe's PhotoShop and Illustrator, with Flash and Shockwave gaining popularity as design tools.

There is another trend, however. As Web site creation trickles down to the masses, many amateur designers are using the simplified thin-client front ends that come with content management tools.