Google (News – Alert) has announced the launch of Web Designer. This is a new tool for building interactive HTML5 sites and ads. Google calls the Web Designer a "professional-quality design tool" it is now available for download for Mac and Windows.

Google says, "Web Designer was developed to allow advertisers to easily create HTML5 ads for mobile and desktop." Before its release Google said that advertisers “didn’t have the tools they needed to easily develop content fit for today’s cross-screen experiences."

There is nothing in Google’s new tool that would prevent you from building interactive single-page sites and animations for other purposes, as well. Some of Web Designers features are currently only available for ads, but Google does say that it plans to expand these tools for other purposes in the near future.

The Web Designer is a visual tool, but it allows you to delve right into the JavaScript and CSS (News – Alert) to fine-tune different aspects of your website. Web Designer allows its user to manipulate all of their code directly in a built-in editor. You can also quickly preview your creations in the browsers you have installed on your computer. 

Some of the tools Google has developed for Web Designer include a pen tool for free drawing, and a time line for managing your animations. Web Designer features the ability to create 3D content.

It features a Quick mode for building animations scene by scene. The main purpose of Web Designer appears to be to provide a way to produce Adobe (News – Alert) Flash-style animated advertisements in HTML5/CSS3 without using Flash.

When Google announced the launch of Web Designer, the company said that the “beta app is available as a free download for Windows PC and Mac OS X."

"Google Web Designer makes it simple to publish ads through any platform. Choose from DoubleClick (News – Alert) Studio or AdMob, or go for the Generic option to push content through any other ad network. No coding required," Google added.