Another year, another business plan... Promise and expectation... Let's make it happen this time! 2007 is going to be a great year for web hosting! In this edition of HostSearch News we take a look at what happened in hosting in December, look at some key changes that took place to HostSearch.com, consider the handful of tech events that have confirmed for January 2007, and do some straight talking with CEO of WebHostingBuzz, Mr. Safvan Malik.
Plenty going on in December, despite the holiday period approaching... Probably the biggest news around was that Wikia are to offer free web hosting -- no adverts, and in fact any revenue generated by a community site goes to the developer! Jimmy Wales hasn't figured out piffling details like how he'll pay for all of this, but he's going ahead anyway! He'd better make sure those wikis work properly... a report out in December suggests badly designed sites are bad for your health and prompt "Mouse Rage Syndrome" -- this sounds terrible... I have never seen an angry mouse, except in Tom and Jerry!
Doing good deeds in December, BoxedArt offers charities free templates, Hostgator.com suspended a hate site, and HostRocket.Com, Inc. and ViaTalk LLC contributed $20,000 to the 2007 US FIRST Robotics Team. Go Daddy did the business again, taking 10.5% of the SSL market, and HostRocket.Com, Inc. hit 100,000+ websites.
Keeping ahead of the curve plenty of web hosts enhanced their services in December. Net Link Hosts restructured packages, 1Stop4Names.com's linked Quick Shopping Cart to Quickbooks, Free Rider Web Hosting offered Ruby on Rails sites, Easy CGI increased disk space and EIRCA Internet Solutions introduced failsafe clustering, as did Host The Best . Host Gator also enhanced plans, as did Gearworx,CrystalTech, and WebFaction, while Hog Wild Domains and Hosting Co. announced web-based Email 4.0, Hostopia added 30,000 images to its online library, and GoDaddy.com added a photo album and photo sharing.
Again to keep ahead of the competition, a number of hosts brought in new services. Verio offered virtual and managed hosting servers, Cyber Host Pro launched "exclusive UK-based" hosting services, VPSLink.com announced Ruby on Rails in a VPS environment, and Applied Innovations announced a new reseller offering. In addition,
BroadSpire launched PingWorx for web hosting and integrated services, Verio announced yet another service - 360-degree managed private server, The Happy Media Network launched Registrant.org, EChurch Host introduced Christian community web hosting solutions, and SSA Host opened web hosting services to the public after five years of serving clients on a private basis.
Plenty of web hosts being awarded with one thing or another in December - Verio was named finalist in the 2006 Selling Power Excellence Awards, Aplus.Net received RealMetrics web speed award, Server Intellect reached 'Gold' status, and Novara became Ireland's second largest web hosting company.
Getting ready for the New Year, there were plenty of partnerships in December. 1&1 Internet chose Everest Connections to provide fiber for its new Lenexa technology center,
Network Ten chose Hostworks as web hosting partner, Globat.com and TemplateMoster.com partnered on a new educational program, Hosted Solutions serviced WRAL.COM, Hostlogic adopted Ensim Unify, and Cobweb selected EMC and MTI.
People and companies on the move in December included a former executive of Web.com joining Peak 10, Aplus.Net planning a headquarters move, and C I Host expanding its data center. In the world of domains, Dotster announced its presence at CES 2007 and Google partnered with GoDaddy.com and eNom to sell domain names. Acquisition activity in December was spearheaded by Aplus.Net being acquired by Catalyst Investors.
Being the holiday season, you'd expect a few promotions... Basiclink.com repeated the promotion it help earlier in December, AIT offered Zune and iPod specials, MochaHost announced holiday promotions, as did Hostony, ResellerClub and Budget Hosting 4 U. Finally, AIT announced a dedicated resources promotion during the same period.
All in all, a great month topping off a great web hosting year -- bring on 2007!!!!!!
