Plenty going on in the run up to the holiday season - as ever, November saw a lot of Domain Name activity with the deregulation of Spanish '.es' domain names and the price of Australian '.com.au', '.net.au' domainssignificantly reduced. In addition, 1&1 offered customers private domain registration and RegisterFly.com introduced 'Privacy Protection' and 1GB of Disk Space. Web Hosting Provider IPOWER shocked the market by offering $2.95 Domains and UnifiedRoot broadened horizons with 'Behind the Dot' suffixes.
Of the initiatives that occurred in November, Persony launched web conferencing designed for web hosts and their customers. General news included the bizarre announcement that a web hosting company was in the process of adopting a child under its business namealongside another offering advice on ecommerce Sites for Small Businesses.
Net Services USA announced the release of a new book called "Web Hosting Manager"and in a reverse of roles, AIT opened its own gaming center. Microsoft was in web hosting news in November, with release of Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration Version 3.5 and the initiation of the company's Web Hosting Partner Program.
Some web hosts got involved in charitable causes in November; RoundBerry donated 50% of web hosting signups to charity and Aplus.Net donated to 'The John Thomas Foundation'. In addition there was the usual round of promotions; 15% discount on web hosting and domain name registration for academics and NGO's from Host Color, MochaHost.com announcing Holiday Specials and Legend Communications offering Half Price Rack Hosting. Probably the most novel promotion of the period was SiteGround's $1,000,000 Thanksgiving giveaway where customers could send $20 coupons to there friends and family.
The advent of ASP.NET 2.0 prompted a number of companies to upgrade services and packages. Web Host Gearworx introduced ASP.NET 2.0 to its range of Windows hosting plans as did Re-invent, Hosting.com, DiscountASP.NET and CrystalTech. Lunarpages also introduced design offerings to its portfolio and Arab Web Hosting Community leader > Jeeran launched a free 'Blog Service'.
There were plenty of awards to be won in November; C I Host was mentioned in the prestigious Dallas 100 Entrepreneur award, while 'The Planet' won awards that recognize its consistent growth, and 'Hosted Solutions' was ranked among the fastest growing businesses in the Carolina's. Never far way from an award, November saw Bob Parsons was awarded the prestigious 'Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year Award.'
