Latest Web Hosting News by TopOfHosting.com http://www.topofhosting.com/news/ Copyright 2006-2010 TopOfHosting. All rights reserved. (The Hosting News)  –  Web hosting provider ServInt, today announced it is donating hosting services for the new philanthropic effort Indie Music for Haiti (www.indiemusicforhaiti.com). The new site from Maryland-based music studio Asparagus Media allows independent musicians to submit video clips of recent performances, new songs written for or about the crisis, and other video content [...]ServInt donates web-hosting services for new philanthropic effort Indie Music for Haiti http://www.topofhosting.com/news/servint-donates-web-hosting-services-for-new-phila.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:31:00 CST While we normally don't comment on market share fluctuations that occur in places other than America, some recent changes in the UK may bear mentioning. According to the AT Internet Institute, Google's share of the search market slipped by 1.6 percent between January and February. That's a significant amount. Indeed, as the slightly upsized figure below shows (sorry for any blurriness), if Ask and AOL had suffered similar losses, they'd have been wiped out, hitting zero. Of course, that didn't happen. Instead, both Yahoo and Bing benefited from Google's dip. Yahoo gained a not-bad 0.6 percent, and Bing increased its share by an even-better 0.7 percent. Google's still in an extremely dominant position, but given that Microsoft's about to spend $2 billion on Bing commercials in the UK, these changes are noteworthy. Microsoft might not be throwing its money away, as some people have speculated; there's now the possibility that it could extend or accelerate this growth trend. We'll be sure to write again about the UK search market next month if anything out of the ordinary happens. In the meantime, it should be interesting to see how those Bing commercials are received. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/google-suffers-market-share-stumble-in-the-uk.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:26:00 CST Social media plays an important role in problem solving and strategy development in the workplace according to a new survey of 900 human resources executives conducted by Toolbox.com and PJA. Among HR executives and professionals, social media usage outpaced editorial and vendor content consumption. Respondents used social media at a rate of 3.77 hours per week, compared to 2.77 hours of online editorial content and 2.13 hours of online vendor content. The survey indicated active participation in social media is an important part of the HR job role and acts as a resource for experience-based knowledge in the workplace. Respondents said staying current (78%) and networking with peers (71%) as the most popular uses of social media. Additionally, more than half have responded to a question asked by a peer in an online community, while nearly 50 percent have built their personal knowledge network by making connections with peers. "This survey proves HR professionals have been fast adopters of social media, not just for networking but for improving their value as professionals," said Mike O'Toole, president at PJA Advertising + Marketing. "They clearly identify social media channels as a way to increase their expertise and build their professional reputation." Key highlights from the survey include: *Social media represents 43% of total media consumption among HR respondents (compared to 32% for editorial and 25% for vendor content). *Deep experience is seen as the most important attribute in a social media expert, followed by thoughtful and detailed responses. *Nearly half of respondents say that a social media presence greatly increases or increases their value as a job candidate, while more than 50% claim that social media is important or very important in building their personal brand. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/hr-pros-see-value-in-social-media.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:15:00 CST As a VP of Data Center Facilities, Mr. Ikomi will be responsible for the design, maintenance, staffing and reliability of company's data center facilities' infrastructure across Canada. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/fusepoint-appoints-sam-ikomi-as-vp-of-data-center.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:49:00 CST SQL Profiler is a tool that allows the application and database developer to troubleshoot general SQL locking problems, performance issues and perform database tuning. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/discountaspnet-launches-sql-server-profiling-as-a.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:49:00 CST Company's new suite of dedicated hosting solutions include managed and self-managed dedicated servers featuring Xeon and Dual Xeon processors coupled with disk space and bandwidth for enterprise clients. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/ait-unveils-xeon-dedicated-server-suite.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:49:00 CST It looks like Google may be ready to wade into another controversial censorship vs. availability of services situation. A high-ranking corporate representative has welcomed the U.S. Treasury's decision to allow the exportation of online communications tools to Cuba, Iran, and Sudan. According to Frank Jordans, Bob Boorstin, Director of Corporate and Policy Communications at Google, said during a human rights meeting in Geneva, "This is a great accomplishment. We are hopeful this will help people like yourselves in this room and activists all over the world take a small step down what is certainly a long road ahead." What's more, Boorstin indicated that Google isn't going to just sit on the sidelines, wishing everyone well. Boorstin reportedly "said the Web search company would now be able to offer some of its other products in those countries," including Google Earth, Google Talk, and Picasa. This is an interesting turn of events, considering that China recently threatened to leave China over free speech issues. If Google follows through on Boorstin's remarks, the search giant's sure to face fresh questions over whether it's more interested in profits than human rights. We'll of course report on any further developments as they occur. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/google-may-offer-services-in-cuba-iran-sudan.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:11:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- The GLOBE Program, a collaborative government initiative, has chosen the Dynect Platform to implement the Domain Name System Security Extensions mandate made by the President's Office of Management and Budget. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/government-program-chooses-dyn-incs-dynect-platfor.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:09:00 CST How important is your domain name to you brand? Most online businesses would probably consider it to be quite important, and with good reason. Sometimes before searching, customers may simply opt to go to the "yourbrandhere.com" URL simply because it makes sense. Now, sometimes that URL is already taken, and for start-ups, that's something to consider in itself. As Monte Cahn, Founder and President of Moniker mentioned in a recent interview with WebProNews, it's a good idea to make sure the domain name is available when coming up with a name for your brand, or at least make sure that you are able to acquire it. Products have their own brands, and this way of thinking can also be applied to them in many cases. Cahn notes that even the big companies make mistakes in this area. For example, you would expect Apple to own iPad.com, considering the huge announcement about the device the company made this year, but someone else has that domain. Cahn also stresses the importance of covering your brand in terms of domain names. This means getting all variations possible. Get typos, different extensions and country codes, etc. Use 301 redirects on misspells of key brands (including singular/plural versions). However, when it comes to domain names for different products, he says it's best to build sub-sites around those with their own content, which can help drive link juice, SEO value, and traffic. Getting the .com that reflects your company name is not always possible, unfortunately. In these cases, it may serve you well to find a different aspect of your brand to center your domain around, but this will require a greater level of promotion of that URL than a simple companyname.com. For example, if there are unique key phrases within your company's slogan, you may find such an opportunity there. Domains should be easy to remember, not too long, easy to spell, relevant to your brand, and avoid complicating characters such as hyphens. I think one key to a successful domain name is simplicity, although there are always exceptions to the rule. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/how-important-is-your-domain-name-to-your-brand.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:00:00 CST The knee surgery seems to have gone well enough to let me drive into the office for the week. Walking's still a little tricky. But at least I can drive! http://www.topofhosting.com/news/fraud-risk-webhostingtalk-insider-392010.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:24:00 CST March 10, 2010 -- Web hosting provider Steadfast Networks announced on Tuesday it has purchased enough carbon offset credits to offer a 100 percent carbon offset for its staff commuting, office usage, core infrastructure, networking equipment, shared web hosting, VPS hosting, and backup services. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/web-host-steadfast-purchases-carbon-offset-credits.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:22:00 CST At the first f8 conference, Facebook Platform was launched. Facebook Connect was announced the second time around. And now, as f8 2010 draws near, a report's indicated that Facebook will finally unveil a feature having to do with users' physical locations. Consider the difference someone's location can make. Here's one basic example: Many people would pass over the status update "Kate is warm," but something like "Kate is warm - Miami, Florida" might attract all sorts of attention from Kate's friends (assuming Kate's not a Miami native). Plus it could mean a different set of ads would get shown. It's significant, then, that Nick Bilton reported this afternoon, "Facebook plans to take the wraps off a new location-based feature in late April at f8, the company's yearly developer conference, according to several people briefed on the project." Bilton also wrote, "The new location feature will have two aspects, according to the people familiar with Facebook's plans. One will be a service offered directly by Facebook that will allow users to share their location information with friends. . . . The other will be a set of software tools, known as A.P.I.'s, that outside developers can use to offer their own location-based services to Facebook users." As for how Facebook intends to deal with privacy issues, this should be an opt-in feature, effectively cutting off the sorts of protests with which some other changes and Google Buzz were greeted. Now we just have to wait and see if Facebook actually follows through on these rumors. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/report-facebook-location-feature-to-bow-at-f8.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:12:00 CST Pre-sales for the iPad begin next week and the first orders will start shipping in weeks. So it grabbed my intention when Apple aired its first ads for the iPad during the Academy Awards and the only sign of music was a millisecond long flash of an old Doors album cover. Comments http://www.topofhosting.com/news/problem-with-the-ipads-first-ad.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:57:00 CST comScore today released January 2010 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that nearly 173 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month. Highlights from the report below: The top video ad networks in terms of their actual reach delivered were: BrightRoll Video Network with 27.2 percent penetration of online video viewers, SpotXchange Video Ad Network with 19.8 percent, and Tremor Media Video Network with 16.6 percent. 135.4 million viewers watched 12.7 billion videos on YouTube.com (93.4 videos per viewer). The average Hulu viewer watched 23.5 videos, totaling 2.3 hours of videos per viewer. The duration of the average online video was 4.1 minutes. Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties* by Videos Viewed January 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore Video Metrix Property Videos (000) Share of Videos (%) Total Internet : Total Audience 32,410,886 100.0 Google Sites 12,816,043 39.5 Hulu 903,078 2.8 Microsoft Sites 491,753 1.5 Yahoo! Sites 435,487 1.3 Viacom Digital 361,228 1.1 Fox Interactive Media 293,008 0.9 Turner Network 283,244 0.9 AOL LLC 241,991 0.7 Vevo 226,125 0.7 CBS Interactive 217,407 0.7 Comments http://www.topofhosting.com/news/173-million-internet-users-watched-online-video-in.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- Cloud Computing Conference, and the Asterisk and Open Telephony Conference will be held concurrently with the IT360 Conference & Expo, scheduled for April 7 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Canada's most populous city. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/cloud-computing-and-asterisk-conferences-to-happen.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:37:00 CST Yahoo's line of thinking with regards to the big Microsoft/Yahoo search and advertising deal is that it will benefit both Microsoft and Yahoo's advertisers, as well as consumers and publishers. It will benefit advertisers because it will increase search volume, with results from both Bing and Yahoo being taken into consideration. It will benefit consumers because by combining advertisers from both properties, there will be a greater pool to deliver sponsored results from, which Yahoo says will mean increased relevance. It will benefit Yahoo, Bing, and their publisher partners with increased liquidity, participation, and relevance. That is basically the sum of it, according to Yahoo Vice President of Search Advertising David Pann. WebProNews recently sat down with Pann and discussed these things and how the deal will affect advertisers. According to Pann, the migration across all international markets will occur over the next 24 months or so, but they will not rush it at the expense of quality, they say. "Our focus is really about developing a plan that is smooth, seamless, and with quality. So we anticipate doing the U.S. migration sometime before the holiday season in 2010," says Pann. In the above interview, Pann goes on to talk about how things will be split between Yahoo and Microsoft. He also addresses some privacy concerns, related to data sharing between the two companies. WebProNews also interviewed Yahoo Sr. VP of Search Products Shashi Seth and Director of Search Marketing David Roth, both of whom talked about the deal in more detail. You can catch both of those interviews, as well as a recent keynote from SMX West where the deal was also discussed, here. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/yahoo-on-microsoft-deal-benefits-for-advertisers-c.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:25:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- Interconnection and colocation provider Telx has been selected as a connectivity partner by SoftLayer, a global provider of on-demand data center, hosting, and cloud services, which has established a presence in Telx's secure, connection-rich colocation facilities in Atlanta and New York City. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/softlayer-establishes-presence-at-telxs-atlanta-an.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:06:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- Colocation provider nGenX and Norlight recently announced it has opened three data centers in Indianapolis, Lafayette, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/ngenx-opens-three-data-centers-in-indiana-and-kent.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:00:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- Gaining an accolade that distinguishes it not only in the web hosting industry but among all industries, web hosting and cloud computing services provider Rackspace has been voted as the 30th best place to work and once again the highest ranking IT services company in the prestigious Sunday Times 100 Best Companies Awards. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/rackspace-tops-it-services-employer-category-in-th.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:45:00 CST MySpace announced today that it has the most popular social app in the Android Market, and the third most popular app on Android altogether. "Our deep integration with the Android platform is one of the reasons why we’ve seen a surge in usage," says MySpace's Scott Goldberg. "Unique to this app, we have three home screen widgets. One of them allows voice-enabled status updates. We also allow users to set MySpace photos as background wallpaper on their phone's home screen. Close integration with the native Android camera contributes to the customized experience and makes it easy for MySpace users to take, upload and share pictures of their friends out having fun." "Even beyond Android, MySpace Mobile has also proven to be a very engaging experience across all platforms with 70% of MySpace Mobile users checking in three or more times per day," adds Goldberg. "As a nod to our popularity on the mobile web, MySpace was the fourth most popular mobile web destination according to Morgan Stanley’s report on The Mobile Internet in Dec. 2009. We have also found that the average MySpace Mobile user translates into a more engaged online user, dedicating more than an hour of additional time on the site per month." Currently, looking at the Android Market's social category, MySpace Mobile is followed by Facebook for Android, Tweetcaster, AIM, and Truth or Dare. The top two most popular apps overall are Pandora and the Weather Channel. One of the best parts about having the most popular slot in any category in the market is the visibility that comes along with that. Any user who gets a new Android device, and goes to look for apps, will see MySpace Mobile right at the top of the list, and that could could drive continued growth. Mobile should play a key role in the continued success of MySpace. Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter are seeing big mobile gains themselves. Are you surprised that MySpace has the most popular social app on Android? Share your thoughts. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/myspace-has-most-popular-social-app-for-android.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:28:00 CST WebMD has launched WebMD Health Exchange, a new health social networking platform. WebMD Health exchange allows people to connect with health experts and other WebMD members to share experiences, discuss personal challenges, and receive answers and support. "WebMD Health Exchange is a powerful new way to connect our 60 million monthly users to share their own experiences and personal wisdom across any area of health and wellness," said Wayne Gattinella, President and Chief Executive Officer, WebMD. "We expect Health Exchange will quickly become a trusted source of information for our users and an important new communications platform for our sponsors." WebMD Health Exchange is being integrated throughout WebMD.com, giving people the ability to connect with others on relevant topics. Along with expert led communities, members can create their own communities and exchange information with other users. Communities can be created for public access which are searchable on WebMD and online, or members can create their own private communities to share information with others. Doctors from Duke Medicine will provide expertise for communities ranging from asthma to rheumatoid arthritis. Experts from the National Health Council, National Osteoporosis Foundation, American Gastroenterological Association, North American Menopause Society, and the American Veterinary Medical Association will lead related community discussions. The WebMD Health Exchange will also allow third party sponsors to create branded exchanges and to host consumer discussions on specific health and wellness topics. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/webmd-becomes-more-social.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:28:00 CST (The Hosting News)  The business community has offered its support for Codero’s recently launched Price Match Challenge. This new program has had a highly positive effect among small- to medium-sized businesses desiring a less expensive solution for dedicated and managed hosting services. The limited-time promotion allows customers to receive a price match [...]Coderos Cost-Saving Measures Provoke Favorable Reaction http://www.topofhosting.com/news/coderos-cost-saving-measures-provoke-favorable-rea.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:28:00 CST (The Hosting News) – Chicago based Steadfast Networks, has officially announced its environmental green initiative by implementing a 100% carbon offset. This offset will be utilized for staff commuting, office usage, core infrastructure, networking equipment, shared web hosting, VPS hosting, and backup services. Steadfast Networks is certified “carbon neutral” by Carbonfund.org, an environmentally-friendly organization [...]Steadfast Networks Publicizes New Green Initiative http://www.topofhosting.com/news/steadfast-networks-publicizes-new-green-initiative.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:15:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- Construction firm HITT Contracting announced on Monday it has been awarded a GSA contract for the design and construction of a new Tier III data Center to be located at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/hitt-wins-62m-gsa-data-center-contract.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:13:00 CST By and large, Google Maps is great, providing well-plotted directions and up-to-date contact information on demand and free of charge. But slight inaccuracies persist, and to fix this problem, Google will now allow people to reposition markers using Street View instead of just maps and satellite images. Perhaps this sounds familiar: you type an address into Google Maps, switch to Street View, and find yourself staring at a Wal-Mart instead of an Italian restaurant. Then you spend five minutes clicking up and down a street to locate the correct spot. Frustrating, right? Now there's an easy fix. A post on the LatLong Blog suggested, "When you find a place that is in a wrong location, click on the marker and get an infowindow open as what you did before. . . . Click on the 'edit' link, and then click the 'Move marker' link in the updated infowindow." After that, "You'll see two jumping markers in the map and the Street View image appear, which means both of them can be dragged. When you drag the marker on the map to a new position, the marker inside the panorama will be updated correspondingly, and vice versa." This should greatly increase the accuracy of Street View as people tie markers to establishments' entrances. And that'll benefit users in addition to any businesses that might otherwise lose potential customers due to poor directions. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/google-maps-takes-steps-to-improve-marker-accuracy.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:49:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- Some serious vulnerabilities have been reported in popular open source web server Apache HTTP Server that could let an intruder gain access to potentially sensitive information, cause a DoS (Denial of Service) and potentially compromise a vulnerable system. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/researchers-report-major-security-flaw-in-apache-s.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:33:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- Managed hosting provider and data center operator Fusepoint Managed Services announced on Tuesday it has named Sam Ikomi to vice president of data center facilities. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/fusepoint-names-vp-of-data-center-facilities.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:58:00 CST Google has launched two new experiments in Webmaster Tools Labs. These are "Fetch as Googlebot-Mobile" and "Create your Sidewiki page owner entry." "After we launched Fetch as Googlebot, many users with mobile-specific sites asked if we could provide the ability to fetch their pages as Googlebot-Mobile. We thought it was a great idea, and added it as an option to our Fetch as Googlebot feature. We have two mobile options: cHTML (primarily used for Japanese sites), and XHTML/WML," says Webmaster Tools Product Manager Sagar Kamdar. "After Sidewiki launched webmasters kept asking, 'How can I put a Sidewiki page owner entry on all pages of my site quickly?' With the feature that we're introducing today, you can now create these page owner entries directly within Webmaster Tools for any site you own," says Kamdar. Google's Webmaster Tools Labs launched last October. Other tools within it include the original "Fetch as Googlebot" and "Malware details," which provides snippets of code that exist on pages deemed to be malicious by Google. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/google-webmaster-tools-gets-new-labs-features.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:38:00 CST March 9, 2010 -- Internet infrastructure services provider Savvis announced on Monday that board chair and interim CEO James E. Ousley will serve as its chief executive officer. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/savvis-names-james-e-ousley-as-new-ceo.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:04:00 CST Investment banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs is more or less giving up on Google's Nexus One. A note Goldman Sachs published this week indicates that it's cut its 2010 sales forecast by a whopping 71.4 percent. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the note stated, "We previously estimated that Google might sell 3.5 mn Nexus One units in 2010." Now, after seeing some data from Flurry, "We forecast that Google sells 1.0 mn Nexus One units in FY2010 . . ." Goldman Sachs doesn't have much confidence that Google will be more successful in the future, either. The firm believes Google will sell additional devices as it "rolls out a second Nexus handset, markets it more aggressively, and makes it available offline," but nothing like 3.5 million was mentioned. Instead, Goldman Sachs predicted "that Google sells 2 mn handsets per year in 2011 and future years." This is fairly bad news for the search giant, given that the Nexus One was supposed to make so much of a splash. The online-only sales model and lack of advertising may have been meant to save Google huge amounts of money, too. http://www.topofhosting.com/news/goldman-sachs-slashes-nexus-one-sales-forecasts.php Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:54:00 CST