Love it, or hate it – Firefox got one more addition to it’s browser that seems to have gotten a mixed reaction from the fans. The open new tab button rests at the end of your tab bar in Firefox 3.5 giving you an easier user interface to open a new tab. 

Clicking on the little “+” icon at the end of your open tabs, opens a new tab.  Seems simple enough, and I do like the fact that it gives one more clean way for new users to instantly figure it out. 

How do I remove the new tab button?  Well, if you are handy with editing your userChrome.css file – this should be an easy customization to put in place.  Just add this line:

.tabs-newtab-button {display: none;}

To edit your userChrome.css file, you must first locate it inside of your profile folder.  Depending on your operating system of choice, that location might differ.  Check out "where is my Firefox profile folder?” for more information.

So how do you feel, love the new icon or is it in your way?

The Full Screen Video add-on for Firefox does that.  Once installed, it adds a “Full Screen” menu option, when you right-click on any HTML5 powered video.  As of right now the only two known issues with this awesome extension are:

• When switching to full screen, the video will load and play from the start.
• Full screen is really only implemented on Windows at this point. On other operating systems, it’s merely a maximized window.

Other than that Full Screen Video gives you a simple addition to an already awesome feature of Firefox.  You can pickup this add-on via the Firefox Add-ons web site or check out the official web site for more information on the project.

Looking for a way to get an entire social web site profile of your domain name via one simple online tool?  Buildstats is another domain information tool that does just that.  All you do is insert your domain name, and then you will be taken to a page with tons of information about that previously entered domain name. 

Some of the details you get per domain include:

• Number of pages indexed via the various search engines
• Page information
• Your rank via Pagerank, Technorati, QuantCast and more
• Social popularity and graphs

Here is the example search I came up with for mitchelaneous.com:

• Buildstats domain information lookup for mitchelaneous.com

It is a simple web site, that does it’s job well.  Check out Buildstats.com to lookup information on your own domain name of choice.

PlayCrafter

This web site is pretty complicated when it comes to the number of things going on, on the screen – however it does have a lot of tools to use to create your own games (or play the games others have created).  You can either start from scratch or go with one of the templates they provide, such as action game, golf game, ninja game, jumping game and more.

Sploder

With Sploder, you are given the option of creating either a platformer game or a shooter game.  Also giving you the options of sharing your creation, I liked Sploder because it was a little more on the simple side.  So, if you want to show this off to a kid – it might be a lot easier for them to wrap their minds around. 

Mockingbird

Mockingbird is the last pick on my list.  They too give you a lot to work with, but instead of simply building one kind of game – they offer several kits (or the ability to build your own kit) with programmable sounds, actions and more.  If you wanted to get somebody into the mindset of programming a game – this would be the one I would have them play with.  Why?  Well, with having to set, for example, a bomb to be able to jump and assign the farting noise when he does so – gives a much better cause and effect result I think anybody from any age group could understand.

Although none of these games will have you programming your own games, each site delivers a unique way of getting a younger child, nephew, or sibling interested in the idea of game development.

Want to increase your privacy on your PC?  With the release of Firefox 3.5, our favorite browser now has a Private Browsing mode.  Usually your browser remembers the web sites you have visited, your user names and passwords, your browsing history and more.  However, with this newest addition to the Firefox 3.5 feature list, you can now go incognito on the Internet.

To turn on Private Browsing mode, go to Tools (in the menu bar) and then select Start Private Browsing.  You will then get a popup menu asking you if you would really like to start Private Browsing mode.  Hit the “Start Private Browsing” button to continue.

To be able to tell that you are in Private Browsing mode, the Firefox window title will show (Private Browsing) after the page title you are looking at.  When you are privately browsing, the browser will not remember:

• Visited pages
• Form and Search Bar entries
• Passwords
• Download List entries
• Cookies
• Cached files

If you create a new bookmark while in Private Browsing mode, you will keep it after turning Private Browsing mode off.  Also, if you save or download any files to your PC, those files will not be removed when you stop Private Browsing mode either (they will not though show up in the Downloads window).

To turn Private Browsing mode off, you will want to click on Tools in the menu bar, and the select Stop Private Browsing.  To confirm you have done this correctly, check the Firefox window’s title bar to make sure (Private Browsing) is no longer showing.

Quickly Turn Private Browsing On (or Off)

One tweak or suggestion for this new mode is to give the user a toolbar button to turn it on or off.  The Toggle Private Browsing add-on for Firefox does that.  It gives you the ability to switch between private browsing and regular browsing by adding a button to either the toolbar or status bar.

I hope that helps when it comes to learning the basics about the Private Browsing mode in Firefox.  How do you like it thus far, and how do you think this benefits the browser?

Bing Webmaster Center

The newest kid on the block, Bing gives you access to keyword research tools, a robot.txt validator, and a HTTP verifier tool right out of the box.  Once you get your site listed, you get details like your domain score, feedback on any crawl issues Bing might have had on your site, your top five pages and a lot more.  I have to say, Microsoft really impressed me with their tool set.

Yahoo! Site Explorer

Poor Yahoo!, does have a site explorer, and it does pay to sign up and list your web sites on it – just to confirm that Yahoo! is watching you.  The problem is that they don’t offer much when it comes to tools you can really get much use out of.  Also, why do they think I want a badge to show everybody how many people are linking to a page?

Google Webmaster Tools

Google’s webmaster tools selection is still top dog as far as features and ease of use.  They give you a wide selection of diagnostics tools, your top search queries, keywords, subscriber stats, and more.  You can also add a new tab to iGoogle to get instant access to all the tools they provide right on your start page. 

Which webmaster tools set does the best job?  I think Google still wins hands down, however Bing’s selection of tools for webmasters is rather impressive.  I am afraid though, that puts our friends at Yahoo! in third place.  With that said though, I suggest you sign up for all three so that you can keep tabs on how well your site is being indexed in each.

This year I hesitated to download any of the release candidates, because they always seem to spoil some of the surprise.  So, like many of you, I am anxiously awaiting Mozilla’s web site update that says Firefox 3.5 is ready for download.

9:43 AM CST – Firefox 3.5 is out via Mozilla’s web site!

Go here to download.  Be sure to add a comment and leave us your first impressions of the newest version of Firefox!

8:16 AM CST – Looks like we figured out a hacked-up way to get Firefox 3.5 from Mozilla.  Go to this address:

• http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.5&os=win&lang=en-US

FileHippo.com also boasts about having Firefox 3.5 ready for download already too.  Why/how is Mozilla letting all these other places jump the gun and beat them to the punch?

7:00 AM CST – Softpedia is claiming to have Firefox 3.5 Final, haven’t tested it yet.  Also, even the president of Brazil seems to be getting into the Firefox 3.5 release party mood:

6:07 AM CST – Nothing much to be seen yet.  I saw on Lifehacker they do have a confirmation that Firefox 3.5 will be released today.  Mashable also has a nice post on what’s on tap for Firefox in 2010 that should hold you over.

More news coming soon!  Keep checking back for more!

Might also be a good time to remind you to subscribe to Firefox Facts via our RSS feed.  Join the over 6,000 happy followers of the feed for free.  You can subscribe by e-mail too!

Keep coming back throughout the day, and we’ll have more coverage that you can shake a stick at.  If you have any well wishes for the Mozilla team, Firefox 3.5 feedback or anything else you wish to share – be sure to leave a comment and join the party!

My personal favorite feature I have seen thus far, that shows the most innovation is the support for embeddable video, without the use of any plugins or third party scripts.  This multimedia embedding functionality of HTML 5 may not be widely used yet, however this does give it a proverbial first kick in the pants to take off and become successful.

Of course, I wouldn’t be doing the Firefox 3.5 project justice if I didn’t mention the speed boost too.  However, I’m not really sure that is something real users will notice.  Maybe it is just me but Firefox 3 for me right now is still pretty darn fast.  You can check out a full list of features via Mozilla’s web site:

• Features List for Firefox 3.5

Seems like this time around Firefox’s newest release has either sneaked up on me, or perhaps isn’t getting as much coverage as the last.  What do you think?  Are you excited yet?

Ever wanted to meet others who listen to the Web Hosting Show, to discuss the podcast, share links, debate who the greatest web host is, or share cookie recipes? If so, then you my friend need to go join the Web Hosting Show’s group on Facebook. 

Right now we are discussing the Web Hosting Show reaching #78 in the top 100 software how-to audio podcasts on iTunes, sharing our web site URLs, discussing who might be current hosting our own site and a lot more.  All that I ask you do is join, introduce yourself, and I hope this ends up delivering to you one more way to meet people inside the industry we are all interested in learning more about.

I wanted to kind of give this side-project a re-launching because I think there is a demand to want to know more about the hosting world – and with my fine audience here, we have a wide enough spectrum of beginners to experts that everybody should find something to learn from.  Join and say hi!

How do you like that new logo, by the way? It was designed my my good friend and graphic design specialist, Sean Barton.  I’m personally pretty proud of it – as it is pretty much the logo I always wanted for the show, but never had the time or the skill to put together.  Want to learn more about the web hosting industry?  The web hosting show is both a podcast and web site dedicated to helping anybody from novices to experts learn more about how to make the web hosting world work for them. If you haven’t before – be sure to bookmark WebHostingShow.com, subscribe to the e-mail updates, and add the RSS feed to your favorite news reader. 

I have a great love for useless web sites, and this one might rank up there as one of the most fun useless ones out there, (sorry InstantRimshot.com).  KissTunes.com lets you become a grand piano, acoustic guitar or electric piano player right from the comfort of your own keyboard. 

The interface here is pretty simple.  You can use your keyboard or the mouse to click the buttons, and play that specific note.  You also can record your little ditty once your done, play it back, save it or load another.  Who wouldn’t want to play and record tunes online using your computer’s keyboard? 

Although it is a little slow right now (probably going to be getting really popular soon) be sure to keep KissTunes.com handy next time you feel like composing your next keyboard tune of your own.

The New Web Hosting Show Logo!

I have been teasing this one on Twitter long enough.  Today is the day you all get to see the new logo for the Web Hosting Show web site and podcast.  This was designed by my good friend and Graphic Design Specialist, Sean Barton. 

Easier to Read Text!

I know a few of you have complained in the past about the previous text being too small to read, so I have bumped it up some so that you, my wonderful viewing and listening audience, can better enjoy this entire Web Hosting Show experience.

E-mail Subscriptions, Front and Center

You can now subscribe to the Web Hosting Show by e-mail on the top of every page on WebHostingShow.com.  Just fill in your e-mail address into the text box and hit “subscribe” or click this link.  Following our updates here could not get any more simple.

Login to Comment from Twitter or Facebook!

Thanks to Disqus, you can now login and comment via Facebook, Twitter or Disqus.com.  With this new system in place, the commenting system will be much more dynamic too – providing you with a few more features:

• Threaded comments are here, so you can reply to somebody else’s reply to help, give feedback or answer somebody else’s comment.
• More profile pictures with your comments.  If you add a comment with your Twitter handle, your Twitter profile picture will show up.  If you add a comment via Facebook, then your Facebook icon will show instead. 
• Send in video replies, and if you do so – I might post them on the next edition of the podcast!
• Subscribe to a comment thread by e-mail.

I hope you enjoy all of these new additions and upgrades, and I am sure there will be more to announce soon!  Also if there is something you’d like to see added to WebHostingShow.com be sure to let me know.  I would love to see you test out this new comment system I just put in place!

So we are to believe that Firefox and Chrome are both insecure, difficult to use, and unreliable?  The Internet Explorer team might want to check their calendars, because last time I checked – it is June 26th, not April 1st. 

If that isn’t enough – they also have a MythBusting page.  What is your favorite “fact” they are claiming?

Free image web hosts are a dime a dozen, and with that said here is another time for your piggy bank of free web hosting options.  ImgLot delivers free image hosting with the idea of simplicity in mind.  Trying it out, I uploaded a test image here.

Site features include:

• Free uploading.
• No bandwidth limits.
• Images are never deleted.

The only thing that the web site’s creator is asking in return, is that you tell others about the ImgLot hosting service.  After you upload your image, you are given the option of a direct link, a page, forum code for linking and HTML code too.  You can also share your image on a number of different social news and networking sites.

Give them a shot at ImgLot.com and follow them on Twitter (@ImgLot) for more news and updates.

If your looking for a mostly 2D, grayscale and compact theme for your Firefox browsing ways – look no further than the Two Dimensions theme.  As you can see with the screenshot I included, it is a very slick skin for your Firefox browsing ways that will not disappoint those of you who like to keep things simple. 

It would fit nicely, I think, in my list of lightest popular themes for Firefox.  Who knows, it might earn its spot soon enough.

Thus far a five-star theme, that is rising in the ranks, you can pick up Two Dimensions and add it to your own Firefox installation at the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Now why not go towards a more expensive product like the iPod line of players?  Well, I need something that is cheap enough that I don’t feel bad dropping it in my pocket, and letting it get beat up a little ‘bit while I do work outside.  I’m afraid if I got something like an iPod Touch I would be cradling the thing like a new born baby, which for my needs, it just does not fit.

Back to the Coby MP305-4G, it is not a bad little player in it’s own right.  Some of the features include:

• 4 GB of Flash Memory
• Built in USB 2.0 Interface
• Has Built in FM Radio (which will probably never be used)

It runs off a single triple A battery, which is a test really to see if I like that more, or the rechargeable battery I had with the Zen Stone Plus.  Couldn’t tell you the battery life yet – cause it has yet to run out.  Overall, if your looking for a cheap MP3 player you can slap some stuff onto and get back to work – I would highly recommend the Coby MP305-4G.  If your looking for something that has tons of bells and whistles, you might want to look elsewhere. 

For example, look at Chris Pirillo and his icon.  If you are a follower of him and what he does, you know when you see this icon:

That he is associated with it.  No matter if you follow him on his web site, his Twitter page, his Facebook page, you know to associate that with him.  Others have done this too.  BlueFur.com, a Canadian based web host uses their blue monster as their Twitter icon too.

Here are a few more tips about the process that you might find useful:

• Pick something that is unique about yourself or your company
• Try to use something that is easily recognizable
• Don’t be afraid to have a little fun with it

With that said, here is what I have currently decided to go with…

I had to update my look, since I cut my hair off – plus I threw my own favicons from my various site in for good measure. 

So as you can see – you might want to give a little more thought when it comes to picking the right picture you want to use across all the web pages you wish to frequent, especially if you want to build a brand around your name or business.

Where are the features?  Here are some of the thinks I liked about this awesome add-on to your browser:

• Search by selecting/highlighting text and then clicking on the popup bubble
• Google results automatically show up in the Awesomebar/URL bar as you type (faster than going to google.com)
• Easily switch between search engines during a search with a single click
• Convert text URLs into clickable links
• Automatically copy on select / paste on middle click / paste on right click (NOT enabled by default)
• Visit bookmarks quickly with keyboard shortcuts using qLauncher
• Adds "related articles" side-pane to Wikipedia

There is definitely a lot of browser tweaking to be loved here.  It is that type of extension that does many things well, instead of focusing on doing one thing really well.  So if you would like to kill several birds with on stone – this is the pick me up your browser has been looking for. 

Want to give it a shot?  Pickup SmarterFox on the Mozilla add-ons site and let me know what you think.  Has it helped you browse the Web any faster or smarter?

Headup underlines words on pages when you browser.  When you hover over those words, you get relevant content from popular web services. 

Technically speaking, they  “presents you with textual and rich media content related to the objects and terms it identifies on the pages you browse.”  Here are a few more examples from their web site:

Use Headup’s ability to recognize objects and relationships to discover all kinds of information quickly and effortlessly. Here are some examples:

• Discover which of your friends like a particular band and gain access to the band’s videos and lyrics.
• Find blog posts and stock news about a company and discover which of your contacts work there.
• Get alerted about your friends’ birthdays and see which books they’re likely to enjoy as a gift.

Overall, I have to say it is an interesting idea – and a cool tool.  Sometimes these semantic plugins kind of confuse the general public, so I would really recommend playing with Headup to see if it is right for you.  You can pickup the Headup add-on on Headup.com or the Mozilla Add-ons web site.

Getting in on the fun, the Lifehacker team has also posted a list of the top 10 Firefox 3.5 features you should check out, if you want to see what is in store for your favorite browser.

Bonus – Also worth mentioning is there is rumors that Firefox 3.5 could be out by June 30th?

Have multiple RSS feed sources that you would like to merge into one?  There are a number of different services that can get this done for you, however FeedStitch is a new one that has caught my eye recently. 

What is new here?  Well they cover the basics, for sure.  With HTML, RSS, and JSON they make it easy to republish the data however you want.  To get started, all you have to do is select your feed type, and click “Add Feed”.  You can also store your feeds in manually created groups too.  The feed types they support right now are:

• RSS Feeds
• Twitter Accounts
• Flickr Photos
• Delicious LInks
• Twitter Search
• Tumbler Micro Blogging
• and GitHub

To use the service, all you need to do is login with a pre-existing Google, Facebook, or some other open identification service, and get to adding your feeds.  It is really easy to use, and might be my new favorite service for merging multiple feeds into one.  You can try it out for yourself at FeedStitch.com.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 189!
Running Time: 11 minutes | File Size: 4.89 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode: (click a link to read about that segment!)

• A Web Host with No Uptime at All
• 10 Sources for Free Web Site Hosting
• One Host Stands Up to Torrent Killing IFPI
• Squarespace is an All in One Hosting Package

Here are this week’s web hosting news headlines:

Largest Datacenter in the US to be Built in Texas – Dallas-based Capstar Commercial Real Estate Services is investing millions of dollars to redevelop a former telecommunications equipment plant in Mesquite, Texas into what it says will be the largest data center in the country, according to a report by the Dallas News.

Trivia Question – What “celestial based” web host calls Texas its home? (to find out the answer, be sure to download and listen to this week’s podcast!)

I hope you fully enjoy this week’s podcast. If you have any show feedback or suggestions be sure to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.  Enjoy it, share it and listen again and again!

Are you searching for a web host that offers nothing when it comes to uptime?  Well, while many think they might be currently hosted on that host in question, I can say you are wrong.  Why? Because you are not hosted with No Uptime Hosting.

NoUptime.com promises you nothing at all.  For web hosting fans, this web site is really hilarious.  Anybody outside of the web hosting world though, probably will not understand what the fuss it all about.  Take their three plans for an example:

• Hosting Package 1 (the I’m-Poor plan)
• Hosting Package 2 (the Take-My-Money plan)
• Hosting Package 3 (the Resell-Our-Crap plan)

As they say, “We are constantly working to improve our server downtime.  Keeping you awake at night is our number one priority.” Oh, and you can’t forget their testimonials with such gems as, “I want my money back”.  How do you get your content to them?  FTP? No, that is so old school.  Here is how they suggest you send it:

Don’t like uploading your files via FTP? No problem! Send us your files on a floppy and we’ll upload it for you. It’s one of the many ways we do our best to accommodate your needs. Just remember, our floppy system does not accept Windows, Linux, or Mac floppies.

I could spend hours discussing this one great parody of a web site, but I will save you the time and just point you towards NoUptime.com.  It is a fun site for anybody who is in or has dealt with web hosting one on one.

Here are ten free sources for web hosting out there today.

100webspace.com – Here you get 100 MB of web page, 3000 MB of bandwidth and a lot of extra features like MySQL databases, SSL, SpamAssassin, POP3 and web e-mail and much more.  It also allows for FTP or FrontPage access too.

Frihost.com – This free web host is offering you 250 MB of disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth per month.  It is hosted on a Unix OS, with access to MySQL, cron jobs, raw logs, backups and more.

HelioHost.org – Your monthly bandwidth will be limited to 2500 here, and 250 MB of disk space.  However, they do offer Ruby on Rails, Fantastico, and both MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

000webhost.com – Looking at this free hosting alternative, we see 250 MB of disk space, and 100 GB of bandwidth.  You also get tools like cPanel, and access to password protected files, custom error pages, and phpMyAdmin.

110MB.com – An old one, but a good one, 110MB offers you 5000 MB of disk space and 300 GB of monthly bandwidth.  Also here to love is the fact they have no forced ads, they allow you to use your own ads, support PHP and FTP.

WebHero.com – Supporting the scripting languages of PHP, Perl and Python, WebHero also gives you 100MB of disk space and 500 MB of bandwidth, which are pretty reasonable for a free web hosting provider.

1ASPHost.com – I have one ASP host on the list, and their name ironically is 1ASPHost. Bandwidth here is set at 1,000 MB per month and you get 100 MB of disk space.  Some of the features included are MS Access, WAP, no file size limit, and online zipping and unzipping of files.

FreeHostia.com – Bandwidth at Free Hostia is set to 5,000 MB and disk space is at 250 MB.  You get stats, instant activation, e-mail, and access to install counters, message boards, polls and more.

FreeServers.com – A new favorite of mine, Free Servers offers a reliable free web hosting plan.  You do have ads on your web site, however you get 50 MB of disk space and a nice upgrade path just in case you outgrow their free solution.

GoFreeServe.com – Offering 300 MB of free disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth, they also allow for PHP scripting, e-mail access, and cPanel.  Worth a shot.

There you have it, ten quality free web hosts to choose from if you are looking to learn a little more about web hosting and how it works.  If you have any reviews of these services or you have another favorite, be sure to leave them in the comments.  Would love to hear who you think the best free web host really is.

To give you a little more information about the key players here, the Pirate Bay, a torrent sharing web site, provides what you could call the “path” to be able to download copyrighted materials.  The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) is the music industry’s lobby group who is doing some of their heavy handed grunt work when it comes to shutting down web sites like the Pirate Bay.

The new tactic here is that the IFPI are skipping over the web site owners and are now going directly to the web hosts who host the torrent web sites in question.  They want to get the web hosts on a charge of assisting copyright infringement, which is a decision that has yet to be appealed.

There is one web host who has yet to given into the demands of the IFPI.  The Swedish provider Portlane has filed a complaint in the Swedish Market Court.  Now true, sharing copyrighted materials might be wrong, I will leave that judgment call up to you.

What is to be admired here is a small guy standing up against the establishment, showing the IFPI and the world that we should be a society who serves the people’s best interest and not the best interest of the one with the biggest wallet.

The service really does a great job a breaking down the parts of your web site down into bricks.  You kind shift and move the bricks around, make make your web site look the way you want.  The designs to choose from are great too, and you can customize them to suit your needs.

Along with hosting, and design – they also provide you with real time visitor analytics and stats about all of your pages.  That way you can work on marketing yourself better too.

Squarespace Tour Video from Squarespace on Vimeo.

At $8 a month, the service really has a lot going for it, if you are looking for a mix of hosting, plus a quality content management system.  Try them out for free, at Squarespace.com.

On today’s show we have The Planet’s General Manager of Storage and Data Protection, Rob Walters, to discuss cloud storage.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 188!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.60 MB

Here are some of the topics we cover in today’s interview:

• What is and what are the benefits of cloud storage?
• How is The Planet’s cloud storage business different?
• Why is creating the “shortest path” between clients and servers important?

There are five things customers should evaluate when choosing a cloud platform.

• Performance – It is important that you match the platform with the performance needs for your application.  Many cloud storage platforms only provide 2-3 Mb/sec, which is fine for most backup and archiving use cases, but is likely not sufficient for production data.  It is also important to run multiple tests and measure the variability between tests, as cloud storage platform performance can be inconsistent.
• Ease of integration – The ease of user access is critical to product adoption in web applications.  Most cloud storage products provide proprietary APIs for integration.  This means you will need to specifically develop for that cloud storage platform.  This makes integration more difficult and increases switching costs.  Check if the platform offers any standards-based integration software that allows access via CIFS, NFS, FTP or HTTP.
• Where you want your data – Most cloud products do not offer specific locations for data to reside.  In fact, these companies offer the data “in the cloud” as if “the cloud” were a location rather than an access medium.  While in many cases the physical location of data is unimportant, there are occasions when being able to select a location is beneficial.  For instance, if you are building a disaster recovery plan; working to reduce download times for a specific customer; or attempting to pass strict security audits, then where data resides is critical.
• Flexibility – One of the most appealing features of cloud storage is the flexibility of its on-demand design, which manifests itself in two primary traits: scalability and elasticity.  Most cloud storage products should free you from the task of capacity planning, hardware budgeting and upgrading.  Capacity is available on-demand, as required.  Watch out for commitments for minimum usage levels as these can negate this inherent benefit .  Cloud storage products should provide elasticity, with capacity that grows as your business requires, and scales back as soon as this excess capacity is no longer needed.
• Usage-based billing – Paying only for what you use is certainly appealing.  The primary aspects on which to judge the pricing of a cloud storage product should simply be: how much storage capacity you used and how much bandwidth was used to access your data.  Keep a sharp eye out for “hidden” fees, because in many use cases they can add up quickly to be as much or more than the primary elements of your bill.  “Hidden” fees to watch out for include: connect fees, account maintenance charges, and “puts” and “gets” charges.  Cloud platforms should offer simple and predictable monthly bills.

More Interesting Links from The Planet:

• The Planet’s Ever So Excellent Blog
• The Planet Provides Highest Performing Cloud Storage
• The Planet’s Storage Cloud Infrastructure Explained

For the second show in a row, we have the chance to talk with one of the big names in the web hosting game, so I hope you tune in to hear more about cloud storage and how The Planet is serving it up to you.  If you would like to come onto the show to talk to the entire hosting industry about what you do, how you host or anything else be sure to drop me a line at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.

Those questions, and many more, will be answered for you on this week’s edition of the Web Hosting Show.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 187!
Running Time: 5 minutes | File Size: 2.14 MB

Here are some of the questions we will cover in today’s interview:

• Why does Fasthosts centralize around reseller hosting?
• What is the biggest misconceptions about reseller hosting?
• What unique reseller hosting tools does Fasthosts provide?
• What is the history behind Fasthosts?
• Is reseller hosting a good way to make some money?

Also here are a few resources you might want to check out after listening to the interview:

• Fasthosts.com
• Fasthosts Reseller Tools

Thanks to Steve for joining us on today’s show. If you would like to come onto the show to talk to the entire hosting industry about what you do, how you host or anything else be sure to drop me a line at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.

Did Shared Hosting Kill Geocities?

In 2008, according to a survey by Compete.com, the domain geocities.com attracted at least 177 million visitors annually.  So with those numbers, how could they go wrong?  You can not argue the point that the lowering in price of shared hosting accounts made the Geocities hosting look less favorable.  Users could pay as low as $4 or $5 a month and get a lot more than they were getting from Geocities with a shared web hosting provider.  Free hosting might be totally obsolete these days.

Did MySpace or Facebook Kill Geocities?

Many are even saying that Geocities could have easily evolved into a Facebook or MySpace.  Looking back at the original Geocities, it was all about community and sharing your pages with others.  This is much like it is today, except badly designed free sites have been replaced with goofy zombie versus pirates or mafia wars games.

Did Yahoo! Kill Geocities?

In 2001, Yahoo decided to start offering a “premium” version of the Geocities product.  To give users something to pay for and upgrade to, they had to turn on the free hosting service.  This is when they started to limit the monthly data transfer or bandwidth to the free Geocities users.  Following that, Geocities was just another free hosting service.  Nothing more.

Yahoo!’s overall feeling towards the Geocities free users was distain and disgust.  They failed to realize or even try to turn the direction on the proverbial Titanic in front of them.  Could Yahoo! of saved Geocities?  Maybe they could have or possibly they could have killed it off sooner than now.  However, at least then we would be left with a general feeling they at least tried.

Be sure to catch the rest of our Geocities Tribute on Podcast 186 of the Web Hosting Show!