Web Hosting Review : Best Web Hosting

It’s starting to look like Google’s at it again…this time thwarting Apple’s default privacy settings on its Safari web browser and sneaking a few advertising cookies into customer’s content. Advertisers, including companies like Google, rely on advertising for their income and cookies help them determine user preferences for a wide variety of products and services. Once an advertiser gets wind of what the consumer’s preferences are, they can send advertisements targeting their specific interests.

When Safari was presented to Apple’s customers, it was promised that the privacy settings, set by default, would not allow cookies to be dropped in by advertisers. Google, exploiting Safari’s functions that allows Google users to automatically sign in, to enable cookies on sites powered by Safari. Google contends that no personal information is at risk and it only tracks users’ visits for advertising purposes.

Consumer groups however, are not happy with Google’s response to the accusation, and have asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into Google’s practices. Google also claims that it merely manipulated the settings to resolve issues with browser compatibility. It has also been pointed out that Apple has opted to allow cookies that allow some social media content to function on Safari.

The bigger issue perhaps is that while the two companies show off their use of privacy for its users, some wonder how the users define privacy. If Apple or Google were not to use advertising tracking mechanisms, advertisers would not be as willing to spend money to glean the users’ personal preferences and stop spending money.

It essentially comes down to what information users may be willing to trade to give up free search or other freebies currently sponsored by the advertising dollars. The catch is that without advertising money, brought in by allowing the tracking of where and how users surf the internet, most, if not all of the free to user services would either be paid for by the users or disappear altogether.

Go Daddy is under fire again, this time for complying with a request by the United States Secret Service to suspend the account of one of Go Daddy’s clients. In the midst of an investigation, so far not described, the Secret Service asked Go Daddy to put a halt to the site JotForm. Typically this would happen if there is reason to believe the client is involved in illegal activity, usually involving phishing.

It’s not unusual for government agencies to turn to web hosts to suspend a website during an investigation, but what is unusual in this case, is that there doesn’t appear to have been a court order to shut down the site. When other host providers are presented with a request, they will advocate for their clients’ rights and will comply with the request only under a court order.

Go Daddy has taken a lot of heat lately for initially throwing its support behind SOPA, a government attempt to basically control internet content, and for its Super Bowl ads that many contend are too racy, at best. It has since reversed its stance on SOPA, but its advertising continues to use what many claim to be sexist messages.

JotForm denies it has done anything wrong and with the millions of forms created by its members, going through each one to determine if it is used for fishing would be nearly impossible. The company further notes that it uses specific filters in an attempt to identify and remove any user-created forms that are used for phishing and has removed or suspended over 65,000 accounts used for phishing expeditions.

Go Daddy is gaining a reputation of being the web host that will yield to government requests that indicate one of its clients is involved in phishing, fraud or used to install malware. The latest concern is that it may be doing so without a court order to justify the action.

Can cloud computing be used effectively to measure the expansion of the universe? That’s the question the U.S. Department of Energy tackles in a recent report linked to its Magellan project.

It seems that at least for now, the Energy Department is better off using its high-performance computing (HPC) systems rather than cloud computing. The former systems are cheaper and offer better performance. Yet when it comes to flexibility, many scientists in the Magellan project seem to prefer the cloud.

About two years ago, the Energy Department began a research project to determine whether cloud computing can be used for the CPU-intensive processing tasks scientists do in national laboratories.

The key results of that research, which has just been published, boil down to:

• Cloud computing has both advantages and disadvantages for Energy Department scientists.

• The performance and scalability of cloud computing are not yet ideal.

• Commercial cloud services are in general, between 7 and 13 times more expensive than HPC systems in the scientific laboratories.

• If the Energy Department would move its NERSC computing center to the cloud computing services offered by Amazon, it would have to pay about $200 million yearly, which greatly exceeds its budget.

• Cloud computing facilitates user access to software, and makes control over the software environment easier.

Scientists surveyed during the research have pointed that the cloud enables them to share the setup of software and experiments with colleagues, which is highly desirable when it comes to large scientific projects that involve the collaboration of many scientists from different locations.

But perhaps the most important find of the survey – especially for advocates of cloud computing – is this: almost 40% of respondents think the cloud’s features attractive, although they understand at the moment their systems offer better performance.

Whether you work for yourself to help others, or have a job with a larger company, being in charge of a company’s search engine optimization can be a stressful occupation. You will have time and budget constraints that are quite often in conflict with the company owner’s expectations and it is your job to make things happen. Things like driving traffic to the company website and, in some ways, to convert those visitors into paying customers, will take a team effort with yon in charge.

One of the key elements to being successful is through communications. You will need an open line with those in charge and work at developing a friendly relationship. Too many times you may be tempted to be adversarial, especially when the owner has trouble understanding your role, but it is in your best interest, as well as in the interest of your future employment, to use persuasion as opposed to argument to get your point across.

Another piece of advice is to ensure you and the owner is in agreement on the goals you set for the SEO project. There are a couple rules to follow when setting goats. First if you don’t write it down, it is not likely going to happen. Think about a car race with the vehicles racing down the track. You have a starting line and a finish line. That finish line is the goal. Without the goal, none of the drivers will know what to aim for.

When working on SEO it is easy to become consumed in the project, staying hidden in your office or behind the computer screen. However, as the one in charge you will need to be the leader of your team and it is important to be visible and accessible to your team members. Once you delegate responsibilities to others, you need to let them know you are there to help while pulling them all together to reach a conclusion to the common goal.

RemObjects Software has recently introduced new Data Abstract and RemObjects SDK releases, which for the first time come with support for JavaScript client libraries.

Data Abstract is one of the most powerful and popular multi-tier database access frameworks currently available. It enables developers to create enterprise database solutions which are highly scalable for major software development platforms such as Apple Xcode and Microsoft .Net.

The latest RemObjects release introduces JavaScript as a new supported software development platform, thus making it possible for web developers to build data-driven web-based apps with AJAX and HTML5.

To provide JavaScript support for its Data Abstract solution, RemObjects Software has implemented data access technology fully written in JavaScript. This technology is intended to be approachable for web developers, as well ascompatible with widely used web technologies such as jQuery.

Data Abstract for JavaScript is not a standalone product. It comes included with RemObjects Software’s Relativity Server as well as Data Abstract for .Net and for Delphi.

Developers wanting to enable JavaScript access in their servers can do so by adding a few lines or code, or from the settings in the Relativity Server.

Valeriy Goloschchapov, who leads RemObjects Software’s JavaScript Technologies team, said that the new native client library made for JavaScript in Data Abstract makes web developers’ lives easier. It allows them to create rich web-based clients that can quickly update or retrieve information from the middle-tier servers.

A low-level communication framework, RemObjects SDK constitutes the base of Data Abstract. The framework has now been also made to support JavaScript clients through the RemObjects SDK for JavaScript client library.

RemObjects Software’s new range of releases with native JavaScript support is available as 30-day trial from the company’s website. For more information about the new releases, as well as about the company and its other products, check out www.remobjects.com.

Those who are seasoned online marketers and SEO professionals have already their selection of marketing and SEO resources they rely on and which they more or less take for granted.

But newer social media marketers and SEO professionals have to discover their own resources and decide for themselves which SEO advice is trustworthy, and which is not.

It can be argued that the really good SEO advice is not easily revealed, but kept hidden by those companies who know it. While this makes sense, it’s unwise for a SEO company to keep its knowledge secret.

SEO is about useful content and valuable references. SEO companies gain much more (in the form of links, references, and reputation) by being open and sharing advice than by being secretive. What’s more, the web is a really big place, and any ‘SEO secrets’ are likely going to show up somewhere anyway.

On a basic level, differentiating the good SEO advice from the bad is not that hard.

GOOD advice is…

• specific and gets published on a well-designed website with a professional logo
• written correctly by an author with credential and with a photo
• uses high-quality photos and infographics to illustrate key points
• frequently updated
• surrounded by social media sharing buttons which makes it easy to share

BAD advice is…

• too broad to be useful
• published on a poorly designed website without a professional logo
• sprinkled with grammatical errors
• written by an unnamed author without a photo
• uses no images or if it does only low-quality ones
• never updated after being posted

Earning the trust of readers is not easy, but once achieved, it brings enormous rewards, including more comments, links, citations, social shares, and references. The conversion rate also improves.

The trustworthiness of a SEO website, and of any other website in general, is crucial and should be one of the priorities of any online marketer or SEO professional.

IDCF, a Yahoo! Japan subsidiary, has announced that it will join forces with RightScale to provide clients the right to use RightScale Cloud Management. RightScale, a cloud computing marketing company, and IDCF will essentially do the best they can in assisting in the growth and marketing of Yahoo! Japan.

RightScale started projects in Japan in 2011, and the company has shown a willingness to invest in the Japanese market. It is quite clear that both companies are anxious to work together and make this deal successful for the both of them

Michael Crandell, co-founder and CEO of RightScale had great things to say about this latest partnership. Crandell is honored to be apart of this partnership and he expects major success to result from this deal. Not only was he raving about the bond, but he also talked about the benefits current and future customers will see thanks to the connection.

According to RightScale, those who become partners in this program will receive special benefits. These members will have access to the cloud technology and can offer its clients with the same platform. One of the unique features available includes a RightScale VIP account which allows users access to exclusive options, a myriad of choices for reselling and privileges to future versions.

Those with IDCF will be allowed to operate applications and will be given access to The RightScale MulitCloud Marketplace. Mr. Shinto, an IDCF representative director is also excited about the latest deal and looks forward to reaping the benefits of the affiliation. Shinto commentated on how customers will be given management capabilities and ways to better their companies.

Both sides have shown a passion for the Japanese market and are eager to become successful in the rising industry. This new deal will give customers the tools to find solutions and the right resources to become successful.

Google has recently announced a partnership with web hosting services provider HostGator which will result in free hosting services for small and medium size Indian businesses. Through the scheme, businesses will get up to 12 months of free website maintenance and domain names. To continue to benefit from the offering, businesses will have to renew their hosting services after 12 months by paying a relatively small fee.

HostGator is a hosting provider based in Texas that serves customers from around the world. The company was founded 9 years ago, and has seen a notable development in the last few years.

With its new scheme Google tries to get online 500,000 Indian business websites in three years, expanding in the process the Indian Internet market, which is the world’s third largest. Currently, India has a population of 1.2 billion and an impressive 870 million mobile users. The number of Internet users is, by contrast, comparatively low, at only around 100 million.

Estimates point at about 30 million Indian SMBs, yet only 400,000 of them have a business website. Google’s estimates concerning the number of Indian small businesses is more down to earth, at only around 8 million.

Even so, it’s evident that web hosting providers have great opportunities when it comes to the Internet market for SMBs in India, especially if they seek long-term profits. But as Google’s free hosting initiative makes clear, the Indian Internet market remains risky and may not yield a profit for investors straight away. This is why the Internet giant is making a large investment without expecting short term returns.

Web hosting service providers active in India seem to have most to gain from email as a service and e-commerce website hosting and tools, both of which are greatly in demand among small and medium size Indian businesses.

More and more businesses are using cloud computing in order to improve their daily operations. With smartphones consistently playing larger roles in our society and the increasing role cloud hosting services have, businesses are always looking for new ways to increase their brand’s loyalty in their attempt to generate more revenue and improve their service in general.

Application Programming Interface, or API, plays a key role in these advances. APIs basically give businesses new boundaries when it comes to distributing their services, data or content beyond their own properties on the web.

The control of the API is done by API keys. These API Keys consist of certain codes that are generated in order to control access to these services. Most companies have some type of API key that is used to enter their cloud services.

Most companies spend a lot of money in order to protect the information that is stored in the cloud, but in general the security is lacking. With API keys one can get to all the business sensitive information that is stored in the cloud. All the emails, sales leads and shared documents in example can easily be accessed by somebody that gets a hold on a company’s API key. In addition, it might happen that the company receives massive credit card bills due to any unapproved access that occurred to pay as you go cloud programs.

An outsider having access of your API keys can really be compared to an outsider having access to your credit card. You can get the bill for somebody else’s purchases. It’s sad to see that knowing this API key information is frequently emailed within a company or can be accessed by too many people on certain servers completely ignoring the sensitivity of this information.

If you or your organizations uses cloud services you should seriously consider how to protect those API keys and make sure that they don’t fall in the wrong hands.

Leading UK web hosting provider Fasthosts has recently launched two new dedicated servers, DS710i and DS910i, both high-quality offerings featuring some of the latest technologies available.

The new dedicated servers are powered by Core i5 Processors and use the new Sandy Bridge chipset. Operated through CentOS 6 and Plesk 10, the servers have RAID1 protection and provide excellent reliability. Both servers are part of Fasthosts Dedicate Servers range and come with a 50% discount for 60 days.

Dedicated servers like these just launched by Fasthosts target companies that need powerful yet reasonably-priced solutions for running applications and hardware without interruption.

Fasthosts server solutions come with unlimited bandwidth, and capable yet energy-efficient hardware, and the latest offerings make no exception.

•   DS710i boasts a Quad Core i5 CPU running at 2.8Ghz, 8GB RAM and two 1TB HDDs.

•   DS910i is even more powerful, using a Quad Core i5 CPU running at 3.1GHz, 12GB RAM, and two 2TB HDDs.

Included in the offer for the new servers are one-year SSL certificates and 50GB free online backup for Windows servers. Plesk 10 is optional and can be purchased for an additional fee.

Fasthosts has taken security measures to protect sensitive business data for the new server offers. All data is hosted in perfectly secure data centers, where the risks for thefts are virtually nonexistent.

In addition, Fasthosts also offers unlimited bandwidth and carries out regular OS updates to improve server security and efficiency.

In terms of technical support, the new servers get what all other Fasthosts users get: dedicated 24/7 technical support online as well as through phone.

Fasthosts’ Steve Holford said that the latest offerings, the dedicated servers DS710i and DS910i, will help the company gain an edge over the competition. He concluded that the new servers’ excellent hardware, and the host’s state-of-the-art infrastructure make the new offerings ideal for businesses with high hosting requirements.