![[ Photo: Cut Diamonds ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2009/web-hosting/diamonds_.jpg)
Getting the best possible web hosting is for obvious reasons something that all website owners aim to do. However, you might know what type of web hosting you are looking to get but still do not know what provider to partner up with. Many of the web hosting top lists you find on the web today look the same as they all take the same things into account. These guides usually take into account similar factors and cost usually is weighted highly. While many people do simply look for the cheapest host with decent reviews, there are others who seek slightly more from their provider. Below are some of the most sought after hosting types (dedicated, shared, vps, green) and some of the providers within those categories who may be overlooked by users but provide some excellent service.
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When frustration builds, and finally reaches its the boiling point, it’s nice to be able to express yourself to someone. Although I really don’t enjoy ranting about things, but when it comes to certain aspects of Yahoo!, I just can’t he’p myse’f. So, thanks to recent attempt at using My Yahoo!, it’s time to get some of this off my chest, clear the decks, and give Yahoo! (yet another) chance to clean up its act. Here are a few complaints I have against various aspects of the Yahoo! enterprise..
First and foremost, Yahoo! sends virtually zero traffic. I know this sounds painfully selfish, but I don’t understand why the top-ranking search engine finds Perishable Press worthy of around 2000 referrals per day, but Yahoo! can’t seem to justify more than a few each week. I mean come on, even good ‘ol MSN/Live manages to send a few hundred uniques per month 1.
So that sucks, and honestly doesn’t win Yahoo! any golden biscuits from me, not that it needs them. But perhaps more relevant and disturbing is Yahoo!’s relentless army of Slurp bots. I have never seen so much unusual, unexpected, and unwanted crawl behavior from any other legitimate search-engine robot. Seriously, some of the URL requests recorded in my arsenal of Web and error logs are like from another planet or something. Where are they coming up with some of this stuff:
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![[ Icon: A Small Orange ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/asmallorange.gif)
Perishable Press switched to A Small Orange [ASO] in March of 2007. At the time, I was looking for highly recommended shared hosting with several key features:
Update 2011/02/05: ASO is no longer my host. As this article explains, ASO service was great at the start, but after three years quality of service has declined considerably. There are some great people at ASO, but I can no longer recommend them for serious web hosting. For more information, check out my post on switching to Media Temple.</update>
- Solid customer service and extremely reliable server uptime
- Unlimited domains with plenty of disk space and bandwidth
- Unlimited Email accounts, MySQL databases and everything else
A Small Orange delivers all of the above in every shared hosting plan. ASO provides hosting plans perfect for any size operation:
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Star Burst Check out the slick online digital flower maker at zefrank.com.
LiTha-Paint Quality web-based vector drawing in effect. Check out LiTha-Paint, a promising new online vector drawing tool. The software is currently in alpha, yet is already full-featured and easy to use. LiTha-Paint steps beyond the paltry selection of Flash/VML/SVG online drawing tools, providing versatility and universality via HTML and JavaScript. Perhaps all this Web 2.0 business is worthwhile after all..
Update: Unfortunately, LiTha-Paint crashed due to lack of funds (welcome to the club). However, this particular post has now served its purpose by providing insight (via the comments section) into the wonderful world of mikons.com, a very inspiring online vector graphic site that enables users to create visual symbols and share them with a growing network of other vector artists. In their own words:
Welcome to Mikons.com, a new form of self-expression that connects people through visual symbols (personal tags). Our mission is to give you a fun and easy way to create these symbols that tell your story, let you decide how you want to share them, and use them to connect with people anywhere in the world.
Update [ January 10th, 2007 ]: Well, apparently LiTha-Paint is back in action and looking better than ever. Apparently, they found a way to make it happen — good for them! With any luck, this will be the last time I have to edit this post ;)
Within the last few years, the convergence of satellite imagery, digital technology, and the world wide web has spawned a host of sophisticated online navigational applications. Perhaps the most significant development involves Google's relatively new map technology, which brings users Google Maps and Google Earth. Whereas Google Maps provides an online navigational resource, Google Earth is a free, fully downloadable software application that brings that literally brings the world to your desktop. A few minutes after downloading and installing Google Earth, we found ourselves amazed, surfing the globe from Seattle to Paris, zooming in from thousands of miles above the earth, checking out old haunts, and reeling in the years. Google Earth enables users to label key points, add extensive notes, and seamlessly integrate the power of the internet. There are more features than there is time to explore them all. Such an incredible tool is definitely a must.
Other useful "mapplications" include GeoURL and TerraServer-USA. GeoURL is an online service providing a "location-to-URL reverse directory." GeoURL enables users to "find URLs by their proximity to a given location." This is useful for bloggers, who may wish to rally together in meatspace. As of this posting, GeoURL lists over 217,658 sites. Click here to see GeoURL-listed addresses near the Perishable Press Headquarters. Although not nearly as robust as Google Earth, "the TerraServer-USA Web site is one of the world's largest online databases, providing free public access to a vast data store of maps and aerial photographs of the United States." Here is a 1996 satellite-view of my neighborhood via the TerraServer-USA database. Fascinating.
There are also several online mapplications providing website visitor tracking. Although free versions of these tools are available, they are typically limited in statistical scope, which theoretically encourages users to promptly upgrade to the full, "paid" versions. Right. Anyway, there are some prime aps available, including gVisit, ClustrMaps, and even Frappr. Whereas gVisit and ClustrMaps provide similar tracking services, Frappr is more of an online community through which users may create and share map-related information through digital maps, photo galleries, and chat rooms. Fine if you have the time to invest in all of that. Otherwise, nothing beats gVisit and ClustrMaps for free geographical visitor tracking. Although both of these services provide similar features, ClustrMaps apparently provides a greater degree of analytical insight than does gVisit. Both services involve pros and cons, and both are worth checking out.
Check out these newly created Frappr and gVisit maps for Perishable Press. Finally, for a different application of modern online map technology, check out National Geographic's MapMachine or even Wikimapia, a wiki-map hybrid inviting and enabling users to "describe the whole earth" by adding interesting geographical information. Well now, …if you have read this far and are still wondering what exactly "meatspace" is, follow this link and discover the truth.
Monzilla Media is a small, multidisciplinary design firm specializing in website and graphic design. Here is a complete list of services provided by Monzilla Media:
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