Vote for best web hosting company, and more annual awards news

HostReview is turning 10 years old this December, and to celebrate this occasion we are doing two new, and potentially interesting, things.

For the first time, we will let the public decide which is the best web hosting company, and provide readers with the opportunity to vote for our Readers' Choice Award. The nominations closed on Monday, and by that time more than 30 companies had been nominated. Now, the voting page is open. One of the people who voted will win a black iPod 8GB, so in one swift stroke you may earn both a bit of distinction for your favorite company, and a new gadget for yourself.

Less than a month from now, we will also announce the Web Host of the Decade Award. The period 1998-2008 covers both the existence of HostReview and the rise to prominence of the World Wide Web. In 1998, many of the companies that today we associate with the Internet were either in the process being founded or in their corporate infancy. Those still with us determine the technological landscape of today’s global web. During those ten years, HostReview continuously kept track on the hosting industry, pointing its readers to the best hosting deals and the most trustworthy hosts. In January, we'll use those ten years of experience and announce the most influential companies in the hosting industry.

VMWare leader in virtualization market

VMWAre is the leader in virtualization technology but Microsoft's market share is rising, according to research from Evans Data. The North American Development Survey 2008, conducted in October and November, polled 400 developers. One third of them said they were involved with virtualization projects, and 56% of those used VMWare tools, compared to 37% for Microsoft.

VMWare was the pioneer of commercial x86 virtualization in the 1990s, and today it offers a wide range of software and services. Microsoft entered the virtualization market later, with their Virtual Server and Virtual Hyper-V products released relatively recently. Open source technologies like Xen have significantly lower rates of adoption.

Virtualization allows numerous instances of an operating system, or systems, to run on a single physical machine, and is the basis for innovative web hosting offerings, such as cloud computing and Virtual Private Servers. Benefits from virtualization include scalability and better utilization of existing resources.

HostReview launches cloud computing showcase

We've just launched a new online listing with cloud computing service providers. The cloud computing showcase points you to the best solutions to your cloud computing needs, all on a single page.

HostReview has been providing showcase listings with the leaders in specific web hosting sectors for nearly a decade. Traditionally, the website lists only the best and most prominent service providers, in order to serve as a dependable guide to hosting services. Currently there are 20 showcases, designed to cover the entire range of web hosting companies.

Does your favorite web hosting company deserve an award?

Visitors of HostReview will select their favorite web hosting company in a month-long campaign for the Readers' Choice Award. Nominations are now open atwww.hostreview.com/top10year2008.html. Any company can nominate itself, and anyone can nominate a company. The Readers's Choice Award is a collaboratively determined distinction, which is independent of the judgement of our editorial team. The process is transparent, and the honor of winning the Readers' Choice Award--unique. Go viral, mobilize your friends and clients, and win our Readers' Choice Award!

Nominations close on December 15th. On December 16th voting will go live and it will be open to all readers. On January 15th 2009, and one randomly selected reader, who voted for a company, will be lucky to receive the big prize, a Black iPod 8 GB.

Google announces offline Gmail

Fresh from the Google Labs comes a new experimental feature for Gmail--the ability to use the application in offline mode and then transfer messages when an internet connection is available. This latest addition to the company's email service is certain to make life easier for people who communicate online on the move.

"Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears [software by Google, which adds new features to your web browser] to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you're connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you're used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection. And if you're on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you're 'borrowing' your neighbor's wireless), you can choose to use 'flaky connection mode,' which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. Our goal is to provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you're using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server."

Go to the Official Google Blog for more info and a nice video.

Strange DNS bug in newest Windows betas

Windows 7 Beta-based and Windows Server 2008 R2-based computers cannot join domains with names longer than 15 characters, according to a Microsoft advisory page. A hotfix for the issue is available for download from the linked page.

The following error message occurs when there are more than 15 characters before the dot in a Domain Name System (DNS) domain name:
The attempt to join this computer to the .com domain failed. The parameter is incorrect.

According to Microsoft:
"Consider the following sample domain names:

• Northwindtraders.com has 16 characters before the dot. Therefore, this domain name return the error message.
• Contoso.com has 7 characters before the dot. Therefore, this domain name does not return an error message.
• Fabrikam.treyresearch.litwareinc.com has 8 characters before the dot. Therefore, this domain name does not return an error message."

The upcoming Windows 7 has received predominantly favorable reviews, based on the recently unveiled beta version. Windows Server 2008 R2 is a second release of Microsoft's latest line of server software, and shares its code base with Windows 7. 

Developers embracing cloud computing

Forty percent of developers working on open source projects intend to provide their applications as web services offerings using Cloud providers, according to the latest Evans Data Open Source Development survey. Of those who plan to use the cloud, the largest plurality, 28%, plan to use Google’s App Engine, while 15% plan to use Amazon's services. Cloud services by other vendors, such as Microsoft, IBM, and Salesforce are not nearly as popular.

As for other channels, more open source apps are distributed through OSS portals (30%) than any other way, but those who distribute their apps through mobile app stores are the most likely to be making money.

Other highlights of this survey of over 360 developers involved with open source development and conducted in November 2008 include:

• Just over half (52%) use Linux in a virtualized environment.
• MySQL is still the open source database of choice with over half of developers using it in at least some of their projects. Two thirds use a SQL database, either open source or commercial, while only 10% use a relational database management system.

The complete TOC and sample pages can be seen here.
http://evansdata.com/reports/viewRelease.php?reportID=7