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2006-09-01
The Web Host Industry Week in Review
September 1, 2006 -- This week's Web hosting news was full of reactions to the recent decision of the registry for the .mobi domain to extend its sunrise period until September 22.
Web hosts and domain registrars worked to promote the domain, designed as a home for sites optimized for mobile browsing, and added .mobi-specific services to their offerings.
On Tuesday, Web hosting provider Hostway issued an announcement encouraging customers to use the extended sunrise period to register .mobi versions of their domains and protect their trademarks. The company also announced that it would be offering a free .mobi-compliant site-building tool for customers registering .mobi domains. Hostway says it wants to make sure its customers have access to new technologies.
On Wednesday, domain giant Go Daddy also introduced a new set of services surrounding the launch of the .mobi domain. The company said customers registering .mobi domains through Go Daddy right now will receive free hosting and Web site builders designed to make it easy to build and deploy .mobi-compliant sites. Go Daddy is also providing customers with free .mobi email accounts that incorporate mobile access.
Also on Wednesday, it was reported that registrar and Web host Dotster had expanded its Custom Site Web design service to include services for the development of .mobi sites. The company says it has priced the .mobi site design service at $99 per page in order to help encourage adoption of the new domain extension.
While several hosts announced new services in a very linear reaction to the availability of a new domain, there were also several announcements from the other end of that spectrum this week, as hosting companies sought to drum up interest through entirely unexpected means.
One company, however, was in both camps. Dotster announced on Monday that it had made some new advances in it's campaign to promote its services through a group of spokesmodels it intends to call the "Dotster Dots." The company said this week that it had appointed fashion designer Nicole Miller as the "official fashion designer" for the project, which will see Dotster conduct a nationwide search for four women who will be awarded year-long contracts to act as the Dots.
On Tuesday, Web hosting provider Globat, a company that has been working hard to differentiate itself with outlandish promotions and sponsorships, announced that it had sponsored a Denver, Colorado couple in its expedition to Mount Kilamanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. Globat said the couple reached the top of the mountain in July, and placed a flag bearing the company's logo at the summit.
In a feature published Thursday, Anastasia Tubanos looked at a similarly unusual, but very different, source of interest for a Web hosting firm. Web host HostMySite discovered in recent weeks that what might have been a PR disaster worked out as a means of solidifying its relationship with a large part of its customer base when a fiber link to its building was severed by a road crew. CEO Lou Honick said the company's forthright handling of the situation struck a chord with customers, many of whom voiced their support for the company in spite of the unexpected downtime.
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