If you look across the board at some of the biggest and brightest web hosting companies out there, you will see the trend is the same.  A lot of companies out there are looking to get rid of the dedicated servers and start offering alternatives like virtual server hosting. 

So, why is this happening?  I do think that costs have a big part to play in it.  Dedicated servers cost more to run than some of the alternatives out there.  They are bulky and hard to maintain once they get so old.  It would be like you buying a pair of shoes and the company that makes the shoes has to guarantee they still work, so every couple of years they send you an update pair.  In the long run, dedicated hosting has reached its peak of usefulness. 

VPS hosting has also grown by leaps and bounds as the eventual successor to the dedicated server hosting setup.  It is much easier to scale, setup and maintain. The only drawback for some would be the fact that it doesn’t exactly offer the customizability you might have with a dedicated server.

Some people might call me crazy for saying dedicated hosting is on the way out.  However, those same people might have never noticed the free hosting providers of the world going out of business left and right either. 

Dear Loyal Listeners,

HELP!

It is your good friend, the web hosting industry’s media rock star, here with a ‘bit of a problem that I hope you can help me with.  You see, the podcast has been on a ‘bit of a hiatus as of late – and I am sorry for that.  However, I have just about run out of ideas and topics.  To me, it seems like I have covered just about everything there is – so I need your help.

Let me know, what new topics would you like to hear talked about on the Web Hosting Show? You suggest it – and I will do it.  It is as simple as that.  This podcast isn’t for me, it isn’t for them, it is for you – so if there is a topic you would like to learn more about, and it has something to do with the web hosting industry, please send it my way.

Even if you have never commented here or left a message on any website before, I want your opinions, your ideas.  Let me know how I can make this resource better for you and I will do it. So how can you send me these ideas? You can either leave them as a comment on this post or use my nifty contact page to send your message along.

Thank you for your support and for your ideas for future episodes of the Web Hosting Show podcast.

- Mitch

Since the release of Google +1, webmasters from all around the world have been racing to find the easiest way to get this button added to their websites.  Everybody wants to keep the Google overlords happy and will give their left arm to get a higher ranking in the search engine.  So, how can people using WordPress get in on the action?  Install the new Google +1 Button plugin for WordPress.

Installation is pretty simple.  You simply download the add-on and add it to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.  Then, activate the plugin from the Plugins menu inside of WordPress.  You have the option to insert the code automatically or via a shortcode.  The choice is up to you.

You can pick up the Google +1 plugin for WordPress from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

I don’t know many webmasters these days that don’t use Google Analytics in one way or another.  It is simply one of the best third party website statistic tools out there.  Here recently, it also got a ‘bit of a facelift as far as how the content is organized.  Everything is much more focused on getting you the information you need, faster.

For example, here is the new dashboard for another website of mine Firefox Facts:

If you need to quickly view basic statistics, this is the best place to go.  You can also customize it with more widgets – to give you access to more data.

As you browse through the rest of the interface – you will se much of the same information is there – things are just organized in a much better way.  The use of drop down menus on the sidebar also helps to better focur yourself on seeing the data you need to see on and about your website too:

The last new feature that really impressed me was the drop down menu at the top that lets you switch between websites you run very quickly.  It includes a search option too – for those of us managing multiple domains this is even better.  Simply type the first few letters of the domain and you can quickly pull up a Google Anyaltics profile for it.

If you want to play around with this new version of Google Analytics yourself, simple log into your Google Analytics account and click on the red "New Version" link at the top.   Overall, I would say a great tool just got even greater.

The web hosting world’s equivalent to the crazy old uncle is at it again.  Bob Parsons, the many behind the brand at GoDaddy, recently got in trouble for shooting Elephants while on a trip in Zimbabwe. PETA along with many other critics are urging people to transfer their hosting and domain registrations elsewhere.

Now, I have no problem with a tribe of people having to kill an elephant to survive and grow their crops and the like.  That really isn’t the issue here.  The problem with what Bob Parsons is done is he has gone off the very tacky deep end. Not only did he shoot the elephant, he had to film it and put it to music. 

This has been a huge public relations nightmare for GoDaddy, and I am sure they are searching for more GoDaddy girls to make the sour taste of this whole story go away.

So how much of clueless moron does a CEO have to be before they start to lose customers?

A number of competitors have jumped at the chance to take some of GoDaddy’s customers who no longer wish to do business with them.