E-consultancy - Hosting and Managed Services - News and Blog

Should your website be in the cloud?

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 07:45:00 UT

I've recently seen a growing number of people encouraging businesses to look at 'cloud hosting' solutions such as Amazon's EC2 and Rackspace's Mosso.

Cloud hosting takes the concept of cloud computing into the realm of hosting.

Outsourced DNS hosting providers

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:45:00 UT

An often overlooked factor in maintaining a high level of website uptime is having a reliable DNS service.

If your DNS fails or is slow to resolve, your uptime will suffer - even if your website itself is technically "up".

Hardware-as-a-service a big boon to consumer startups?

Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:00:00 UT

Scaling can be tricky for consumer internet startups, especially when it comes to hardware and infrastructure.

Many startups have failed in part because they couldn't successfully scale effectively and sensibly.

10 DIY social networks to check out

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:01:00 UT

A number of�companies now provide white label social networking platforms that enable�other websites�to build out their own communities.

These services can be either hosted or based on your own server and can be used by blogs and other websites to create a community around the content and brand.

We take a look at ten of these services:

The cookie is dead, long live the flash cookie

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 11:23:00 UT

With cookie deletion rates leading to significant problems with tracking online campaigns, a solution finally exists.

However, with greater tracking comes responsibility and consumers are becoming more savvy, as the Facebook 'Beacon scandal' has shown.

Yahoo! retail partners miss out on Cyber Monday

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:59:00 UT

Yahoo!'s Merchant Solutions service was hit by a series of outages yesterday,�costing many small business customers dearly on what is thought to have been the busiest day of the year.

Partners of�the hosted e-commerce�service complained that shoppers were�receiving "system unavailable" messages when trying to complete transactions.

And all on a day in which online sales were predicted to reach $700m�in the US.�

PayPal targets new sites via virtual payments

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:39:00 UT

PayPal is reportedly set to launch a virtual payment system to extend its reach onto sites that don�t currently run its software.

Called PayPal Secure Card, the browser plug-in can detect when a shopper lands on an etailer�s checkout page and automatically fills in their stored financial details to save them time.

Northern Rock website struggles to cope with strain

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:52:00 UT

Frustrated Northern Rock customers are being badly let down by the company�s website, which is�being put under considerable pressure following one of the worst PR disasters in recent times.

The company sent out an unfortunate message to its customers last week after turning to the Bank of England for an emergency loan. It has since been �besieged by savers� who have swarmed to its branches to withdraw their savings.

Six ways to improve online experience

Fri, 25 May 2007 07:12:00 UT

There has been much discussion and comment recently about the quality of online customer experiences.�Even small companies, run by specialists in their chosen field, need to provide a good online experience if they are to capture a share of the rapidly growing online spend.�

Here�s my novice's guide to improving the quality of your online experience...�

Usync launches 'Backstage Areas' for UK bands

Thu, 24 May 2007 08:56:00 UT

Usync is an online resource�which allows�indie bands and artists to establish an online presence and distribute their music without the need to go through a major label.

The site was�launched by in Australia in 2001�by Aussie band Gabriel's Day, which had been�overlooked by major labels yet still had a fanbase.

Microsoft 'to release' adCenter update

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:56:00 UT

Microsoft will roll out a new version of its adCenter search marketing system in around a month, according to one paid search professional claiming inside knowledge.

Yahoo! adds features for mobile publishers

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:17:00 UT

Yahoo! this morning unveiled new tools�that make�it easier for publishers to mobilise and monetise their website content.

The Yahoo! Mobile Publisher Services help producers gain prominence for their sites in new mobile search services and allow them to make money from a range of ad formats.

Marketer wins damages for mailing list spam

Mon, 5 Mar 2007 14:03:00 UT

A Scottish court has ordered an internet service provider to pay �750 plus expenses and interest to a man it "spammed" by sending a single e-mail obtained via a discussion list.

Gordon Dick took Transcom Internet Services to court in Edinburgh after receiving a marketing message apparently via an email group operated by UK domain registry Nominet. Both parties belonged to the group.

Google adds Docs & Spreadsheets to Apps package

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:53:00 UT

Google has added Google Docs & Spreadsheets to its Google Apps On Your Domain offering, in another sign of the search giant's slow, mythological creep toward a Web 2.0-style Office rival.

Google Apps allows site administrators to issue users with white-label installations of Google's Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Start Page and Page Creator services, with apps accessible from the owners' domain name rather than on google.com.

Podcast suite Odeo goes up for sale

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:00:00 UT

Web-based podcasting application Odeo has been put up for sale, just months after founder Evan Williams led a management buy-out of�the project from investors.

Williams wrote: "We've put too much into Odeo to want to see it fade away. And it still has tons of potential. But we're not improving it fast enough."

Wikipedia's Google traffic balloons, search site 'should pay'

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:31:00 UT

The amount of traffic sent from Google to Wikipedia has shot up 166% in the last year, according to data from Hitwise.

The open encyclopedia last month broke into the US' list of top 10 websites, up four places on the previous month. Now researcher LeeAnn Prescott has revealed that 70% of Wikipedia's hits come from search queries, and 50% from Google alone.

Wordpress takes on Six Apart with new edition

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 12:18:00 UT

Automattic, the company behind Wordpress, has announced a partnership with RSS platform provider KnowNow to extend its publishing tools to the enterprise market.

Through the deal, the two companies�have developed�KnowNow WordPress Enterprise Edition, a blog platform for businesses which will be in direct competition�with Six Apart�s Movable Type.

Jeff Bezos talks about Amazon Web Services

Tue, 7 Nov 2006 10:58:00 UT

Amazon's CEO wants to help you run your business, using the same technologies and operations that power Amazon.com.

In a great�interview with Business Week, Jeff Bezos talks about the new services Amazon is offering to third party developers, providing computing power with its Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, and its hosted storage service, Amazon S3.

Some snippets after the jump...

Email Q&A's From The Floor At ECMOD

Thu, 2 Nov 2006 11:38:00 UT

Last week, I moderated an interactive seminar on email marketing at ECMOD, the home shopping and catalogue event.� At the end of each session, we discussed the presentations and the attendees asked any questions they had on email marketing.�

BT launches free remote backup service

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:33:00 UT

BT has entered the online data storage market with an offering that gives crash-conscious consumers up to 20Gb of remote backup space for documents, media and other files.��