GoDaddy have always been known for making pretty controversial commercials that people either love or hate. I guess that they believe that all publicity is good publicity. However, being somewhat of innovators (if you can call them that) in the hosting industry they also sponsor the Andretti Green racing team in which Danica Patrick is a driver. Just the other day, Sunday the 24th of May to be exact, Danica managed to make history at the Indianapolis 500 with her third place finish, which is the best result for a woman ever in this race.

The commercials that Danica made for GoDaddy has, as it always is with their commercials, caused quite the stir beforehand and hence also boosted the traffic to their website. This event however proved to be even more successful for GoDaddy. During the broadcast of the race web traffic to GoDaddy.com spiked 163 percent and after the race traffic increased with an impressive 570 percent. GoDaddy themselves say that this traffic is due to a GoDaddy “tease” commercial before the race featuring Ms. Patrick encouraging people to log on to their website. Say whatever you want about their commercials but they sure know how to drive traffic… And oh, congratulations on being part of making history!

Check out the video above

I probably do not need to tell you just how popular Twitter is right now. Everyone from your next door neighbor to us here at WebHostingSearch have our very own Twitter account… You are probably also twittering everyday about things that you find funny or interesting. The boom of various social media apps, such as MySpace, FaceBook and now Twitter, has lead to many feeling anonymous, even though it should be the other way around. We are now more open for interaction than ever before but when it gets too crowded it is always more difficult getting noticed.

There are however people coming up with solutions to make a site pop out and this is what developer Kevin Sherman has done with Bubble Tweet. Twitter is as we all know text-based but with Bubble Tweet you will be able to add your own videos. The service is free and it is very easy to use. Every Bubble Tweet gets its own URL and a count is kept on how many people that are visiting each Bubble Tweet. So, if you want to step out of the anonymity and put a face to your Twitter account I can highly recommend you checking out this fun little tool.

As a result, we will be giving away three (3) FREE shared hosting packages! This will help anyone to jump start a blog, website, or even sell something online. These free accounts will cover one year shared hosting and a domain name.

If you want to participate in the contest, please post a comment below with a short, 140 character poem about web hosting. So be funny, silly, insightful! You can also twitter it to us @hostingsearch.

Since the dawn of computer science, Microsoft and Apple have stood face to face as mortal enemies. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, leaders of two great armies of loyal users in the eternal struggle between Mac and PC. Battles are fought in cyberspace, in long and gruesome forum threads. Historians will name them the greatest flamewars of all time. But is this opposition rational? Is one actually better than the other? Let’s find out.

What is flame war?

Wikipedia formulates the elegant answer “Flamewar is a prolonged exchange of deliberately hostile messages over the Internet.”

CollegeHumor takes it to completely different level of truth:

The flamewar of flamewars

Forums and chat rooms have always constituted the core of the online world with its capacity to quickly link people together for instant information sharing. Mac vs. PC has been a topic of interest for the forum devotees ever since computer buyers’ have had the two options. And though it rarely stays behaved, there is always the occasional truce:

Link in thread: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id_kGL3M5Cg

In most cases however, flaming emotions halt any constructive discussing to instead make room for some good old destructive personal criticism.

This image led to flaring emotions between AlecDalek, Stephen S, bee1215, coolfactor and STEVEBALLMERISGOD:

Click on the screenshot below for enlarged image.

How is a PC vs. Mac flamewar typically conducted?

Science teacher Jeff Adkins has created the standard Mac vs. PC flamewar conversation. He is however an apparent Mac-lover and thus not neutral. Regardless, Adkins makes some good points, in one of which he insists that all forum debates, and especially this one, ends in up right smearing.

It is in conclusion safe to say that mac users and pc users always will be trying to convert each other to the other side. And regarding flamewars, perhaps the opposition between these two groups indeed were the first to hit the forums to battle it out. Mac vs. PC is a common thread in tech and computer forums and it will keep on threading ’til one of these brands monopolizes the market. But by then angry mobs of computer nerds will have taken to the streets.

More Famous Flamewar Examples

If you haven’t had enough, here is a couple of more examples including two hilarious celebrity flamewars: Kevin Smith vs. Karl Trale and Joe Rogan vs. Kevin

Kevin Smith engages in a flamewar about Clerks 2

Click the screenshot for enlarged image

Joe Rogan from Fear Factor declares war

Click the screenshot for enlarged image

Guys get rediculed when exposing personal photo in forum thread

Click the screenshot for enlarged image

]]> http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/famous-flamewars-0400/feed 0 http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/10-stupid-online-business-ideas-0360 http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/10-stupid-online-business-ideas-0360#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:08:35 +0000 Brian http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/?p=360

Making money online is a presumably easy achievement, at least if you are to believe the self-proclaimed experts of the industry. What does not work IRL has seemingly every chance of making it online – and has. After some looking around I found ten really stupid online business ideas that probably has made or will make some money.

10. RedneckAndSingle.com

Living alone in the South is a feeling RedneckandSingle.com founders know all to well and have decided to do something about. This site is yet another prime example of online dating taken slightly too far.

9. MillionDollarHomepage.com

I cannot assemble a top 10 list without including the MillionDollarHomepage. You have probably heard of the 20 year old who decided to set up a website and sell a million pixels as ad space $1 per pixel. Thanks to some media coverage every single pixel was sold, resulting in $1 million turnover. The site could not look any spammier and I take it as plain luck that he even got the ad space sold.

But this was many years ago, when internet advertising still was naïve and innocent. In other words – perfect timing.

8. PetButler.com

Yet another online business idea that has been around for a while. PetButler.com offer the service of cleaning up after dogs/pets. It is not the genius of the busieness idea that has made PetButler a success, it the laziness of the pet owners.

7. SoulsCalling.com

Selling all kinds of accessories, Soul’s Calling is the spiritual type business that I cannot stand. Ribbons saying “ We’re all connected”, bracelets advising to “Reach In”, Sandals that leave words like Earth and Love in the sand.

To me it is basically ugly accessories pimped up with cheesy words. But it will probably sell.

6. LuckyBreakWishbone.com

Plastic wishbones has turned out to be quite the profit booster. LuckyBreakWishbone.com sells and distributes fake lucky wishbones for customers in need of some good fortune. It is all bogus of course but a successful bogus nonetheless. People are buying them like crazy and sales figures are expected to rise even more during these ongoing financial crisis.

5. Omegle.com

Want to chat with a complete stranger? Then Omegle.com is the place for you, and about half the nation’s sex offenders. In the chat window, no real names are given the participants, it is simply You and Stranger.

4. Kotulas.com

Flair Hair with Gray Hair and Camo Visor is one of Kotulas.com’s finest products as it solves the many problems associated with the regular toupee. Attached to a hat, the hair is stylishly visible while still discretely hidden in its seam lines. A practical yet fashionable alternative for the hairless man. Not!

3. DollarHotDogs.com

What sounds better than mail ordered hot dogs? DollarHotDogs.com cooks and sends hotdogs in the mail for one buck only. The main concern at the website seems to be to answer the question how such excellent hot dogs can cost so little. My concern is however, how the hotdogs can stay fresh in the mail and who would actually consider buying mail ordered hotdogs?

2. SomethingStore.com

Now this business idea I like. Using the element of surprise the customer can buy something at the SomethingStore.com and know what he bought only when the item is delivered. For the lonely ones or the bored, ordering a surprise gift to yourself is a perfects way to feel appreciated and pass time.

1. TotalDivaPets.com

If you think pet clothing is funny, you haven’t seen pet wigs. TotalDivaPets.com seriously sells a wide variation of wigs for people’s pets. Lacking any practical functional what so ever, these pet wigs are simply to make your dog or cat look hilariously stupid. And they do.

]]> http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/10-stupid-online-business-ideas-0360/feed 7 http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/top-11-viral-videos-0334 http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/top-11-viral-videos-0334#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:54:29 +0000 David http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/?p=334

Traditional marketing has become a thing of the past as it simply does not get noticed by the intended market. Many of the majors companies are now putting much of their effort on releasing so called viral videos. These videos do not have to be especially related with the company and their products. Their main purpose is to create a buzz among a community of people and there are quite a few videos that have managed in doing so. Being a sucker for top lists myself I had to create a list with, what I believe to be, the eleven best viral videos of all time.

11. Sheep creating beautiful art

One of the most recent examples of a great viral video comes from Samsung. Instead of showing their products, in this case LED TVs, the traditional way they decided to make some sheep do the work for them. The result is mind-blowing and I do not care whether it is true or fake. I simply get amazed each and every time I see this ingenious video and I am not the only one since it already has millions of views.

10. Hypnotizing bouncing balls

This commercial for Sony Bravia has to be accounted as one of the most successful viral videos of all time. Releasing thousands of bouncing balls down the streets of San Francisco might sound like a terrible idea but it proved to be exactly the opposite. It was almost difficult to understand whether it was a commercial or a music video for Jose Gonzales, who is singing, and the song Crosses. Never before has color been portrayed in a more beautiful way and the video takes full advantage of the oh so important combination – visual and audio.

9. The egg hatching man

This is perhaps not a viral video in its true sense but it still needs to be mentioned in this top list since it was a way of thinking viral. The Swedish clothing store Playground did not want to things the usual way so they decided to see if it was possible to hatch an egg with the help of one of their down jackets. The result was a small chicken and coverage in magazines and TV news all over Sweden. Commercial at its best!

8. Mac doing it the drunken way

Mac has always been cutting-edge when it comes to their design but with Ellen Feis they also managed to create an ad that blogs all over the world was buzzing about. No computers are shown in the ad – there is just Ellen Feis talking drunkenly about how a PC messed up her paper. Simple and sweet in its own way…

7. Wassup

The Budweiser ad “Wassup” has to be counted as one of the first examples of a successful “modern” viral video. Never before had a commercial caused such a stir as this did. There are no facts about how good their beer is – instead we see a couple of friends screaming Wassup!!! to each other. This is somewhat of a milestone among commercials.

6. A very big ad

The beer company Carlton Draught always likes to go over the top with their commercials and this one good example of that. The fact that it is so very strange makes it stand out and become perfect material for a viral video. I have never drunk the beer but still I can not get it out of my head – that must be accounted as a good viral video.

5. Macintosh 1984

The Budweiser ad is one of the great modern viral commercials but Apple’s Macintosh 1984 ad is one of the very first examples ever. It is a rather creepy commercial but nevertheless was it the most talked about ad at its time and it is still one those videos that people can not resist to mention when discussing viral videos.

4. The T-Mobile dance

The T-Mobile commercial is one of the most impressive and astonishing viral videos I have ever seen. For two and half minutes the Liverpool train station is turned into one of the biggest dance floors the world has ever seen. With over 11 million views on Youtube T-Mobile has to be more than pleased with the outcome of this video.

3. The german coast guard

Germans are not the easiest people to joke about but Berlitz managed to come up with a seriously funny commercial known as the “German Coast Guard”. The mispronunciation, and interpretation, of “sinking” and “thinking” is hilarious and got millions of people searching and talking about this video making it as viral as it possibly can be.

2. Touch of gold

Over 50 million views globally make this one of the greatest viral videos ever made. Soccer star extraordinaire Ronaldinho gets a pair of Golden Legend Nike shoes and hits the crossbar four times, without the ball ever touching the ground. This is impressive in so many ways that I do not know where to begin – both his performance and the number of views make me go, huh?! How is this possible?!

1. Dove evolution

This commercial has already become an instant classic. In only 1:14 you will get to see how easy it is to fix up and do a complete makeover. The girl in this commercial goes from a pretty girl to being photoshopped into looking like a supermodel with the text “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted” showing up. Publicity stunt or not – it proved to be the right way to go since millions of people have seen the ad on Youtube. There have also been parodies made which must be the ultimate proof of it being a successful viral video.

Sometimes you just need some inspiration to move forward. One of the things that inspire me is artists – may it be a musical artist or a painter. However, I recently stumbled upon this great artist that creates portraits of fallen stars out of recycled cassettes tape. If you like this one, please make sure to check out “Ghost in the Machine” on Flickr.

]]> http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/inspirational-artist-0316/feed 0 http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/twitter-unveils-premium-accounts-0288 http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/twitter-unveils-premium-accounts-0288#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:38:20 +0000 Preeti http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/?p=288
Twitter announced yesterday premium account subscriptions. It is not confirmed on the Twitter blog or Twitter website about these services. This will mark a close to Twitter’s bleeding books and maybe give the company some much needed real income.
There will be four flavors of, in honor of birds of course, of account levels: Sparrow, Dove, Owl, Eagle.

• Sparrow- $5/month, 145 character limit
• Dove- $15/month, 160 character limit
• Owl- $50/month, 250 character limit
• Eagle- $250/month, 500 character limit

Rumors are also circulating that super accounts, in line with the American Express Black, called Black will also be available.

but it may just all be a joke

Apple unveiled a new iPod Shuffle this week. It is smaller, sleeker, smaller, buttonless, speaks to you, and comes with headphones. Wait, did you say the Shuffle has no buttons? Yes sir, it just has the hold button that serves as a hold/off/on. I have a feeling people are going to mistake these miniature mp3 music players for sticks of gum. I still do not who Apple is trying to market with their Shuffle; kids, toddlers, small pets? They already have a special sports one so no point in reinventing the wheel. Oh, and there is only one color to this ipod: silver.

Facebook revamps its homepage. Luckily it is only the front page that got a makeover. For me, it won’t do. It’s more confusing, more crowded, and more visually stupid looking. I love FB and have been using it for a few years now, but come’on, is this what the team thought as better? Whatever happened to usability and web design? Besides the fact that loading times are terrible and links don’t always work, Facebook has failed on the user interface. I hope next time they have a bigger test group telling them what makes sense.

The trial is over and the world is now awaiting the judgement. The outcome will not only have impact on the legislation in Sweden. No, this is a global issue and it will pretty much set the tone for file-sharing all over the world. It has been quite the battlefield in the court room and being the good Samaritan that I am I will clarify the arguments of both parties.

The Prosecutor & Plaintiff

It’s not the technique that is the issue; it is the fact that there are Torrent files available on The Pirate Bay. Consequently, the site is guilty of distributing copyright protected material. Also sites linking to illegal material can be found guilty in the Supreme Court.

The accused have knowledge that copyright protected material is distributed through their site and they have done nothing to prevent it. The accused can be sentenced even if their site is a form of search engine. This according to previous sentences.

An agreement among the accused to form the company Random Media shows that all four should be held responsible. Three of the four have signed a contract and the fourth is mentioned in it – all according to the prosecutor.

The Accused

The Pirate Bay is nothing but a search engine. It is not possible to convict the supplier of the infrastructure for what the users are doing.

The prosecutor has not been able to show where and when the violation was committed, hence they can’t be convicted for being accomplices. It is not even clear that the violation was committed on The Pirate Bay.

Three of the accused maintain that they can’t be held personally responsible for the site. Only one of the four accused admits that he is operating the site, also adding that the purpose never has been to spread any copyright protected material. Nowhere on the site are visitors encouraged to file-share copyrighted works.