For those who are not a webmaster or internet geeks, a webhost is a server where a webmaster actually host their websites. In simple terms it is a server where all the website’s files exists. There are coutless web hosts on the web. Only few of them meet the real quality standards though.

Honestly, i have 5 shared servers as on now. The recent web hosting service i added to my list was BlueHost.com. Frankly i was attracted to the service because of the punchline on one of it’s banner. It said, 1.5TB (Tera Byte) disk space and 15TB Transfer. I think that’s a lot for my sites. Specially the one which laid stress on images and wallpapers. Bandwidth and disk space are the only two main issues with such a web site. So i readily signed in.

I prepaid for the server for two years. Gosh! saves me a lot of headache of monthly installments. It’s been just a week now. I think it will be too soon to review it completely. But so far i am pretty satisfied with it. I have a Bid Web Directory on the server. And so far added two new wallpaper/image kinda sites on it. The sites surprisingly are quick and loads fast for me, even though i am fed of the current speed of internet due to the recent glitch in Internet Service Provider’s services. I am not comparing the quickness of the sites compared to other sites of mine on different web hosts. But i think under estimated the BlueHost server for the speed factor. It’s well beyond my expectations. But as i said earlier, it may be too early to review the server so soon. But i would appreciate your views on it if you are using this webhost.

Apart from BlueHost services, i am also using HostGator and HostMonster web host. I think it’s safe for me to say that i trust HostGator services for my sites. I trust enough that i have my main site Ally Directory on it’s server and frankly HostGator are always up to my expectations whatsoever.

I would also like to know what dedicated servers you have. I am seriously considering a dedicated server from some good web host but really cannot make up mind on any i looked for. I need space, bandwidth and different C Class IP’s on the same server. I know GoDaddy offers my requirements for good price, but i am not very comfortable with the admin panel of GoDaddy as on now. I would rather prefer Cpanel with Fantastico support probably because i am pretty used to it. Let me know if you have knowledge of some good web host with that requirements. I would really appreciate your views. Thanks

Thanks to a ship, India and some other countries are facing a terrible internet problem. Now you might be thinking that how can a ship be related to internet? Well, here is how the story goes…

A ship anchoring off Egypt’s Alexandria coast, cut through the Indian-owned FLAG cable and also the SEA-ME-WE cable sometime of the day on 30th January, thus leading to an unprecedented disruption in international connectivity. Amazingly, the ship alone damaged the internet services in large part of India, Asia and Middle East. Duh? Government officials says that it will take nearly 15-20 days to get the things going again. Huh… You know what.. I am getting an irritating speed of 2kbps at the moment. A mp3 song of 4 MB takes nearly 40-50 mins.  What a life!

With no internet or rather very slow internet, we webmasters have nothing else to do. Of course i can do the tasks which can be done offline but it’s been really difficult to manage my sites these days. What worries me more is that ISP says another 15-20 days remains for the services to be in full effect. So i think i still have two weeks of this painfully slow internet service making my life a little terrible. Am trying to pass my time in some better way though. What are you doing now or if you haven’t been effected with this ship, then tell me what would have you done with not much of internet for nearly two weeks? What i feel without Internet: Hell falling upon us!!!!

Alright, so there is another Google Pagerank update. And guess what? Like we all thought, it’s a crap pagerank update again. Nothing has changed with Google’s attitude.

I am a strong believer that Google is the best search engine on the web. It also has some great webmaster tools and great communities, recreation sites and advertising programs like Orkut, YouTube and Adsense. But when it comes to Pagerank, well, they suck big time. I think this is how they prove that “No One Is Perfect”. They wanted something terribly wrong with their system, and they have pagerank for that task.

I m more disappointed with the way Google treats directories. I have one major directory which has 525,000 inlinks in Yahoo siteexplorer and nearly 1700 backlinks in Google! Awful comparision but still… I got PR3 on that directory of mine, although it was PR5 in the very second update. The PR dropped that time and seems it won’t go up again. It’s a directory alright, and i do provide listings to other websites as every directory should do, even Google Directory and DMOZ directory, for that matter, does. But the fact is that i have never SOLD any links on homepage or inside pages, ever, despite getting thousands request from advertisers every month. Still Google is treating that as paid links. I think the guys behind pagerank have lost good portion of brains. And i do believe that these guys will go beyond every limit to prove how big dumb ass they are. It’s even more disappointing to see that some new directories, with default templates, and useless names, with couple of hundred backlinks get PR5 or PR6. Arggghhh… Come on Google PR guys. Get some life. At least clear up your basics. Damn, what a waste.

These days i am just trying to buy links for traffic… Followed or no followed…i am just concentrating on traffic. But Google spoils my day everytime there is a pagerank update. Looks like all efforts down the drain.

Disappointed, Depressed and Tired of Google Pagerank i also opened a thread in some of the webmaster forums. I get almost the same response from 90 percent of webmasters. After a pretty long discussion and thinking on PageRank system, i have analyzed that either Google Pagerank should soon be reviewed by Google Team and things shall back to normal or else Google is going to lose faith of many webmasters as far as PR is concerned.

All said, i still believe that Google Directory does not deserve the PR8 it has. Come On Google, you are just a copycat when it comes to directory. Using DMOZ Database in normal term does mean that you are copying it’s efforts and content. At least we directory owners do have our own unique content on directories. So stop the injustice and do something for which webmaster’s get a little easy life…comparatively.

Since new year, i haven’t been blogging really. Usually i would have said that i am getting a little lazier. But not this time. A week back, i bought a new Apple iPhone. And yes, it’s really cool. All this time, i was busy playing and exploring this cool gadget. It is truly an amazing mobile phone.

iPhone, truly deserves the title that it was given. “Revolution Of the decade”. Or probably it was revolution of the century. I really don’t remember.

I am still getting used to this phone. But there are lot of features which truly amazes me. I really like the zoom in function on images. The ringtones, the videos, the iPod, calling features, etc…everything is really awesome. Yes i truly wished that Apple had put in some more power to speakers. The ringtone volume does not impress me at all. But then we can’t expect having everything in a phone. They have already added to many features in it.

I like you tube videos for a change. For unknown reason, the videos are very clear, unlike the videos as we see via our PC and laptops. The stocks, the weather and the maps, all are pretty good. I can even see Indian stocks in there. So another reason for me to be impressed. Other than that, i think having Gmail in my phone comforts me.

You know what…I can go on and on talking about the features that i see in this phone. But thing is that i am going to stay here. And this iPhone is going to stay here as well. So i can continue to talk about it till i explore it completely.

Meanwhile, enjoy some images of iPhone, that were taken by me, via my previous cell phone, that was Sony Ericsson s500i. Enjoy and God Bless!

Do share your views on this amazing gadget. And Zunes!!….keep out of this post!

Hello Everyone!

It’s been a great year 2007. This year will have lot for me to remember. Lot of good and bad memories. Good memories will be cherished later in life, while bad would be forgotten. My websites have been doing great. I liked the way my websites were developed in the year 2007. Specially my Ally web directory. I think i loved 2007 year. Apart from the Google’s penalization and Google’s Pagerank crap, i don’t think there has been any upsets this year around.

For the year 2008, well i will continue to do hard work. More colleagues, more friends, more business and probably few more websites in my armory. I will also make it a point to update this blog, more frequently, with more useful posts 

In the year 2008, i would wish for health, wealth for you and your family. May you all do well in whatever business or studies you are in. God bless you all. And have a Happy, Safe and a prosperous New Year 2008. Take Care!

~Sharat