Gawkwire: Web Hosting and Internet News Resource

Explosion Rocks The Planet

2008-05-31T18:29:00-04:00

Houston TX data center The Planet experienced a suspicious outage on Saturday afternoon that evolved in a full blown crisis. According to reports on The Planet’s forum, at approximately 5:45 pm on Saturday, May 31,2008, a transformer in their H1 data center caught fire, resulting in the shutdown of all generators to their North Houston data center. Fire and emergency units we immediately deployed and damages were assessed. It was determined to be an electrical fire and no flames were reported.

Even though no server hardware was damaged, Doug Erwin, CEO of The Planet released the following statement 5 hours later with complete details.

“This evening at 4:55pm CDT in our H1 data center, electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked down three walls surrounding our electrical equipment room. Thankfully, no one was injured. In addition, no customer servers were damaged or lost.
We have just been allowed into the building to physically inspect the damage. Early indications are that the short was in a high-volume wire conduit. We were not allowed to activate our backup generator plan based on instructions from the fire department.
This is a significant outage, impacting approximately 9,000 servers and 7,500 customers. All members of our support team are in, and all vendors who supply us with data center equipment are on site. Our initial assessment, although early, points to being able to have some service restored by mid-afternoon on Sunday. Rest assured we are working around the clock.
We are in the process of communicating with all affected customers. we are planning to post updates every hour via our forum and in our customer portal. Our interactive voice response system is updating customers as well.
There is no impact in any of our other five data centers.
I am sorry that this accident has occurred and I apologize for the impact.”

Kevin Hazard has assured all customers the will “live up to our SLA agreements, and will proactively credit accounts” once they understand full outage times. Even though many efforts were made to bring services back online within 24 hours, the complete management and technical staff at The Planet has been working around the clock to issue repairs and bring full power back to the facility.

Initial damage assessments were adjusted as reports from technical staff and contractors were brought in on Sunday and by 11:00 pm, Hazard reported on The Planet’s forum that;

“As you have read, we have begun receiving some of the equipment required to start repairs. While no customer servers have been damaged or lost, we have new information that damage to our H1 data center is worse than initially expected. Three walls of the electrical equipment room on the first floor blew several feet from their original position, and the underground cabling that powers the first floor of H1 was destroyed.

There is some good news, however. We have found a way to get power to Phase 2 (upstairs, second floor) of the data center and to restore network connectivity. We will be powering up the air conditioning system and other necessary equipment within the next few hours. Once these systems are tested, we will begin bringing the 6,000 servers online. It will take four to five hours to get them all running.

We have brought in additional support from Dallas to have more hands and eyes on site to help with any servers that may experience problems. The call center has also brought in double staff to handle the increase in tickets we're expecting. Hopefully by sunrise tomorrow Phase 2 will be well on its way to full production.

Let me next address Phase 1 (first floor) of the data center and the affected 3,000 servers. The news is not as good, and we were not as lucky. The damage there was far more extensive, and we have a bigger challenge that will require a two-step process. For the first step, we have designed a temporary method that we believe will bring power back to those servers sometime tomorrow evening, but the solution will be temporary. We will use a generator to supply power through next weekend when the necessary gear will be delivered to permanently restore normal utility power and our battery backup system. During the upcoming week, we will be working with those customers to resolve issues.

We know this may not be a satisfactory solution for you and your business but at this time, it is the best we can do.

We understand that you will be due service credits based on our Service Level Agreement. We will proactively begin providing those following the restoration of service, which is our number priority, so please bear with us until this has been completed.

I recognize that this is not all good news. I can only assure you we will continue to utilize every means possible to fully restore service.”

Shortly after midnight, the Houston Fire Marshal permitted the technical staff to bring power back to the facility and the long process of cooling the data center floor and restoring power to the hardware on a per rack basis.

As of 9:00 am this morning, the staff at The Planet is continuing to work on schedule to bring all hardware online and it is reported that 90% of all servers are up and running.

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OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta and Extensions Show Strong Momentum

2008-05-30T10:56:00-04:00

BERLIN - Sun Microsystems, Inc., the leading Open Source company, and the OpenOffice.org(TM) community today announced the availability of more than 100 extensions in the OpenOffice.org Extension Repository with the most popular ones achieving downloads of more than 200,000. Extensions are additional components downloaded on top of an existing OpenOffice.org installation to add extra features, templates, languages and dictionaries to the software.

We are very pleased with this latest demonstration of leadership by OpenOffice.org, Sun, Apple, and the OpenDocument community to further the cause of accessibility to the Open Document format by the blind and other people with disabilities
Created through worldwide community collaboration, the OpenOffice.org Extension Repository includes template packs, a report designer, tools for professional writers, translation, presentation compression functionality and more. Two new OpenOffice.org 3.0 features, highlighted on the product roadmap and expected to be released as extensions within weeks are the Sun Presenter Console and the Sun PDF Import Extension. The Sun Presenter Console extension is available now to preview from the extension repository. It allows users to view their speaker notes, the next slide and the time on their laptop screens while presenting via a connected projector. The Sun PDF Import Extension allows users to edit PDF files.

“The Network Economy has ushered in new, dramatically different business models that have changed both the pace and approach with which individuals, communities and companies compete and succeed. It is critical for the participants in this new market to have the right tools and technologies so we encourage developers to get involved with OpenOffice.org,” said Jim Parkinson, vice president of Tools and Services at Sun. “With more than 1.2 million downloads per week and the growing adoption of the ISO standard OpenDocument Format, OpenOffice.org is a very attractive platform for developers and consumers. And until June 23, developers have the chance to win a share of the $175,000 USD that will be awarded by Sun Microsystems as part of the OpenOffice.org Community Innovation Program.”

OpenOffice.org extensions can be easily created by developers as multi-platform components using technologies, such as, Java(TM) and NetBeans(TM) Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This is important as OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta has added platform support for Apple Mac OS X in addition to Windows, Linux and the Solaris(TM) OS. The Mac OS X version of OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta is receiving particularly good feedback from early testers for its performance, stability, cross-platform interoperability and feature richness.

In addition, OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta is receiving very positive feedback for its strong accessibility support on Mac OS X. OpenOffice.org is the first application that is multi-platform accessible, exposing a rich set of information to assistive technologies on Windows, Solaris, GNU/Linux and with this upcoming release, Mac OS X (Intel-based Macs only). OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version to run on Mac OS X that will have the look and feel of an Aqua application while supporting the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and integrating well with the built-in Macintosh VoiceOver screen reader - offering better accessibility support than many other applications available for Mac OS X.

“Sun and the OpenOffice.org community take accessibility very seriously, whether in schools, in the home, in the workplace or in government institutions. An accessible solution for editing documents, spreadsheets, and creating presentations is of vital importance to the hundreds of millions of people worldwide with disabilities,” said Peter Korn, accessibility architect at Sun Microsystems and co-chair of the OASIS OpenDocument accessibility subcommittee. “Sun has listened and responded to the community. Our engineering efforts are a direct result of the requests we’ve received from our user community and exemplifies the innovation and success of the many open source initiatives at Sun.”

“We are very pleased with this latest demonstration of leadership by OpenOffice.org, Sun, Apple, and the OpenDocument community to further the cause of accessibility to the Open Document format by the blind and other people with disabilities,” said Curtis Chong, president of the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science. “This move – to make OpenOffice.org accessible on the Mac – is an important step for people who want access to the OpenDocument format and the OpenOffice.org software, and it is reassuring to know that as OpenOffice.org moves into the Mac arena, it will be usable by everyone. We sincerely hope that similar efforts are underway to ensure access to OpenOffice.org on all platforms where it is available.”

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, OpenOffice.org, NetBeans and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.

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LifeLock's Growth: An Look Inside the Numbers

2008-05-29T14:49:00-04:00

Tempe, AZ - LifeLock®, the industry leader in identity theft protection, reached a major milestone recently with the signing up of its one-millionth member. It's being hailed as a significant accomplishment for a company that only signed its first member in June 2005. The company also hired its 335th employee and was named a finalist for seven American Business Awards, recognizing the organization for a variety of "best in business" practices.

As the leader in proactive identity theft protection, LifeLock begins by requesting, on behalf of its clients, the national credit bureaus place free fraud alerts on LifeLock members' credit files. They also request their members' names be removed from pre-approved credit card and junk mail lists. In addition, members receive LifeLock's WalletLock™, eRecon™ and TrueAddress™ services. WalletLock works to cancel and replace all documents and personal identifying information inside a lost or stolen wallet. An ongoing patrol of over 10,000 websites where criminals illegally trade and sell information, eRecon searches specifically for LifeLock members' Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, driver's license numbers and email addresses to make sure they're not being sold or traded. LifeLock's TrueAddress service alerts members if they have had a change of address form filed in their name, a tactic used by identity thieves to reroute consumers' mail to the thief's address. Of course, all LifeLock members are backed by LifeLock's $1 million service guarantee.

"As the industry leader, we're constantly adding new services, like WalletLock, eRecon and TrueAddress, in order to continue to provide the most comprehensive, proactive approach to protecting our members," said LifeLock CEO Todd Davis. "As we continue to grow our service and attract more members, we will also continue to enhance our offering to maintain LifeLock's role as the source for comprehensive identity theft protection."

The Federal Trade Commission reports that in 2007, more than 800,000 Americans registered more than complaints related to identity theft. One of the fastest growing crimes in America, identity theft has topped the FTC's list of consumer complaints for the seventh straight year, at a cost to Americans of $1.2 billion annually.

As one of the fastest growing companies in Arizona, LifeLock has more than doubled in memberships since January. The LifeLock system of proactive identity theft protection is an approach that certainly seems to work. According to the FTC website, 3.7 percent of the population or approximately 8.3 million people were victims of identity theft. Applying the 3.7 percent figure to the LifeLock membership base would mean that 37,000 members should be victims of identity theft. However, only 105 out of 1,000,000 LifeLock members have ever needed to utilize the organizations $1 million total service guarantee. That's a success rate of 99.9 percent, and all 105 had their good names completely restored by LifeLock service guarantee- proving that LifeLock's industry leading proactive approach is truly effective.

While offering a service to protect consumers from the growing threat of identity theft, LifeLock also takes a proactive approach in educating consumers on the variety of options available from the "do-it-yourself" approach to the various other services available. Since January 2008, LifeLock has made more than 50 presentations to various groups across the country, educating individuals on the threats of identity theft as well as options available to them both free and through services.

As LifeLock continues to grow its membership, partnerships with Office Depot, the National Rifle Association, CVS Pharmacy, U.S Airways, Northwest Airlines and various AAA clubs, are proving to be integral as more and more Americans are turning to those groups that they trust for LifeLock's complete identity theft protection services.

"We understand the need and the proven value of this prevention tool and believe that it is a perfect fit for our 3.2 million members as well as for our employees," said Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President. "It is our goal to partner with organizations such as LifeLock, who are leaders in their respective fields, as we continue to build on our strong foundation of member benefits."

About LifeLock®
Famous for its CEO giving out his Social Security Number in advertising and national press, the company is experiencing strong growth. Located in a secure facility in Tempe, Arizona, LifeLock® (www.lifelock.com) is a private company backed by Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, as well as Bessemer Venture Partners. Winner of the 2007 American Business Award for the Best Radio Advertising Campaign, LifeLock was a finalist for 10 other ABA awards, including Best New Company and Best New Product/Service. Recently the company was named recipient of the Red Herring 100 Global Award as one of the Top 100 start-up's in the world and was listed among the finalists for the Best Places to Work in 2007 by the Phoenix Business Journal.

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Yahoo!'s Frazier Miller to Keynote SMX Local & Mobile

2008-05-30T10:45:00-04:00

Redding, CT - Yahoo! Local General Manager Frazier Miller is uniquely qualified to discuss the local search opportunity as the person responsible for setting strategy and direction for Yahoo!'s local properties including Yahoo! Local, Upcoming and Yellow Pages.

At Search Marketing Expo - SMX Local & Mobile, Miller will discuss Yahoo!'s vision for weaving local information into users' primary Web starting points, as well as what it means for other local search players. He'll also address the evolving needs of local searchers and how emerging technologies will be applied to search results to deliver the most relevant local content and results.

Miller's address opens two days of sessions focused on local and mobile marketing. View details of the program, including descriptions of the nearly 20 sessions, on the SMX Local & Mobile agenda pages.

Why Local and Mobile Internet Marketing?

Driving traffic - and ultimately sales - from local search and mobile marketing is an opportunity for marketers who know the tactics, techniques and players unique to this rapidly growing, specialized internet marketing field. The goal of 1-in-5 searches is to find something locally, according to Yahoo!'s research.

SMX Local & Mobile is the only event 100% dedicated to preparing marketers to profit from this opportunity. If your mission is to drive more traffic to location-specific businesses, SMX Local & Mobile provides an intensive crash course of tips, tactics and techniques for success. SMX Local & Mobile is being held July 24-25 in San Francisco.

You can take advantage of Early Bird rates for SMX Local & Mobile by registering today! You get all of the content, keynotes, and community that make SMX events famous.

About SMX Local & Mobile and Third Door Media, Inc.

Search Marketing Expo - SMX Local & Mobile is produced by Third Door Media, Inc. Third Door Media's mission is to empower internet and search marketing professionals by providing trusted content and community services they need to be successful. Other Search Marketing Expo events include SMX West, SMX East, SMX Advanced, SMX Social Media Marketing, SMX Munich, and SMX London. See the full list here.

Third Door Media also publishes the search marketing news and analysis site Search Engine Land, produces Search Marketing Now, a lead-generation marketing solution for suppliers of SEM-related products and services, and Sphinn.com, the place for web, online, search, interactive and internet marketers to share news stories, talk within subject-specific discussion forums, build a network and stay connected to hot topics in internet marketing.

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1&1 sees rapid growth in .ORG domain registrations

2008-05-29T13:38:00-04:00

Philadelphia, PA -1&1 Internet Inc., the world's largest web host by known servers, today revealed that it has seen impressive growth in the number of .ORG domain names registered by its customers worldwide. The number of 1&1 registered .ORG domains increased by over 30 percent over the past 12 months, suggesting an increase in web activity within the non-profit and charity sectors. With the availability of .ORG domains for only $6.99 per year -including a 5 page website, search engine submission and private registration- it has never been easier or more affordable to take a good cause to the web. 1&1 joins the .ORG Public Interest Registry (PIR) and its 'World Voices' campaign in recognizing the remarkable achievements of the .ORG community.

While web adoption is most often analyzed in terms of small businesses and personal publishing activity, 1&1 reveals evidence to show that small scale non-profit and social activism websites are making impressive gains on the Internet. Between December of 2006, and December of 2007, the world's largest web host registered over 70,000 .ORG domains, seeing a unique and impressive increase of 31 percent.

The availability of affordable, 'out of the box' web solutions has no doubt helped to accelerate the progress of non-profit, charity and social activism websites. In 2008, it can take as little as 30 minutes and a few clicks 'to give a voice' to a cause or activity, with the average user today having tools at their fingertips previously reserved to large organizations. For example, a $6.99 per year .ORG domain purchased from 1&1 includes a 5 page WebsiteBuilder website, custom email addresses and search engine submission -meaning a quality web presence for only a few dollars.

An example of an effective 1&1 registered .ORG website is the local New Jersey firefighter's association website, www.NJBCFA.org. The website provides a community with information and increased support for the firefighters. Their .ORG domain gives the organization an internationally recognized emblem of legitimacy and non-profit status. Ray DiPatri of the N.J.B.C.F.A comments, "Our website has been vital for building support, sharing information and recruiting volunteers. This Firefighter Association has been meeting for over 90 years and our website will help recruit new and younger members. The .ORG domain name is an extension of our non-profit identity and conveys the spirit of volunteerism: doing without financial reward." The N.J.B.C.F.A. website is a good example of how the .ORG community has used the web to connect a community and support a good cause.

Oliver Mauss, CEO 1&1 Internet Inc., said, "While we have seen pleasing growth in all domain registrations worldwide, perhaps the most satisfying is the huge rise in .ORGs over the past year. Out of 1&1's 10 million domains, some of the most innovative and productive websites are to be found in the .ORG community. Just as the Internet was intended, the web can be an amazing means for smaller groups to make a difference, and 1&1 will continue to work hard to help the non-profit sector use the Internet to maximum effect."

Alexa Raad, CEO Public Interest Registry, added, "The contributions of the .ORG community in recent years are amazing. They have not only helped to galvanize interest in various causes, but by adopting trends such as social networking, have given individuals unprecedented means to inspire, educate, collaborate, and ultimately change the world as we know it."

The .ORG domain is a highly effective web identity because it transcends geographical boundaries and socio-political labels. .ORG is clearly a powerful tool in attracting support and participation for non-profit initiatives. The growth of 1&1 .ORG registrations is significant in demonstrating a surge in the number of people and causes that are today empowered by the web. The availability of .ORG is representative of the original concept of the Internet - egalitarian and intended for honorable enterprises.

Raad added, "The 'World Voices' Campaign is designed to highlight the contributions of the .ORG community as well as position .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, as a passionate steward of the namespace and a fierce advocate for the rights of its community."

For more information on 1&1 Internet Inc. visit the website at www.1and1.com About 1&1 Internet Inc.:
1&1 Internet Inc. is a subsidiary of United Internet, a profitable public company with a market cap of $4 billion. 1&1 was founded in 1988 and hosts more than 10 million domain names, while more than 47,000 servers run in the company's five state-of-the-art data centers. 1&1's global community is over 7 million customer contracts strong. The company's U.S. headquarters is located in Chesterbrook, PA. For more information, please contact the company at www.1and1.com or 1-877-461-2631.

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GasPrices.com Sells for $225,000

2008-05-29T10:28:00-04:00

Pompano Beach, FL - More than $2.5 million in premium domain names were purchased during Moniker's T.R.A.F.F.I.C EAST Live Auction on Friday, May 23 at the Grand Floridian Hotel in Orlando, Florida. In total, 105 domains were sold making the average sale price over $24,000 during the four hour event. As gas prices across the country continue to rise, the auction's top-selling domain - GasPrices.com- is no surprise.

Individual investors and domain focused companies purchased various premium domains, including these top sales:

-   GasPrices.com      $225,000
-    Insurancerates.com   $225,000
-    Rainbow.com      $170,000
-    Athlete.com      $122,000
-   ow.com         $120,000
-    RingTones.org      $120,000
-    Track.com      $92,500
-   Computerparts.com   $80,000
-   Grass.com      $70,000

Bidding Opportunities Still Available

Moniker is currently hosting an extended online auction in conjunction with the live events in Orlando last week, offering thousands of additional names including those not purchased at the Live Auction, such as Israel.com, Yachts.com, Hoodia.com and AffiliateProgram.com. The online auction will continue through Thursday, May 29 with select auction inventory beginning to close at 11:00 a.m. (EDT)

To learn more about bidding options, see a complete list of rules and procedures for all Moniker auctions or review additional upcoming live and online domain auctions throughout the year, visit the Domain Auction page on the Moniker website at http://www.moniker.com/liveauction. You may also contact sales@moniker.com or call (800) 688-6311.

The next live auction will be the SnapNames LiveTM Domain Auction during the DomainerMeeting in Paris, France on June 20, 2008 at the Meridian Montparnasse Hotel. For more information, visit http://liveauctions.snapnames.com/details?auction_id=191c.

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Comodo Introduces Service to Protect Wireless Sessions

2008-05-28T15:15:00-04:00

Jersey City, NJ - Comodo, a leading communication security company, today announced the launch of TrustConnect, a new service that protects users from hackers who often use public networks to illegally procure sensitive and private information. With TrustConnect, users can create a virtual private network to quickly connect to the Internet through a Comodo secure server and encrypt network traffic before it leaves their computers. This service is highly flexible and gives users the ability to create secure wireless sessions wherever and whenever they want.

The use of public networks continues to grow as they offer more convenient access to the Internet. However, when users go onto public or "open" WiFi networks, they often are not secure and are vulnerable to hackers. Hackers can eavesdrop on a user’s session to illegally capture user names, passwords and other private data. Comodo TrustConnect provides an additional layer of security by encrypting all data that is being transported during the wireless session making conversations virtually impenetrable to hackers.

Comodo TrustConnect offers a number of key features and competitive differentiators including:

* All data transported during a TrustConnect session, whether on a public or unsecured session, will be encrypted.
* Users have the flexibility to create a one-time secure session anywhere and anytime they need it
* Flexible plans give users the ability to purchase the service on a daily, weekly or monthly plan
* Service plans start at $ 3.99 for a day pass and $49.99 for an annual subscription

"We are expanding our offerings to protect people when using the Internet on unsecured wireless networks," explains Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and Chief Security Architect of Comodo. "The TrustConnect technology provides encryption capabilities that protect mobile and wireless Internet sessions from being hacked. This offering is another part of our strategy to create a trusted internet by helping people be confident that they can use the Internet securely whether at home or on the road." For more information about Comodo TrustConnect, go to: www.comodo.com/trustconnect.
About Comodo

The Comodo companies provide the infrastructure that is essential in enabling e-merchants, other Internet-connected companies, software companies, and individual consumers to interact and conduct business via the Internet safely and securely. The Comodo companies offer PKI SSL, Code Signing, Content Verification and E-Mail Certificates; award winning PC security software; vulnerability scanning services for PCI Compliance; secure e-mail and fax services.

Continual innovation, a core competence in PKI, and a commitment to reversing the growth of Internet-crime distinguish the Comodo companies as vital players in the Internet's ongoing development. Comodo secures and authenticates online transactions and communications for over 200,000 business customers and 3,000,000 users of our desktop security products.

For additional information on Comodo - Creating Trust Online™ visit http://www.comodo.com

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$2.6 Million Dollar Settlement Paid by the Princeton Review

2008-05-28T23:42:00-04:00

PORTLAND, OR - CollegeNET and The Princeton Review have entered into an agreement settling all claims related to The Princeton Review's alleged infringement of two CollegeNET patents, U.S. patent number 6,460,042 (the '042) and U.S. patent number 6,910,045 (the '045). These CollegeNET patents cover key innovations in the way web-based admissions applications are serviced on behalf of colleges and universities.

CollegeNET's infringement claims arose from TPR's operation of its Embark admissions servicing unit, a unit which TPR sold in early 2007 to MRU Holdings (My Rich Uncle). Princeton Review publicly acknowledged settling the litigation and making the one-time $2.6 Million payment to CollegeNET in its 2007 Annual Report. While most terms of the settlement agreement are confidential, a key provision that isn't calls for payment by TPR of a royalty to CollegeNET should TPR choose to re-enter the web admissions application processing business. The agreed upon royalty rate conforms to the per application compensation rate set by a jury in 2003 in the CollegeNET vs. ApplyYourself patent infringement litigation -- litigation which has not yet closed.

The settlement agreement follows rejection by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of The Princeton Review's request for a second re-examination of CollegeNET's '042 patent. The USPTO issued a notice in July, 2007 upholding all claims of CollegeNET's US patent no. 6,460,042 (the '042 patent); affirmed new, additional claims; and closed its reexamination of that patent. Following this notice, The Princeton Review filed a second request for re-examination to the PTO citing additional, putatively invalidating prior art. The USPTO indicated in its rejection of this second request that the cited materials and arguments failed to raise a substantial new question of patentability. The patent office issued the re-examination certificate for the '042 patent on April 8, 2008 closing the proceedings.

Paul Casey, CollegeNET associate vice president, stated, "The settlement agreement with Princeton Review ends their participation in a protracted and coordinated attempt by various infringers to overturn CollegeNET's patents. The settlement agreement and the latest USPTO action are important additional steps towards affirming our valid intellectual property rights and clearing the haze of denial that has lingered over the marketplace."

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Ensim Announces Upgrades for Unify Active Directory Manager

2008-05-29T11:46:00-04:00

Santa Clara, CA - Ensim Corporation, the leading provider of user provisioning and access control software, today announced the immediate availability of Ensim Unify Active Directory Manager, Version 2.5, which will feature Ensim’s latest web-based Active Directory management tools.

Ensim Unify, which self-installs in less than one hour, allows enterprises to alleviate common challenges, such as provisioning, password management, role management, and auditing and compliance of Active Directory servers.

Active Directory (AD) is a complex application that is affected by a number of system administrators on a daily basis. With an increasing number of senior IT managers turning to Ensim Unify Active Directory Manager to protect, insulate and secure their AD environments, Unify’s AD Manager 2.5 features upgrades that virtually eliminate the unplanned downtime that frequently occurs through misconfiguration.

“It is Ensim’s goal to make AD unbreakable - that means with Unify 2.5, we intend that Active Directory will no longer be susceptible to downtime and misconfiguration as a result of human error,” said Scott Young, vice president of product marketing at Ensim Corporation. “Our customers come from a wide variety of organizations, from medium and large enterprises to educational institutions, and they have played a major role in helping us achieve this goal through the new features and enhancements offered in the latest version.”

Unify Active Directory Manager 2.5 incorporates the following major enhancements:

AD Management Safety & Efficiency

Fine Grain Role Delegation: Allows system administrator roles to be restricted by organizational unit (OU).

Simplified Policy-based Provisioning: Auto-setup feature simplifies using IT policy to define user templates. “Auto setup” now automatically configures end-users’ home folder, logon script and home drive.

Customizable Provisioning Policies: System administrators can customize the user account creation and provisioning process by automatically configuring approved user name and display name patterns, as well as specified AD attributes.

AD Security and Compliance

Change & Audit Logs: AD Manager already tracks the status of each change request made against AD. Version 2.5 also creates a complete log of all changes made to each individual object.

Enhanced Alert Notification Capabilities: System administrators can now customize the action reports, including usage statistics and end-user license alerts.

Product Scalability and Extensibility

Support for multiple domain controllers: System administrators can now leverage Unify's preferences to access multiple domain controllers.

Enhanced Web Services SDK: The usability and coverage of Unify Web Services has also been enhanced with this release. This allows medium and larger organizations to provide a much more seamless integration experience across their application infrastructure by allowing them to bring a broader variety of web-based and legacy applications under the Unify management umbrella.

Availability
Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition 2.5 is available immediately from the Ensim web site at http://get.ensim.com. For more information, visit http://www.ensim.com/ or call Ensim at 1-888-248-4003 (1-408-496-3700 from outside the U.S.).

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Brixtel Corporation Partners with GlobalSign

2008-05-29T10:44:00-04:00

Portsmouth, NH - GlobalSign (www.globalsign.com), one of the longest established Certification Authorities (CA) and specialists in SSL Certificates, today announced that Brixtel Corporation, a leading IT and Internet Security Provider, has chosen GlobalSign's SSL Partner program to offer SSL Certificate products to its extensive customer base. The partnership allows Brixtel customers to secure their websites, virtual servers, electronic medical records, online transactions, web mail access and even custom designed software using GlobalSign's highly trusted SSL products.

GlobalSign SSL Certificates
GlobalSign demonstrated the revenue potential in providing SSL as a complementary product within our security product portfolio
By offering GlobalSign SSL, Brixtel is complementing its wide variety of Internet and network security products and solutions with the industry's strongest and most feature rich SSL security. Brixtel prides itself on identifying and resolving technical and security issues before they adversely impact their clients' business operations. SSL is a perfect component to further build on this business model and set of best practices. By incorporating SSL into its robust line of products and services, Brixtel expects to increase security, customer satisfaction and revenue per customer through a new and highly profitable revenue channel.

"GlobalSign demonstrated the revenue potential in providing SSL as a complementary product within our security product portfolio," said Ahmed Mansoor, Information Security Engineer, Brixtel. "Brixtel can now offer new and existing customers highly trusted SSL to secure their business processes and solutions." Ahmed went on to say "We chose to partner with GlobalSign because of the extensive marketing and training programs available to the Channel and the fact that GlobalSign is globally recognized as a leader in the marketplace for digital certificates."

With the ability to offer three main types of Certificate -- fast Domain Validation, traditional Organization Validation or the newly standardized Extended Validation SSL Certificate, all with free Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) to "step up" weak 40 bit browser to server connections to strong 128 bit included as a standard, Brixtel can provide their customers with the most secure SSL Certificates available in today's market. With optional premium features such as custom start and end dates, Subject Alternative Names (SAN's) and Wildcard SSL Certificates to allow the securing of multiple sites with a single certificate, Brixtel is able to meet their customer's individual requirements by offering tailor made SSL solutions.

"We are pleased and excited to welcome Brixtel to our SSL Partner Program," said Johan Sys, CEO, GlobalSign, Inc. "The solutions that Brixtel offer their customers are robust and highly competitive in the security and systems engineering market. We are proud to partner with Brixtel and look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with a company that is trusted and respected in today's security marketplace."

GlobalSign SSL Certificates are available immediately from Brixtel's website at www.brixtel.com.

For more information on GlobalSign's SSL Partner Program please visit www.globalsign.com/partners.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/160.html

Yahoo! Files Lawsuit Against â€œLotteryâ€ Spammers

2008-05-27T14:33:00-04:00

SUNNYVALE, CA - As part of its continued commitment to protect Internet users from e-mail scams, Yahoo! Inc., announced the filing of a lawsuit against “Yahoo! Lottery Spammers” for unlawfully sending e-mail messages to Internet users for the purpose of deceiving them into believing that they have won a lottery or prize offered by Yahoo!. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in New York City, under the Federal Trademark Act, the Federal CAN-SPAM Act, and related state laws.

The complaint alleges that without permission or authorization, and with full knowledge and notice of Yahoo!’s trademark rights, the spammers willfully masqueraded as Yahoo!, and sent e-mails claiming that the recipient had won a lottery, prize or other award from Yahoo!. Yahoo! does not offer any such awards and has no affiliation or any connection with the spammers or their e-mail communications. This type of lottery scam is a hoax designed to trick unsuspecting e-mail users into revealing valuable personal data like passwords, credit card information, and social security numbers. Commonly known as a “phishing” scam, in this confidence game, perpetrators typically use the stolen information to access recipients’ bank accounts and credit cards, to apply for unauthorized credit cards or loans, or to fraudulently create documents bearing the victims’ personal identification and then use or sell it in a wide variety of credit and identity scams. Some of the “winners” are also deceived into sending the defendants money for processing and mailing charges.

“The unauthorized use of Yahoo!’s trademarks is misleading, fraudulent, and has actually confused, misled, and deceived the public. Yahoo! will vigorously enforce its intellectual property rights and will not tolerate lottery hoax emails,” said Joe Siino, Senior Vice President, Yahoo! Global IP and Business Strategy.

“Yahoo! is 100% committed to protecting our users from fraudulent e-mail messages and this lawsuit sends a clear message to spammers,” said John Kremer, Vice President, Yahoo! Mail. “We are going after individuals who have attempted to negatively impact the e-mail experience for consumers across the Internet. Through our continued litigation efforts, our top goal and priority is to further protect Yahoo! Mail users and the public from this type of fraudulent activity.”

Yahoo! takes trademark infringement and the issue of e-mail scams very seriously. This case, as well as previous litigation efforts, are a part of Yahoo!’s multi-faceted approach to fighting spam and e-mail fraud which also includes the use of advanced technologies, industry collaboration, and raising consumer awareness by providing Yahoo! Mail users with detailed tips on how to avoid online scams at http://antispam.yahoo.com. Yahoo! Mail is the most popular Web mail service in the world with more than 260 millions users worldwide1. Currently, Yahoo! blocks more than 1 billion spam and fraudulent e-mail messages per day from reaching the inboxes of Yahoo! Mail users.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/156.html

VMware to Acquire B-hive Networks to Further Enhance Virtualization Platform

2008-05-28T10:18:00-04:00

PALO ALTO, CA - VMware, Inc., announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire B-hive Networks, Inc., a privately-held application performance management software company with headquarters in San Mateo, California and principal R&D facilities in Herzliya, Israel. With this acquisition, VMware will leverage the B-hive team and technology to offer proactive performance management and service level reporting for applications running within VMware virtual machines - on both servers and desktops. In addition, B-hive’s R&D facility and team will form the core of VMware’s new development center in Israel. The terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2008, subject to customary closing conditions, were not disclosed.

“As customers increasingly standardize on the VMware platform to run their business-critical applications, it is critical for virtual infrastructure administrators to ensure the performance of applications from an end-user’s perspective,” said Stephen Herrod, Ph.D., chief technology officer, VMware. “B-hive’s agentless, virtual appliance-based approach goes beyond traditional monitoring approaches to proactively manage application performance to specified levels. These capabilities, combined with VMware’s proven virtualization platform, can allow our customers to consistently deliver on their application service level objectives. For example, if B-hive identifies degradation in application response time, it can remediate the problem by automatically instructing VMware Infrastructure to adjust the resources allocated to the application or provision an additional virtual machine with an additional instance of the application. In conjunction with VMware’s automated IT service delivery and business continuity capabilities, B-hive’s service level management capabilities further deliver on the vision of an automated, always-on, virtual datacenter.”

Founded in 2005, B-hive has a unique solution that gives infrastructure groups visibility into application performance in virtual environments such as end-user transaction response time, virtual machine utilization and cross-virtual machine dependencies. Unlike OS-based performance monitoring products, the B-hive solution is designed to measure performance across multi-tier or service-oriented architecture applications that are distributed across clusters of ESX hypervisors and virtual machines. A “Best of VMworld” finalist at VMworld 2007, B-hive’s flagship product, B-hive Conductor, not only monitors end-user performance and issues service level reports, but can also proactively resolve application performance problems by automatically triggering actions such as dynamically allocating more resources, migrating the application to a different server, provisioning additional VMs, changing transaction routing, or system re-boots.

B-hive Conductor is agent-less, packaged as a virtual appliance and provides open, standards-based interfaces. By integrating with B-hive, enterprise application management products can provide a holistic view of service levels across physical and virtual environments. VMware’s management partners will now have enhanced ability to manage business services across the enterprise by leveraging service level metrics for applications in a VMware virtualized environment. For more information about B-hive, please visit http://www.b-hivenetworks.com/.

"VMware has been a trailblazer in the industry and has given organizations a much better way to plan and execute their IT operations through virtualization, and we are excited to join this winning team," said Yoav Dembak, CEO and co-founder of B-hive. "As customers move from the physical to virtual, our combined solutions will provide even greater visibility into the performance of applications and make it possible to resolve a problem before it occurs. Our shared goal is to improve the end user experience and maximize the value of investments in VMware virtualization.”

“With this acquisition, VMware gains a unique solution that solves real-world problems, and adds a highly talented engineering team who shares our passion for innovation,” added Herrod. “We expect the B-hive R&D team to be an integral part of our new development center in Israel.”

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/155.html

Everything Channel Presents 'The SaaS Value Proposition' NetSeminar

2008-05-28T10:10:00-04:00

FRAMINGHAM, MA - Everything Channel (formerly CMP Channel), the global leader in technology sales, will present a NetSeminar entitled "The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Value Proposition -- An MSP Perspective" on Wednesday, May 28 at 2 PM EDT.

A growing number of Managed Services Providers (MSPs) agree that deploying and managing software products on-site with customers defeats the purpose of delivering remote services. These MSPs are moving to SaaS delivery models and are propelling a market-changing trend that is simplifying their MSP businesses, while increasing their profits and customer satisfaction. This NetSeminar, hosted by Technology Expert Dan Neel and Jon Clay, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Trend Micro's SMB Customer Business Unit for North America, will provide an overview on the scope of this trend and how Solution Providers can profit from SaaS. Attendees will learn: how SaaS can be successfully implemented as a business; tricks and tips for SaaS success; and why SaaS and MSP go together like one.

To register to attend the "The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Value Proposition -- An MSP Perspective" NetSeminar, go to: https://www.cmpnetseminars.com/ars/eventregistration.do?mode=eventreg&F=100098 5&K=CMPCW (Due to the length of the URL, please copy and paste into your browser and remove the space if one exists).

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/154.html

SocialMedia Networks' Co-Founder at Google I/O

2008-05-28T10:09:00-04:00

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SocialMedia Networks announced today that co-founder and vice president of engineering Sourabh Niyogi will speak at the Google I/O - Web Forward Conference. At this two-day developer gathering, Mr. Niyogi will lead the session "Monetizing Application Traffic on Social Networks" on Thursday, May 29, 2008. With the number of creative applications on social networks sites increasing, developers are interested in learning how to market and manage these applications for business and monetary gain. Social media offers new opportunities, and challenges, for advertisers and creators striving to market and deliver tangible results.

With social networking sites, brands have the opportunity to reach the coveted demographics -- young, savvy consumers who tend to shun traditional advertising outlets -- in ways that resonate with their specific interests and values. Brand marketers and application creators are eager to learn how to participate in the social network advertising ecosystem.

In this session, Mr. Niyogi will describe SocialMedia Networks' experiences over the past year as the world's leading social application advertising network. He will discuss the successes and challenges of growing applications, and how to monetize and measure their traffic. Mr. Niyogi will share key metrics attendees can use as baseline assumptions in building a profitable social media application business. The session will be held at 11:20 a.m. at the Moscone West Hotel.

For more information about this event, please visit: http://code.google.com/events/io/about.html

About the Speaker:
Under Sourabh Niyogi's leadership, SocialMedia Networks has built one of the largest independent social advertising networks where developers can monetize their social applications on Facebook, Bebo and OpenSocial-based social networks. As co-founder and vice president of engineering, his enthusiastic creativity has produced a number of key products for SocialMedia Networks, including the cornerstone application for developers, Appsaholic.

Previously, Mr. Niyogi was a researcher at MIT in cognitive science, computational linguistics and machine vision. He also worked as a consultant with a number of leading advertising technology companies in the late 90s, including NetGravity.

Mr. Niyogi studied computer science at MIT, graduating with a master's degree in electrical engineering while pursuing his PhD in computational linguistics.

About SocialMedia Advertising Network:
SocialMedia Networks enables developers of social media applications to monetize their traffic by providing marketers with the ability to advertise within applications. The company had created the SocialMedia Advertising Platform, which currently delivers over 3B ads per month on over 5,000 applications running within Facebook, Bebo, Hi5 and Myspace. SocialMedia Networks has learned what developers and advertisers need first-hand, having internally produced hit Facebook applications such as FoodFight (throw virtual food at your online friends) and Happy Hour (send that friend a virtual cocktail), which have been installed by over 10 million consumers. SocialMedia Networks is based in Palo Alto and San Francisco, CA, with a seasoned leadership team that has been building businesses in the online advertising space for the past 10 years. Interested in joining the conversation? Please visit: http://www.socialmedia.com/

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/153.html

NetSuite Wins 2008 CODiE Award for Best Ecommerce Software

2008-05-28T10:07:00-04:00

SAN MATEO, CA - NetSuite Inc., a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites for small and midsized businesses and divisions of large companies, today announced that it has won the Software & Information Industry Associate (SIIA) 2008 CODiE Award in the software category for "Best Ecommerce Solution." For more information please visit http://www.siia.net/codies/2008/finalist_detail.asp?id=12

The 23rd Annual CODiE Awards are the only peer reviewed awards within the software and content industries. SIIA and industry partners recognized winners in 76 categories. Over 1,000 applications were received for this year's CODiE awards.

The SIIA CODiE Award for Best Ecommerce Solution recognizes the best software solution designed to enhance efficiency across a wide range of ecommerce business functions, including personalization tools, shopping carts, comparison bots, order forms, and delivery processes, as well as other innovative features.

More than 1,000 global companies have standardized their Ecommerce business operations on NetSuite for their core operations - from Google Keyword-to-Purchase tracking and search engine optimization, to email marketing campaigns, to shopping cart, to inventory and warehouse management, to orders and fulfillment.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/152.html

The Planetâ€™s Jeff Lowenberg Named Manager of the Year

2008-05-25T23:01:00-04:00

HOUSTON, TX – The Planet, the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced that Jeff Lowenberg, vice president of facilities, has won the first-ever “Data Center Manager of the Year” award from SearchDataCenter.com. Based on his implementation of new “green” data center efficiencies, Lowenberg was recognized for his work that will save the company more than $1 million on energy costs in 2008 alone. The award recognizes excellence in data center project management, according to senior site editor Matt Stansberry.

In announcing the award, SearchDataCenter.com also included a tour of The Planet’s data centers, where Lowenberg provides a guided tour that outlines the efficiencies the company has implemented:
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid80_gci1314256,00.html

“From our own research and through discussions with customers, they choose The Planet based on the quality of our world-class data centers and network, as well as our reputation for customer service,” said The Planet’s Chairman and CEO Douglas J. Erwin. “With more than 50,000 servers across our data centers, energy is our fourth-largest expense. Jeff Lowenberg’s work contributes significantly to customer satisfaction, as well as to our bottom line. Jeff’s award is a resounding commentary on the quality of our data centers, which our customers will appreciate.”

Lowenberg conducted a six-month trial to reduce power consumption and increase data center operating efficiency. Initial results demonstrate that while critical server loads increased by 5 percent, power used for cooling decreased by 31 percent. Overall, the company experienced power reductions of up to 13.5 percent through a broad range of improvements. The new “green” initiatives were conducted across its six world-class data centers.

Armin Heinlein with Panalpina Group was a runner-up, followed by finalists Ben Stewart with Terremark and William Stewart with Sempra Energy.

Overview of Improvements
The Planet operates more than 150 30-ton computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units across its six data centers. In one data center alone, the company was able to turn off four of the units. The cooling requirement on two of the units was reduced to 50 percent of capacity, while another nine now operate at 25 percent of capacity. The company also extended the return air plenums on all of its down-flow CRAC units to optimize efficiency. In some cases, The Planet team was able to increase CRAC unit temperature settings by as much as 10 degrees while still meeting the thermal guidelines for data processing environments set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Across the board, the company evaluated both its data center footprint and recommended guidelines from the Site Uptime Network, an invitation-only consortium of companies that operate data centers around the globe. The Planet also evaluated standards for air conditioning efficiency from ASHRAE to optimize operating performance. Among these improvements are the following:

• Rearranged floor tiles to better manage cold airflow
• Installed seals and grommets in the ceilings, walls and floors to reduce bypass airflow
• Installed blanking plates in server cabinets to direct airflow more efficiently
• Sealed power distribution units to reduce bypass airflow

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/151.html

Verio Ranked in Top 500 Technology Integrators

2008-05-27T14:54:00-04:00

Centennial, CO – Verio, a leading provider of business solutions online, including hosting, applications and managed services, has been recognized by Everything Channel’s VARBusiness magazine as one of North America’s top technology integrators. Verio placed number 116 in the 14th annual VARBusiness 500 ranking.

The VAR 500 list details the leading revenue producers among technology integrators and technology Solution Provider organizations in North America. The list’s ranking is based on gross worldwide revenue of hardware and software sales, as well as earnings from professional and managed information technology (IT) services.

“The indirect sales Channel for technology products and services drives two-thirds of all technology sales in the U.S., and the Solution Providers who make up the Channel are the primary influencers of business technology decision making. This is why the VAR 500 is such an important list, because these are the top Solution Providers in the industry, and we salute each of them for their stellar performance,” said Robert C. DeMarzo, senior vice president and editorial director, Everything Channel.

The 2008 VARBusiness 500 list includes 113 new companies with 10.6 percent of them in the Top 100 of the list. In addition, the starting point of the list - the revenue of company number 500 - rose to $33.4 million, up 35.2 percent, from $24.7 million in 2007. This increase reflects the strength and robust growth of the technology reseller Channel.

“The managed hosting industry has experienced remarkable growth in the past year and Verio’s rapid rise to rank 116 from last year’sVARBusiness 500 ranking of 204 is an indicator of our growing presence in this market,” said Steve Renda, vice president of sales and marketing for Verio. “Verio is proud to offer high value solutions and services that enable small and midmarket companies, including our partners and resellers, to sustain successful businesses.”

The complete listing of the VARBusiness 500 is published in the May 26, 2008 issue of the business magazine that provides strategic insight for technology integrators.

To complete the 2008 ranking of the 500 largest North American solution providers, system integrators, VARs and IT consultants, companies were asked to complete an online questionnaire to determine prequalification. In February 2008 VARBusiness conducted extensive research and analyzed the data. Independent data sourcing (e.g., SEC filings, annual reports, etc.) also was conducted. Finalists were ranked according to their fiscal year 2007 revenue, based only on their reseller-related services business.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/150.html

Online Technologies Corporation Opens New Michigan Data Center

2008-05-27T10:19:00-04:00

Ann Arbor, MI - Online Technologies Corporation announces the opening of its newest data center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The 10,500 square foot data center is located in Avis Farms, a technology park south of Ann Arbor. The Avis Data Center will house its growing colocation, dedicated server and managed service product lines sold to small and mid-sized businesses in Michigan and the Great Lakes region.

The new data center is designed for high availability applications that need to be always-on and always connected to the Internet. Customers can select redundant power and network options to their computer systems. Because the data center has dual power generators and redundant uninterruptable power supplies (UPS), there is no single point of failure in the power delivered to a customer's equipment.

The network infrastructure offers similar high availability with two dedicated gigabit fiber connections between the Avis Data Center and Online Technologies' other data centers in downtown Ann Arbor and Flint Township. The network has a redundant Cisco network architecture and is connected to multiple Tier1 Internet suppliers. Built-in failover across the network and Internet providers eliminates any single point of failure in the Internet delivery.

With the addition of its third corporate-owned data center, Online Technologies has a unique advantage with its multiple data centers dispersed across Southeast Michigan. With a common network infrastructure, the three data centers are knit together into one "virtual data center." This gives clients the ability to locate their primary data center in one of Online Technologies' sites and their disaster recovery equipment in a separate data center separated by 50 miles and different power grids, yet function as if they were in the same data center.

"We take a long term view towards the data center market and see this as an ideal time to bring additional capacity online. The current economic environment provides us the opportunity to gain significant cost advantages through acquisitions that can last the next decade" said Bob Palmerton, Chief Financial Officer.

Online Technologies operations include data centers in downtown Ann Arbor in Flint Township. With addition of the Avis Data Center, Online Technologies has grown from a single 800 square foot data center in 2003 to four data centers with a combined total of more than 40,000 square feet. OTC also leases data center space from a partner in Southfield for its clients requiring service closer to the Detroit area.

Online Technologies Corporation (www.onlinetech.com), is Michigan's Fort Knox for computing and data. Our secure, highly reliable data centers provide the infrastructure to ensure our clients computers are always on, that their data is always safe, and that they are always connected to the Internet.

For more information, contact Online Technologies at 734-213-2020 or email at press @ onlinetech.net.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/149.html

Name.com Launches Name-Based Wiki

2008-05-27T10:17:00-04:00

Denver, CO - Name.com, the ICANN-accredited domain registrar headquartered here, announced today the launch of a unique names-based encyclopedia at wiki.name.com.

Wiki.name.com, under development by Name.com, LLC since February 2008, aspires to become "the" name encyclopedia on the Internet. Unlike other online name resources, the wiki boasts extensive information categories for each name, including etymology, origin, popularity, facts, similar names and famous persons. Name enthusiasts, including expectant parents and closet name nerds, will be able to relish in the fascinating connotations, history and affiliations of each name.

I imagine having an article for every name on the planet
"I imagine having an article for every name on the planet," says Name.com, LLC founder and CEO Bill Mushkin. "All names are dynamic and rich with meaning. For example, think about a domain name: it's a simple placeholder that represents a unique starting point on the Internet."

Name.com, an innovative and young company, is the first registrar to create a wiki site. By developing the site on MediaWiki software, Name.com offers interactive access for Internet users to learn and contribute. The content on wiki.name.com will thus be responsive to trends, providing diverse collaborative information and enjoying sustainable growth.

Name.com is a privately held ICANN accredited registrar offering over 50 different gTLD and ccTLD extensions as well as aftermarket domain brokerage, brand management and consulting services. Name.com is headquartered at 125 Rampart Way, Suite 300 Denver, CO 80230. The telephone number is 720-249-2374.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/148.html

No Mac Left Behind

2008-05-27T10:15:00-04:00

Santa Clara, CA - For all the Mac users who feel left behind because there are no reasonably priced web meeting services available for the Mac, showmypc.com has the ultimate solution. A beta version of their software released this month lets users seamlessly conduct web meetings between a Mac and a PC (or a Mac and a Mac). And the best part is - it's absolutely free.

Imagine yourself, helping your mother with setting up her email account on her Mac at home, while you are in your office using a PC. Using this new software, she can now easily share her Mac screen with you, from anywhere in the world. You can be either using a Mac, a PC or even a Linux machine.

And using it is a snap too. You and a remote user simply visit showmypc.com and click on the "Desktop Sharing for Mac OSX" link. The application automatically starts, and with one click, you are on your way to viewing their computer screen or sharing your screen with them. Your security is ensured by 128-bit encryption and a random meeting code which only you and the remote user are provided before you initiate the meeting.

The service was originally started as a free alternative to more expensive services from Webex and Gotomypc. Today, it's being used by thousands of users to conduct web meetings and provide remote support. For more information on how to use the service free of charge simply visit showmypc.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/147.html

Snoop Dogg and Crestock Team Up for the Ego Trippin' Design Contest

2008-05-27T10:13:00-04:00

Los Angeles - Hiphop Megastar Snoop Dogg, Doggy Style Records and Crestock Stock Photos , the highest quality microstock photo group is now offering professional and aspiring designers the chance to put their creative talents to the test and design Snoop Dogg's official wallpaper for each of his new singles, "Sensual Seduction","Life of Da Party", and "My Medicine".

Snoop Dogg and Crestock Design Competition
With the Ego Trippin' Official Design Contest users are given the chance to design the next wallpaper set using Snoop Dogg logos, pictures and creative from his Ego Trippin' album.

"Our audience is a design saavy, online community of creative amateurs and professionals around the world," said Cresotck co-founder Geir Are Jensen. "Working with an incredible talent like Snoop Dogg brings the experience to a whole new and incredibly exciting level."

Crestock worked closely with Doggy Style Records to bring this unique offering to Snoop Dogg fans and aspiring designers around the world. Future superstar designers will have the opportunity to have their work approved by Snoop Dogg himself and made available for download from http://www.snoopdogg.com.

"At Doggy Style Records, we are constantly exploring innovative new ways to connect Snoop Dogg with his fans," said Ted Chung of Doggy Style Records. "Crestock and their thousands of exciting young designers tied in perfectly with the numerous digital initiatives we have underway here at Doggy Style Records."

Potential designers can register for the contest and get official creative from http://www.crestock.com/blog/design/the-snoop-dogg-crestock-wallpaper-contest-120.aspx

Three rounds of submissions are available will run for a four week period. Aspiring and professional designers alike will have multiple opportunities to showcase their work in addition to winning great prizes every round.

Designs will be judged by a panel of industry and Hip Hop media luminaries including Ted Chung, President of Doggy Style Records and Ryan Ford Executive Editor of The Source Magazine.

Visit http://www.crestock.com/blog/design/the-snoop-dogg-crestock-wallpaper-contest-120.aspx for further information and design specifications.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_design/146.html

Register.com Reveals Web Trends Survey

2008-05-26T13:20:00-04:00

Nwe York, NY - Register.com, announced the results of its Small Business Web Survey examining web strategy trends from among its small business customers. The survey was conducted over a three week period, April 28 – May 16, 2008. The findings reveal that despite slumping economic conditions, most small business customers that participated in the survey do not expect a decline in revenue over the next year and expect to make additional investments in website design, search engine optimization (SEO) and email marketing to expand their business.

Register.com received replies from more than 800 of its small business customers, 72% of which responded that they are an owner or partner of a small business. Key findings include:

- 55% of respondents have registered more than one domain name for their business
- 41% saw more than a quarter of their total revenue from web sales
- 20% don’t know how much revenue they are getting through their site
- Approximately 70% of the respondents don’t expect their web revenue to decline despite economic conditions. (34.6% expect more revenue / 34.5% expect about the same revenue)

When asked, “What area of technology are you most likely to invest in over the next year?” The top there answers were: website design (53%), SEO (43%), and email marketing (41%).

“Having a website has become more than a luxury for small businesses and entrepreneurs, it is a necessity” said Register.com CEO Larry Kutscher. “Our small business customers know that investing in a great website is a more effective way to reach potential customers and stay in contact with existing clients. The response to our survey shows the result of this investment, as a majority of customers expect no decline – and many expect growth - in their web revenues over the next year.”

To help small business learn more about how to be successful online, the company recently launched the Register.com Learning Center (www.registerlearningcenter.com), an article-based resource that includes tips, know-how, ideas and training information.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/145.html

GoDaddy Catches Fastest Girl, Again

2008-05-24T05:07:00-04:00

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The world’s most popular Web address provider is extending its relationship with IndyCar’s most popular driver ... and adding something special for this year’s Indianapolis 500. Hours before the legendary race, GoDaddy.com has announced Danica Patrick will be a Go Daddy Girl through 2009 and as part of the deal, Danica’s IndyCar will sport an even bigger GoDaddy.com logo at Indy.

The company renewed its commitment with Andretti Green Racing and the sports celebrity well before the deadline, saying there was never any doubt about what Danica does for GoDaddy.com.

"No other celebrity brings it all to the table like Danica," said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. "She's a class act. She’s a winner. She’s fast. She’s focused. She’s smart. Danica personifies all the things GoDaddy.com is about."

GoDaddy.com is known for being the top choice in domain names and is nearly three times the size of its closest competitor. GoDaddy.com also is one of the world's top companies for Web hosting and SSL Certificates, which provide online security. GoDaddy.com has a reputation in advertising too, known for its racy Super Bowl commercials – two of which have featured Danica Patrick.

The racy Go Daddy Girl has been a global media sensation since winning the Indy Japan 300 last month, but Parsons recognized Danica Patrick’s star power even before signing her in 2006.

"Bob Parsons and Go Daddy have been there for me for years, and I think it’s safe to say we are all very excited to deepen the relationship," Danica said.

Danica starts this year’s Indy 500 in the fifth position (second row middle) and has been named as one of the drivers in contention for the checkered flag at Sunday’s big race. She made history at Indy back in 2005 when she led the race for 19 laps and was voted the league’s Rookie of the Year that same year.

2008 has also been a big year for Danica off the track. She is Nickelodeon's 2008 Kids’ Choice Award Winner for Favorite Female Athlete and also landed on Maxim magazine’s "Hot 100" list for the second consecutive year. She also posed for the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated and was featured on the magazine's cover just this month.

Millions are expected to tune in to watch Danica in Sunday’s race. GoDaddy.com is proud to be the presenting sponsor for the Indianapolis 500 broadcast on ABC TV again this year. As part of the deal, GoDaddy.com will have its iconic branding on everything from broadcast segments to aerial and in-car views.

To learn more about creating or enhancing your online presence, visit www.GoDaddy.com.

Click to see Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick's Hot Spot or to read Danica’s blog.

Click to watch Danica’s Go Daddy Super Bowl ads.

Click to watch Patrick's latest Go Daddy commercial titled "KART."

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/144.html

Network Solutions and Open-Xchange Partner

2008-05-24T15:06:00-04:00

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. & HERNDON, Va. - Small business owners looking for an affordable alternative to the Microsoft Exchange e-mail platform can look forward to a hosted, cost effective and feature-rich email and collaboration service, from Network Solutions and Open-Xchange.

Open-Xchange, Inc., the leading provider of open source collaboration software, and Network Solutions, LLC, the leader in providing e-business services, have partnered to deliver a hosted email service to small and medium sized businesses. In the near future, Network Solutions will offer Open-Xchange's advanced web-based personal information management (PIM) client as an option to their customers. Based on Open-Xchange's award-winning Smart Collaboration™ technology, the agreement will provide Network Solutions’ customers with highly integrated and feature-rich email, calendaring, contact and task management, through an easy to use interface

“Integrating Open-Xchange into our e-mail and hosting platform will provide our customers with enterprise level e-mail and collaboration services at price small businesses can afford,” said Bill Jolly, director of Product Development, Network Solutions. “This solution will provide small businesses with access to the functionality that large businesses enjoy today. Our customers will have the ability to easily make and receive meeting requests, share calendars, share documents and schedule resources using a state of the art e-mail interface.”

“We are pleased to work with Network Solutions as this partnership shows how service providers can grow their business by offering new valuable services to their customers using open source technologies,” said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange. "More businesses, small and large, are looking to ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) to deliver the applications they need in a cost effective manner.”

Open-Xchange integrates email, calendaring, contacts and task management with advanced groupware features such as information management and document sharing. Productivity is enhanced through unique teamwork features like team view, single-password document sharing, and shared calendars, contacts, tasks and documents.

Users can easily upgrade to the full-featured groupware and document management solution, and, the option of synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook will be available. Later this year, Network Solutions will replace its existing webmail application with the new module from Open-Xchange, which uses an innovative AJAX web interface to deliver enhanced usability.

Further customization by end-users will be possible through the use of web applications including RSS feeds, local weather forecasts, sports and videos, all of which can be integrated with a few clicks into their individual Open-Xchange portal page that uses Netvibes Universal Widget API (UWA). Open-Xchange's document system can easily be integrated into users' desktops using WebDAV. This means it can be viewed and used just like any other folder in their system.

About Network Solutions, LLC

Network Solutions, a leading provider of e-business solutions and the pioneer of the domain name registration service, offers a full range of Internet services, including web hosting, web design, e-commerce software, search engine marketing, SSL certificates, email services and domain name registration. Network Solutions draws on more than 29 years of experience to make it simple and affordable for customers to build and manage an online presence through a one-stop e-business provider. Additional information about Network Solutions’ offerings is available at www.networksolutions.com.

About Open-Xchange Inc.

Open-Xchange Inc. is the innovator of scalable and integrated open source email and collaboration solutions for enterprises, academic institutions, and government authorities. Open-Xchange Hosting Edition enables web-hosting companies to provide an easy-to-use and feature-rich application delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). Internet service providers (ISPs), telcos and hosting providers, led by 1&1 Internet, deliver advanced email and groupware features through Open-Xchange Hosting Edition to millions of users. Open-Xchange Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Tarrytown, NY, with research, development, and operations in Olpe and Nuremberg, Germany. For more information, please visit www.open-xchange.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/143.html

cPanel Adds More Technical Sessions to Conference

2008-05-23T12:51:00-04:00

Houston, TX - cPanel has responded to the needs of their users by adding still more technical sessions to the upcoming cPanel Conference 2008. Sessions added include presentations on the cPanel API's, more general security sessions and a session devoted to FreeBSD security. "Our attendees and customers asked for more technical sessions at the conference and we intend to deliver," said David Koston, VP of Operations at cPanel.

This marks the third year for cPanel's technical conference in Houston, TX. In addition to in-depth technical sessions there will be many opportunities for attendees to network with colleagues and peers in the hosting industry. Attendees will also get to meet representatives from some of the best companies currently operating in the hosting industry. Exhibitors include: Microsoft, Cloudmark, Trustwave, Layered Technologies, R1 Soft, The Planet, SohoLaunch, Bob Cares, Cenicola-Helvin Enterprises, and The WHIR.

More information about cPanel Conference 2008 can be found here: http://conference.cpanel.net/

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/140.html

iMergent Reaches Settlement with the State of Wisconsin

2008-05-23T12:49:00-04:00

OREM, Utah - iMergent, Inc., a leading provider of eCommerce software for small businesses and entrepreneurs, announced the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Wisconsin and iMergent consented to a Stipulation and Order of Judgment which was entered on May 16. The Settlement resolves outstanding matters with the State and does not affect continued operations in Wisconsin.

Under the terms of the agreement, the company expressly denied any wrongdoing or that it had made any misrepresentations and agreed to make certain disclosures regarding the software sold by the Company and the services provided by the Company. There were no refunds required; however, iMergent agreed to pay costs of $50,000 to the State of Wisconsin.

Jeff Korn, iMergent general counsel, said, “We continue to aggressively work with regulators to address outstanding issues. All of the complaints reviewed in these actions are legacy issues prior to our adopting the StoresOnline Express business model and the substantive improvements to our customer service. The disclosures required by the settlement have already been incorporated in our presentations and solicitations. We were pleased to resolve this non-public review into our business practices. We would like to thank the office of the Attorney General for working with us. Our ongoing discussions have assisted us in making improvements to our presentation and services. We continue to stand ready to satisfy any legitimate customer or regulatory concern, and strive to deliver transparency to regulators, shareholders and, most importantly, our customers.”

Don Danks, CEO, stated, “From inception, we have applied continuous improvements to our sales and customer service practices. As such, we attempt to address all complaints and implement improvements expeditiously. We continue to receive awards for customer support including the Excellence in Service Operations certification by the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) announced in January, which is an indication of our excellent practices, support and service.”

Before the stock market opened today, the company filed an SEC Form 8-K.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/139.html

Yahoo! Director Resigns, Annual Meeting Postponed

2008-05-23T02:45:00-04:00

Yahoo Inc.’s annual meeting, scheduled for July 3rd has been pushed back until the end of July to allow more time for Yahoo to work out a deal with Microsoft. The meeting was scheduled for re-elections of the entire board of directors. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has been purchasing Yahoo shares and using that leverage to nominate 10 candidates to replace the entire board. This move will hopefully reinstitute talks with Microsoft about the recently pulled bid to purchase Yahoo Inc.

Kozel had planned on staying beyond his initial resignation in February due to the acquisition proposal from Microsoft but now officially resigned “to spend more time with his family”. Before being appointed to the board in 2000, Kozel spent eleven years as the Chief Technology Officer at Cisco Systems Inc.
All of these moves lead to the possible purchase of Yahoo in the near future.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/138.html

AT&T Signs Major Hotel Chain to Hosting Deal

2008-05-22T15:27:00-04:00

CHICAGO, IL - AT&T Inc. today announced a three-year hosting and managed services contract with Global Hyatt Corporation, one of the world's most recognizable hotel brands. Initially, AT&T will provide centralized hosting services for Hyatt.com and for Hyatt's property-management system. During the next two years, Hyatt and AT&T will work closely to migrate numerous other applications to the new hosting environment.

"A true global presence, secure facilities, disciplined processes and a dedication to customer satisfaction were all very important criteria to Hyatt," said Phil LaBelle, vice president, IT Strategy, Architecture and Planning, Global Hyatt Corporation. "As we move to centralize the vast majority of our applications, AT&T has stepped up and continues to provide valuable guidance, support and direction every step of the way."

Initially, Hyatt will use a pair of secure data centers in North America. AT&T will migrate Hyatt's customer-facing Web site to these new data centers, where AT&T will continue to provide secure hosting and around-the-clock monitoring services for Hyatt.com.

In these same two data centers, AT&T will also host Hyatt's property- management system, servicing Hyatt's network of nearly 300 hotels and resorts in North America. With AT&T's aligned advanced hosting capabilities supporting Hyatt's property-management system, Hyatt can optimize its core business services -- locating, scheduling and managing rooms and sites for guests, clients and properties around the globe.

"AT&T continues to be a valuable provider, delivering the solutions and management expertise to drive greater efficiency for Hyatt and our customers -- both online and at our properties," said Jim Lamb, senior vice president, Information Technology, Global Hyatt Corporation. "From our simple online reservation to a friendly, fast checkout, our customers will have more time to enjoy their travels."

Using AT&T's online management portal, Hyatt will receive secure access to ordering and management applications and to billing information, as well as quick and easy snapshots of application and network performance. This tool also simplifies online accounting and data analysis.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/136.html

Parallels Summit 2008 Spotlights Virtualization and SaaS

2008-05-21T18:11:00-04:00

PARALLELS SUMMIT 2008, Washington, D.C. – More than 700 business and technical professionals from more than 20 countries gathered here for the 2-day Parallels Summit event to hear notable industry speakers and network with their peers.

Highlights from day two of the Summit included:
• Bill McNee, founder and CEO of Saugatuck Technology, talked about "SaaS and the Third Wave," describing how SaaS is entering a new phase characterized by an increased focus on mission-critical business processes, personalized workflow and collaboration.
• Jack Zubarev, president of Parallels' Service Provider Division provided an overview of "Virtualization for Hosting and SaaS" including both hypervisor-based and container-based solutions, and examined which technology is best for key hosted service offerings.
• Ed Harnish, vice president of marketing, Acronis explained how data availability in the multi-vendor, multi-platform environment requires the IT staff to manage multiple virtual environments running on different hardware and software platforms while not exposing these complexities to the end users in "Vendor Agnostic Infrastructure Tools, including Disaster Recovery."
• Breakout sessions were offered in three tracks: Business, Technical and Industry.
• Closing ceremony highlighted by giveaways from Apple, Microsoft and Magellan.
• Evening networking event held at the Washington Nationals baseball stadium.

The Parallels Summit 2008 was held May 19-20 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event featured keynotes and in-depth product, strategy and networking sessions for business and technical professionals interested in learning more about how virtualization and automation software can optimize their use of technology. Sponsors for this year's event included Microsoft, Intel, Acronis, spreed, Open-Xchange, e.pages, Mesh Solutions, SoftLayer and HP.

About Parallels – Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/134.html

4Domains Launches Free 4DNStools.com

2008-05-22T01:08:00-04:00

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - 4Domains Inc. announced today that they have launched their new Free Internet Toolkit website at www.4DNSTools.com. This toolkit includes our new domain name appraisal tool. Some of the most popular DNS Tools include: Whois, Ping, Traceroute, IP location finder, Trace IP address, Reverse IP lookup, Email Tester and much more.

"We have an overall project goal in mind to enhance the online experience for the modern webmaster to maximize their productivity. As a developer myself, I'm familiar with the current methods people typically use for accessing tools like these. 4DNSTools.com brings the power of a complex shell environment to the everyday web browser." said Brian Kephart, WebMaster of 4Domains Inc. "In subsequent versions of this project you are going to see some very exciting things that are extremely unique".

About 4Domains Inc.
4Domains.com is an ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar. The company has been in operation since 1995. 4Domains.com's product offerings include: bulk domain name registrations, domain auction, web hosting, reseller plans, expired domain names, dns tools, web monitoring, network monitoring, file hosting, online backup, seo technology, seo monitor, hacker scanner, website security. For more information visit our family of websites: www.4Domains.com, www.DotPound.com, 4Onlinebackup.com, 4WebMonitoring.com, 4SEOMonitor.com, HackScanner.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/135.html

The Planet Acquires Services Firm Touch Support

2008-05-20T14:34:00-04:00

HOUSTON, TX – The Planet, the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced the acquisition of Touch Support, LLC (www.touchsupport.com). Based in Lafayette, Ind., the company provides server administration management services to its global customer base. Financial terms were not disclosed.

With this acquisition, The Planet will introduce a new portfolio of advanced services for dedicated hosting customers who are looking to optimize their business results without relinquishing control of their IT infrastructures. The new advanced services offerings will provide customers with the ability to select advanced services from a modular suite of solutions. Touch Support’s current portfolio includes server administration, technical support, security audits and server hardening, server virtualization, migration, monitoring and managed backups. The company also provides hourly server administration support for customers looking for one-time or custom requests.

“The complexity of managing an IT infrastructure continues to grow, and we’ve had a number of our dedicated hosting customers request that we provide additional services,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas J. Erwin. “These companies entrust their businesses and their livelihoods with The Planet, and they come to us for our enterprise-class network and six world-class data centers. With the acquisition of Touch Support, we can extend our portfolio to include high-quality advanced services that enable us to help them grow their businesses.

“We looked at a number of companies in the services arena, and far and away Touch Support was the best fit,” Erwin continued. “About 25 percent of their customers use our hosting services, so they have a strong working knowledge of The Planet. Equally as important is their commitment to being a customer-driven company. Over the next few months, we’ll make a number of announcements about the breadth of our extended services.”

“The Planet offers Touch Support and our employees opportunities to grow the new advanced services business for their dedicated hosting customers, backed by solid financial resources,” said Touch Support’s General Manager David Lindahl. “Our existing customers also will appreciate The Planet’s commitment to being a customer-centric company, which reflects our own philosophies. I envision growing our services portfolio to provide even greater value for our existing companies and to those we will attract to our offerings.”

“We bring to The Planet a highly skilled team that’s been chosen for their technical ability, intelligence and problem-solving skills, as well as their natural inclination to help customers,” said Sean Richards, Touch Support’s Technical Director. “From our own dealings with customers, this is a market that continues to grow since so many companies need help but don’t want to turn over their entire IT framework to be managed. We plan to quickly integrate Touch Support and The Planet and then extend our services to our combined customers.”

During the third quarter, The Planet will make announcements about its Advanced Services portfolio.

About The Planet
The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 6.7 million Web sites worldwide. By offering the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and unmatched network connectivity, The Planet helps turn information technology into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to successfully grow their businesses. For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/132.html

SimpleScripts Automated PHP Script Installer is Released

2008-05-20T14:53:00-04:00

Orem, Utah - SimpleScripts, a one-click script installer for web hosts, has announced over 30,000 installs in its first month.

SimpleScripts is a one-click installer of the web's most popular applications including blogs, photo albums, online stores, message forums, wikis, and more. The system offers web hosts the ability to provide one-click installations for their clients and relieves the host of any maintenance burdens in the process. "We maintain the entire system on our own server clusters," said Matt Heaton owner of SimpleScripts. "We built this system to allow web hosts the ability to offer a simple, fast and self maintained auto-installation system."

We maintain the entire system on our own server clusters
Traditionally hosting companies have had to spend days updating multiple programs across numerous servers each time one of the scripts they offer is updated - often leaving a large lag in the updates available to their customers. This can cause serious security problems for customers and headaches for hosting companies. SimpleScripts has eliminated this issue as the updates can be made once and the new version is immediately available for every SimpleScripts user. Another unique feature of SimpleScripts is built in version control. Users can choose which version of a product to install and then are able to update or revert back to previous versions helping webmasters deal with security and compatibility issues. SimpleScripts also offers Automatic Upgrade Notifications via email - which sends clients a message each time a new version of their software has been made available.

SimpleScripts is designed to work on multiple hosting platforms and as of today, the system is compatible with CPanel, Plesk, VPS and dedicated server hosting. Matt Heaton has integrated SimpleScripts for all of the 900,000 plus domains hosted with his companies: BlueHost, HostMonster and FastDomain. These companies are currently averaging over 30,000 SimpleScripts installations per month.

About SimpleScripts
SimpleScripts is an automated script installation system for website owners. Founded in 2007 by Matt Heaton, SimpleScripts allows hosting companies the ability to provide installation services without the maintenance required by traditional installers. SimpleScripts is headquartered in Orem, Utah. For more information visit www.simplescripts.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/128.html

Organizations Dealing with Broad Range of Information Security Threats

2008-05-20T14:50:00-04:00

Spyware, viruses, worms remain threats; handheld devices pose new challenges Threats related to mobile/remote computing and handheld devices can include simple user operating error; using a mobile device for unauthorized purposes; worms, viruses and phishing attacks; or loss or theft of the mobile device.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. - Spyware, viruses and worms continue to plague most organizations, but security challenges tied to the use of handheld devices and mobile and remote computing are growing at a rapid pace, new research commissioned by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) reveals.

The CompTIA survey of more than 2,000 individuals found that viruses and worms, cited by 54 percent of respondents, and spyware, selected by 51 percent, continue to be the top two information security threats organizations face today.

But security issues related to handheld devices, and to mobile and remote workers, are clearly emerging concerns. In each of the four countries where surveys were conducted – the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and China – more than 50 percent of respondents said security threats related to use of handheld devices has increased significantly compared to one year ago.

“As global trends of workforce mobility and decentralization place a greater strain on IT security infrastructure, it is becoming increasingly more complex for IT departments to safeguard information,” said Laurel Chivari, vice president, marketing and communications, CompTIA. “Threats related to mobile/remote computing and handheld devices can include simple user operating error; using a mobile device for unauthorized purposes; worms, viruses and phishing attacks; or loss or theft of the mobile device.”

Nearly three-quarters of respondents surveyed (71 percent) said their organizations allow mobile and remote employees to access data and networks, yet relatively few have implemented security awareness training tailored specifically for the mobile and remote workforce. Just 39 percent of respondents said their organizations have implemented security awareness training and education, while 19 percent said they intend to do so in 2008.

Yet among organizations that have implemented such training for remote and mobile employees, 92 percent of respondents believe that the number of major security breaches has been reduced.

CompTIA commissioned TNS, a world leader in market insight and information, to conduct the survey. The online survey of individuals responsible for information security enforcement in their organizations was conducted in January and February and received a total 2,024 responses.
For more information on “Trends in Information Security: A CompTIA Analysis of IT Security and the Workforce” and other CompTIA research, visit http://www.comptia.org/sections/research/default.aspx.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/127.html

Parallels Summit 2008 Opens to Record Attendance

2008-05-20T17:21:00-04:00

PARALLELS SUMMIT 2008, Washington, D.C. – Virtualization, software as a service (SaaS) and "green" hosting were among some of the important computing trends addressed by industry leaders and innovators yesterday at the Parallels Summit 2008, which opened to a record number of attendees from more than 20 countries worldwide.

Highlights from day one of the Summit include:
• Serguei Beloussov, Chairman and CEO of Parallels, shared "Parallels' Vision for the Service Provider World," describing how hosting providers and independent software vendors (ISVs) can take advantage of optimized computing and opportunities around the development of SaaS.
• Michael van Dijken from Microsoft's Communications Sector explained how next generation web solutions can help service providers grow their customer base in his presentation, "Revolutionize Your Hosting Business with Windows Server 2008."
• Dylan Larson from Intel's Server Platforms Group shared his observations about emerging usage models and technologies related to virtualization, and the opportunities they create in "Virtualization Trends and Opportunities."
• Presentations by industry executives from Tier1 Research, Open X-change, Pinnacle Cart, 4PSA and Smart Online provided perspectives on SaaS, virtualization, open source technologies, VoIP and the Application Packaging Standard (APS).
• Breakout sessions were offered in three tracks: Business, Technical and Industry.
• A sunset dinner cruise on the scenic Potomac River was sponsored by Microsoft.

The Parallels Summit 2008 features keynotes and in-depth product, strategy and networking sessions for business and technical professionals interested in learning more about how virtualization and automation software can optimize their use of technology. The event is May 19-20 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Sponsors for this year's event include Platinum sponsor Microsoft, Gold sponsors Intel and Acronis, and Silver sponsors spreed, Open-Xchange, e.pages, Mesh Solutions and SoftLayer. The annual event also includes hands-on technical labs for Parallels solutions, sponsored by HP.

The Parallels Summit 2008 concludes this evening following a closing ceremony that is highlighted with giveaways from Apple, Microsoft and Magellan, and an evening networking event at the Washington Nationals baseball stadium. A detailed agenda of planned sessions and activities is available at www.parallels.com/summit/agenda.

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/131.html

Windows Vista Widgets Gadgets for the Hosting Professional

2008-05-22T17:09:00-04:00

By Rollie Hawk

It’s 2008 and you are a professional in a high-tech industry. That means two things. One, there’s a good chance you are using Windows Vista. And two, it’s probably driving you up the walls faster than a floor covered in cobras.

But there’s no need to fret. After all, Vista comes packed with the latest, most innovative features to hit the desktop computing world. Not the least of which is the Vista Gadgets, the Microsoft version of widgets. That’s right; those cutesy little applications that sit on the desktop of virtually every other operating system in the last ten years are finally in Windows. In fact, it turns out that a number of these Vista Gadgets are actually handy time-savers.

NOTE: In typical Microsoft fashion, the URLs to these gadgets are uglier than sin. So the easiest way to find them is to perform a quick Gadget search at Gallery.Live.com.

Putty Gadget
Even when we’re working in Windows, many of us are spending half our time opening terminal sessions on remote servers. This gadget features Putty, probably the most popular terminal client for Windows. With both Telnet for Windows servers and SSH for *nix, this gadget will meet all your Vista terminal needs.

TS Gauge
If you are managing a Terminal Services array or Citrix Farm, TS Gauge is sure to catch your eye. This gadget logs in and monitors Windows terminal servers. Stats such as active and disconnected client counts, CPU load, and memory in use are all available at a glance.

Remote Desktop Gadget
If you are managing Windows servers and telnet just won’t get it done, you are probably a Remote Desktop junky! The Remote Desktop Gadget keeps our old friend mstsc.exe in the holster and fully-loaded.

VNC Connect
If RDP isn’t your favorite or you need GUI access to a Linux box, you’re probably familiar with VNC. With VNC Connect, your most recent VNC connections are scanned from the registry and added to a convenient dropdown menu.

PHP Function Finder
There are several variations of this gadget, but all provide the same basic functionality. In the programming world, there’s the old saying that no problem should be solved twice; with the PHP Function Finder, you can make sure you don’t try to!

Server Ping
How many servers do you find yourself pinging at the start of each day, just to make sure it’s online? Server Ping is a wonderful little gadget for saving your some typing and giving you a little extra piece of mind. With a simple green-light/red-light display, you’ll be able to spot a stalled server without lifting a finger (and hopefully before the emails come pouring in).

Conclusion
Gadgets are, at the very least, a welcome addition to the Windows desktop world. They probably aren’t enough to convince you to migrate to Vista, but if you are already using it, there’s a good chance you’ll find a use for at least one of these on your desktop. Whether you call them Widgets, Gadgets, or whatever else, these tiny apps are a nice reminder that Windows—and computers in general—are all about making lives easier, a fact that we too often miss.

http://www.gawkwire.com/reviews/137.html

Hosting Controller Revamps Website

2008-05-20T15:13:00-04:00

Los Angeles, CA – Hosting Controller ( hostingcontroller.com ) developer of Hosting Automation Solution today announced that it has launched a redesigned and improved web site with a revitalized design and a user-friendly interface giving it a fabulous new look.

Easier to navigate and faster to access, the revamped site has a more interactive home page and modernized look, intended to improve visitor’s journey through the site. This new look and feel will encourage more people to stay longer on the site and ultimately increase revenue and sales, says the company.

“This redesign is a natural move for a company that is planning to celebrate its 10th birthday in August," says Syed Nauman Hashmi, CEO of Hosting Controller. "We have now got ten year’s development experience under our belt; we have listened to what our customers have said about the site and redesigned it to communicate our quality products to all our markets."

The launch was timed to occur just days before unveiling the full support of MS-Exchange, which will offer hosted email on exchange servers in load balanced manner and provide tools to manage all tasks through single login.
In addition to the general Web site available to the visitors, the site includes members-only sections, which provide product downloads, online ticket submission, knowledgebase articles and forums.

About Hosting Controller
HC is a web hosting automation solution with blend of cutting edge technology and advanced hosting features which empowers web hosts with control and server management capability that’s never experienced before. It is an ideal application to diversify web hosting servers in cluster environment and one of the most user-friendly and easy-to-use application providing most advanced features and highly demanded services. HC manages cluster of web servers both Windows & Linux and exposes a centralized interface posing as single virtual entity. With provision of backup & restoration mechanism, dozens of Click & Install Apps, free language packs & free tech support for life, HC is destined to save customers their time & money.
For more information about Hosting Controller, visit the website at: http://HostingController.com or call +1 (213) 341 1419.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/130.html

Parallels and Zend Form Technology Partnership

2008-05-20T15:01:00-04:00

PARALLELS SUMMIT 2008, Washington, D.C. - Zend Technologies and Parallels today announced that they will collaborate on solutions that enable hosting providers to deliver world-class PHP applications through Parallels’ control panels and server virtualization offerings. The companies will deliver product interoperability and integration, define packaging and distribution standards, and pursue joint marketing initiatives.

Zend products will be certified with the Application Packaging Standard (APS), a new application packaging format designed to help easily and quickly implement software as a service (SaaS). Using the APS standard, hosting providers will be able to configure technology stacks based on Zend products to deliver premium PHP solutions for operating business-critical web applications.

“The APS standard is already supported by more than 100 PHP applications for everything from blogging and collaboration to content management, ecommerce and CRM," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. "The Parallels-Zend partnership advances the web hosting industry by helping service providers deliver a greater variety of professional PHP applications and by growing the channel for PHP application vendors.”

“With thousands of web applications available for individual and business use, PHP is one of the key technologies for hosting companies to support,” said Mark de Visser, chief marketing officer, Zend Technologies. “Combining the PHP expertise of Zend with the packaging, delivery and maintenance capabilities of the APS standard will further expand the portfolio of high-quality PHP applications.”

“It is exciting to see Parallels and Zend extending their partnership” said Jochen Berger CTO of intergenia AG. “We believe that this collaboration will enable us to broaden our portfolio with applications built on Zend technology.”

Availability
Zend and Parallels will deliver an APS-compliant Zend Framework and an updated version of Zend Optimizer later this quarter. Over time, the companies plan to release new versions of all Zend products that support the APS standard.

About Parallels – Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

About Zend – The PHP Company
Zend Technologies, Inc., the PHP Company, is the leading provider of products and services for developing, deploying and managing business-critical PHP applications. PHP is used by more than twenty million websites and has quickly become the most popular language for building dynamic web applications. Deployed at more than 25,000 companies worldwide, Zend’s family of products provides a comprehensive platform for supporting the entire lifecycle of PHP applications. Zend is headquartered in Cupertino, California. For more information, please visit www.zend.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/129.html

StoredIQ Information Management Platform Now Available

2008-05-20T04:47:00-04:00

Austin, TX. – StoredIQ Inc., a leading provider of Intelligent Information Management technologies, today announced that its StoredIQ appliance is now available through EMC® Select. Customers can purchase the StoredIQ appliance directly from EMC as part of the EMC eDiscovery Solution for Collection. EMC will offer StoredIQ’s information governance suite, which is used by enterprises in highly regulated or litigation-prone arenas to automate eDiscovery, cut legal and IT costs, and proactively manage unstructured information.

“This relationship with StoredIQ enables our customers to easily deploy an indexing and information management appliance that seamlessly connects to EMC’s compliance infrastructure, including EMC Documentum and EMC Centera, EMC’s leading content management and content addressed storage technologies,” said Andrew Cohen, Assistant General Counsel and Vice President of EMC’s Global Compliance Practice. “Customers have been looking for an affordable and low-impact way to bring eDiscovery in-house so that they can drive cost and risk out of what is today a broken business process. StoredIQ offers a robust appliance that automates key aspects of the legal eDiscovery process.”

StoredIQ efficiently captures and manages data from various platforms in the enterprise, including file servers (CIFS, NFS, NetWare), live email servers (Microsoft Exchange Servers, PSTs, NSFs), notebooks and desktops (PCs, Macs), content management platforms (EMC Documentum®) and collaboration software (SharePoint).

The combined StoredIQ-EMC solution is a component of EMC’s broad strategy for compliance and information management. It enables an in-house capability for efficient collection, “quick peek” review and analysis, legal hold in an immutable repository, culling, de-duplication and production of unstructured content for legal and compliance purposes. StoredIQ also adds valuable post-processing by exporting this data in review-ready load files (for applications such as Concordance® from LexisNexis®). In addition, it supports proactive risk management strategies, including the collection and remediation of legacy content from unmanaged environments into EMC content repositories, as well as classification for the proper management and disposition of business information. This solution enables customers to begin to put processes in place for proactive information management, ensuring that eDiscovery can be treated cost-effectively as a repeatable business process.

“The vast majority of data in today’s enterprises is unstructured, and for many organizations that vast pool of unmanaged information doubles in size every year,” said James Schellhase, President and CEO for StoredIQ. “This presents a tremendous challenge for legal and IT departments as they are at the same time confronted with strict new federal rules on information governance. The combined StoredIQ-EMC solution was lab tested by the EMC Global Compliance Solutions Practice, passing rigorous use-case testing by technical and legal experts. Further, the software completed testing through the EMC Centera® Proven Certification Program. This Proven Solution can address these information challenges companies are facing and can help significantly reduce associated costs and risks.”

StoredIQ’s information management appliance is available immediately through EMC Select.

About StoredIQ
StoredIQ is a leading provider of enterprise-class Intelligent Information Management solutions, enabling organizations to gain visibility and control over business-critical information to help meet their compliance, governance and legal discovery requirements. The company provides a range of integrated products: StoredIQ Intelligent eDiscovery for fast response to litigation and investigations, StoredIQ eDiscovery Preparedness for proactive "litigation readiness," and StoredIQ Information Governance for information protection and risk management. For more information, visit www.storediq.com.

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Mobile Internet World Conference and Expo Lauded a Major Success

2008-05-20T14:42:00-04:00

Westborough, MA - Mobile Internet World, the worlds first conference and expo focused on exploding mobile Internet marketplace wrapped up their inaugural three day event in Boston, Mobile Internet World was held November 13th-15th at the Hynes Convention Center and attracted over 2,200 attendees representing the entire mobile Internet ecosystem. The mobile internet is a global marketplace and media, entertainment, software and telecommunications professionals from more than 45 countries were represented. For show videos, news, blogs and images visit: www.mobilenetx.com.

Mobile Internet World featured high-profile keynote business leaders including, Tim Berners-Lee, Director, World Wide Web Consortium, Greg Clayman, Executive Vice President of Digital Distribution and Business Development, MTV Networks, Jack Dziak, Senior Vice President Corporate Strategy, Sprint Nextel, Bruce Stewart, Vice President and General Manager for Connected Life Americas, Yahoo! Inc., Rich Miner, GM Mobile Platforms, Google, Larry Weber, Chairman and Founder, W2 Group and Emily Nagle Green, President and CEO, Yankee Group.

"The first Mobile Internet World delivered profound insight into the opportunities that are being unleashed as the Internet is mobilized, and offered extensive and networking for attendees that extends well beyond the event itself, as the many blogs, podcasts and video feeds are driving this to the broader community", said Berge Ayvazian, Chief Strategy Officer, Yankee Group.

The Mobile Internet Conference Program was packed with over 50 sessions and 95 speakers covering the globalization of mobile technology, mobile entertainment, social networking, and mobile marketing with in-depth sessions examining new innovations in mobile commerce, social networking, mobile messaging, location-based services and new mobile devices. Mobile Internet World drew support from over 150 corporate, media and association sponsors, including 30 exhibitors.

In conjunction with Xchange magazine, the Mobile Internet Innovation Awards were presented to four winners recognized in the development and deployment of mobile Internet services and solutions. For more information, see www.mobilenetx.com.

According to Eliot Weinman, conference founder and president of Trendsmedia, the Events Division of Yankee Group, "Mobile Internet World this week exceeded our expectations for a launch event in a very competitive marketplace. I want to thank all of our sponsors and partners, representing the entire emerging mobile Internet ecosystem, who together helped us create this exciting new forum. The message from the market is clear: the mobile Internet represents the next major area of innovation in the expansion of the Internet. Our plans are to expand the program and expo and bring the event to markets around the world."

Trendsmedia announced Mobile Internet World Executive Summit Europe to take place in Munich, Germany, May 19th and 20th, 2008.

Mobile Internet World Conference and Expo 2008 will be held October 21st to 23rd, 2008 at the Boston Convention and Exhibit Center. It is expected that the 2008 event will double in size in terms of registrations and sponsors.

Mobile Internet World
The Mobile Internet World conference program features three days of seminars, workshops, executive summits and Web development tutorials. Major sponsors and exhibitors at this year's premier event included Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Alavarion, InfoGin, InfoSpace, Alcatel-Lucent, Opera Software, Third Screen Media, Fortune, Mobi, Ecrio, Ellacoya, Navini, Redline Communications, WidSets, Bitstream, CellTrust, itsmy.com, Jataayu, Knovolo, ArrayComm, Lleida.net, NetNumber, Tele Atlas and many others. A complete list of sponsors and exhibitors can be viewed at http://www.mobilenetx.com/sponsors.shtml

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/125.html

Exabytes Partners SmarterTools

2008-05-19T10:26:00-04:00

Exabytes Network Pvt Ltd, the top web hosting company in Malaysia announced that they have recently become official partners with SmarterTools, the IT management software company that offers solution to everyday business operations.

The company reported that as a qualified SmarterTool’s Resellers & Bundle Partners, their customers are entitled to get Smartermail Pro which offers up to 50 domains to 250 Users, SmarterStats Pro 3.x for 50 Sites, and SmarterTrack Pro 3.x with 2 agents, all of which are valued at $747 and given out at no cost at all whenever they subscribe to Exabytes Windows Dedicated Server plan. Exabytes Windows Dedicated Server plan is exclusively designed for smart customers who would like more control of their server. This plan helps reduce space consumption and provides users with more space for data storage. Hence, once customers subscribe to this smart plan, they will be sent the three SmarterTools bundled license of which they will own for good. However, they will need to activate their account with SmarterTools before any of the licenses can be activated. The company also added that these valuable licenses could help companies in starting up their business in the effort to increase their market.

When asked the reason for Exabytes to become partners with SmarterTools, CEO Chan Kee Siak said, “SmarterTools speaks for its name. It is indeed a smart and popular web application software, used by many web hosting providers, internet service providers, even small business. It helps automate and simplify the daily operation of business, making it just the right tool for any company to manage their businesses. SmarterTools just does wonders.”

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/124.html

Parallels to Resell Rack-Softâ€™s VoipNow PBX Software

2008-05-19T10:24:00-04:00

RENTON, Wash. - Parallels announced today that it has signed an agreement with Rack-Soft to resell its flagship product VoipNow, a leading PBX software for service providers and enterprises. The application has been integrated with Parallels Plesk Control Panel and is delivered via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. It enables Parallels service provider customers to offer low-cost, reliable PBX functionality to business and residential users.

The hosted PBX model provides users with the advantages of a PBX system, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars to deploy and maintain, for a low monthly fee. A hosted PBX enables a company to easily connect its offices around the world and to implement advanced voice and video communication integrated with current software business tools. Annual worldwide PBX revenue reached $8.9 billion in 2006, and is expected to reach almost $12 billion by 2010.

Support for VoipNow is included with Parallels Plesk Control Panel 8.4. The VoipNow Plesk Module integrates the two products into a single management interface. By combining the hosting industry’s leading control panel with the hosted VoIP BPX software, hosting providers can offer more diversified services to their customers. The VoipNow Plesk Module also automates user management and dramatically simplifies the provisioning and delivery of voice and video services.

“Partnering with Rack-Soft to bring its PBX software solution to Parallels Plesk Control Panel users is an excellent example of how innovative technologies can be delivered via SaaS to help end users control costs and improve efficiency,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. "With competitive pricing and leasing options, Parallels makes it cost effective and flexible for service providers to integrate key SaaS applications, such as VoIPNow, into their portfolios.”

“We are excited to work with Parallels to offer VoipNow through its service provider channel," said Bogdan Carstoiu, Rack-Soft’s general manager. “Now, with the integration into the Parallels Plesk Control Panel, customers can manage hosting and VoIP services from the same web-based interface.”
Pricing and Availability

The Parallels Plesk/Rack-Soft VoipNow bundle is scheduled to be available in June 2008 from Parallels and its worldwide partners. For more information and pricing, visit www.parallels.com/products/plesk.

About Rack-Soft
Rack-Soft is a specialized developer and integrator of server and datacenter software that supports major operating systems and platforms. The company delivers solutions that help service providers and enterprises control their infrastructure, automate processes, and improve communications. The company’s explosive success is based on excellence, innovation, and customer-oriented processes. The core of Rack-Soft's business philosophy is based on ISO 9001 certified quality management system. For more information, visit www.4psa.com/.

About Parallels - Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/123.html

Best of the Web Names Rob Schmid Controller

2008-05-19T10:22:00-04:00

Uniondale, NY - Best of the Web is pleased to announce that Robert Schmid has been appointed to the position of Controller. Schmid will be responsible for overseeing project management of existing and future projects, overseeing customer care, handling office operational tasks, conference planning, strategic planning, research and development, and managing administrative level employees.

"Rob has been with us from the very beginning, so we're really delighted to have things turn out this way," said Greg Hartnett, BOTW President. "He's a super sharp guy, with a knack for looking at things in an unconventional way. Rob's personality and the work ethic he has always exhibited make him a great fit for this role," adds Hartnett.

"I am particularly thankful that Rob has agreed to accept this new responsibility" said Brian Prince, CEO. "Best of the Web continues to stay focused on growth, and this move should really enable us to keep our eyes on the prize. No one understands the complexities of our business better than Rob, and I'm confident that he will continue to exceed our expectations, execute on our strategic initiatives, and ultimately help us to exceed our business goals."

Mr. Schmid takes the reigns as BOTW Controller after an extensive history of working with Prince and Hartnett. Originally hired as a junior developer on other projects, Schmid's dedication and grasp of the big picture put him on a quick track to management. Within a short time of his start with the company, Schmid lead a team of developers and eventually became tasked with oversight on all web development projects. Rob was instrumental in the launch of the BOTW Blog Directory, Enterprise Software directory and Senior Housing directory, and has also proved pivotal in the transformation of the BOTW web directory. His continued efforts contribute in great part to the present and future success of the company.

"It's certainly an honor", said Mr. Schmid. "I'm eager to take charge of operations and help Best of the Web continue it's impressive growth."

"2008 is shaping up to be a very exciting year for Best of the Web" said Prince. "We're really beefing up our assets, adding new offerings and improving the user experience. We're excited about the way the year has started, and we look forward to finishing even stronger."

About Best of the Web
"The Internet's oldest directory," Best of the Web got its start in 1994 by empowering the burgeoning online community to nominate and vote for best-of-class websites in a variety of categories. As the Internet grew in popularity, Best of the Web evolved into a comprehensive directory categorizing content-rich, well designed websites. Today, whether the topic at hand is choosing a college, refinancing a mortgage, or researching enterprise software solutions, Best of the Web provides one of the largest and most comprehensive human-edited directory resources available on the internet.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/122.html

Most Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Press Release Ever

2008-05-19T10:19:00-04:00

Columbus, OH - To create the most Searched Engine Optimized press release ever, Bill Balderaz of Webbed Marketing, the Columbus, Ohio Search Engine Optimization agency, recommends using your most important keywords in the first sentence of the press release.

Most Search Engine Optimized Press Release Ever
Ultimately, my goal is that all online marketers and public relations professionals find the most Search Engine Optimized press release ever to be useful in their Internet marketing strategies
"In creating the most Search Engine Optimized press release ever, we focused on creating a release with our most important keyword phrase-- "most Search Engine Optimized press release ever" into the copy. We also make use of related phrases, like "tips for creating SEO news releases" and "how to write a Search Engine Optimized media release."

Balderaz explained that he also included photos of his dogs, chickens and children in the release. "Uploading pictures greatly increases pickups of Search Engine Optimized press releases," added Balderaz. Cute kids and animals are some of the best pictures to include, he said.

"In addition to focusing on the content and photos, we released the most Search Engine Optimized press release ever on PRWeb, although we have also used Webwire," he said. He also mentioned ClickPress, 24-7 PressRelease.com, and PRLeap, in case there is anything to the concept of latent semantic association. He mentioned that all of the above online newswires were useful in getting Search Engine Optimized press releases indexed in Google News and Yahoo! News.

Search Engine Optimized press releases are things that should be written in the passive voice," Balderaz added.

He explained that a well search engine optimized press release must be found by your online influencers, consumers and the media. "No one goes to Google News and searches on 'Webbed Marketing' and not many bloggers have a Google alert set up for the term 'Webbed Marketing.' But influencers, bloggers and the media do search newswires for news on "Search Engine Optimization" and "SEO". Over time, this release will also be indexed in the main search engine indexes. As people search for "Most Search Engine Optimized press release ever", this press release should rank well.

Balderaz added that the release would create in bound links to the Webbed Marketing site, so he included keyword rich links like online public relations in the release.

According to Balderaz, he will also submit the release to Sphinn, Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, mixx and StumbleUpon. He said Webbed Marketing would also write about the release on its blog so it gets indexed by Technorati and Google Blog Search.

"Ethically, you need to make sure that everything from your keywords to your distribution relates to the content of your release," Balderaz added. "This release is all about helping searchers find tips on creating the most Search Engine Optimized press release ever." He added that he would never optimize this release on terms like "Britney Spears", "free iPod" or "win a Nintendo Wii." He did concede that a release about Britney Spears listening to a free iPod while winning a Nintendo Wii would probably really be the most Search Engine Optimized press release ever.

"Ultimately, my goal is that all online marketers and public relations professionals find the most Search Engine Optimized press release ever to be useful in their Internet marketing strategies," Balderaz said.

About Webbed Marketing:
Webbed Marketing consists of a team of experts with Internet marketing experience predating the launch of Google. The firm's objective is to help businesses grow by using the Internet to reach buyers and online influencers. Webbed Marketing offers its clients full Internet marketing services including online community building, viral marketing programs, pay-per-click search management, search engine optimization and affiliate program management. To learn more about Webbed Marketing visit www.WebbedMarketing.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/seo_sem/121.html

Sitefinity and DiscountASP.net Partner for Free Websites

2008-05-19T10:16:00-04:00

Newton, MA - Telerik, the publisher of the Sitefinity CMS (www.sitefinity.com) and a leading vendor of UI components for .NET, and DiscountASP.NET (www.discountasp.net), a Microsoft gold certified shared hosting provider, announced today the two companies have partnered to extend a unique offer to the INETA User Group (UG) community.

The offer will help UGs enhance collaboration between its members and facilitate the management of their daily activities.

“Telerik has a long standing relationship with the .NET UG community, and the feedback and support we receive from UG members is extremely valuable to us,” said Nadia Terzieva, VP of Business Development at Telerik. “We are happy that we have the opportunity to give back to UG members, by making it easy for them to have a brand new website up and running in a matter of hours, with the help of the specially developed DNUG template and INETA manual.”
User groups will receive a free Sitefinity Standard edition license (worth $899) and free Windows hosting (worth $240/year). By leveraging the special, custom-built DNUG website template, integrated into Sitefinity, UG members are empowered to organize events, share files and photos, participate in forums and polls, write blogs or news, publish presentations, create job or sponsor listings, etc.

“DiscountASP.NET does what we can to promote .NET technology and we are more than happy to provide .NET hosting for .NET user groups,” said Takeshi Eto, VP of Marketing at DiscountASP.NET. “We look forward to hosting a thriving .NET user group community.”

.NET user group members can sign up for this exclusive offer for a free Sitefinity license and Asp.net hosting at http://www.sitefinity.com/product/features/free-offer.aspx. More details on DiscountASP.NET are available at www.discountasp.net .

About Telerik
Telerik is a leading vendor of developer tools and components for .NET. Building on its expertise in interface development and Microsoft technologies, Telerik helps customers build applications with unparalleled richness, responsiveness and interactivity. Created with passion, Telerik products help thousands of developers every day to be more productive and deliver reliable applications under budget and on time. For more information on Telerik, visit http://www.telerik.com. For information on Sitefinity, visit http://www.sitefinity.com.

About DiscountASP.NET
DiscountASP.NET is an innovative leader in Microsoft Windows-based shared hosting, focused on providing the best value in ASP.NET and SQL database hosting. A Microsoft Gold Certified partner, DiscountASP.NET was one of the first hosts to launch Windows 2008 hosting, and .NET 3.5 hosting supporting LINQ and ASP.NET AJAX hosting. Through strong word-of-mouth and their commitment to ASP.NET and SQL technology, DiscountASP.NET has become the choice for affordable enterprise-class ASP.NET web hosting. For more information, visit http://www.discountasp.net.

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Yahoo! Still Looking for Buyer

2008-05-19T00:10:00-04:00

SUNNYVALE, Calif - Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today issued the following statement in response to the announcement by Microsoft Corporation that it is continuing to review potential transactions with Yahoo!:

"Yahoo! has confirmed with Microsoft that it is not interested in pursuing an acquisition of all of Yahoo! at this time. Yahoo! and its Board of Directors continue to consider a number of value maximizing strategic alternatives for Yahoo!, and we remain open to pursuing any transaction which is in the best interest of our stockholders. Yahoo!'s Board of Directors will evaluate each of our alternatives, including any Microsoft proposal, consistent with its fiduciary duties, with a focus on maximizing stockholder value.”

About Yahoo! Inc.

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com.

Important Additional Information

Yahoo! will be filing a proxy statement and accompanying WHITE proxy card with the SEC in connection with the solicitation of proxies for its 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Stockholders are strongly advised to read Yahoo!’s 2008 proxy statement when it becomes available because it will contain important information. Stockholders will be able to obtain copies of Yahoo!’s 2008 proxy statement and other documents filed by Yahoo! with the SEC in connection with its 2008 annual meeting of stockholders at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or at the Investor Relations section of Yahoo!’s website at yhoo.client.shareholder.com. Yahoo!, its directors and its executive officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from stockholders in connection with Yahoo!’s 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Information concerning Yahoo!’s directors and officers is available in its Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, filed with the SEC on April 29, 2008.

Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/119.html

AOL Completes Acquisition Of Global Social Media Network Bebo

2008-05-19T10:07:00-04:00

NEW YORK - AOL announced that it has completed its acquisition of Bebo, a global social media network that will form the centerpiece of AOL's newly created People Networks business unit. Bebo's CEO Joanna Shields will serve as Executive Vice President of AOL and President of People Networks, which combines Bebo, AIM, ICQ and AOL's other community platforms and reaches about 80 million users worldwide.* Shields will report to AOL President and COO Ron Grant.

“With the addition of Bebo and the creation of People Networks, AOL is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the exploding social media space by delivering a more personal experience for consumers and a better way for advertisers to engage them,” said Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO of AOL. “AOL is now fully focused on growing our business in three key areas – our advertising network, publishing and people networks – by delivering relevant content and advertising across the Web, and we’re making great progress in each area.”

In March, AOL’s publishing network hit an all-time high in both unique visitors and page views, the sixth consecutive month of growth, according to comScore Media Metrix, which also ranked AOL’s Platform-A the leading online display advertising network, with a reach of 91% of the domestic online audience.

Ron Grant added that: “Unlike other social networks, which have had a difficult time monetizing their sites without jeopardizing the user experience, Bebo created an environment that enables advertisers, brands and media companies to engage in meaningful, relevant conversations with its users. Combining Bebo with our other social media applications, our content sites, and Platform-A gives us an unmatched opportunity to create value for these highly engaged audiences.”

"Bebo has succeeded by providing its users with the best platform for entertainment, self-expression and community," said Joanna Shields. "People Networks expands this vision by extending our reach, bringing instant communication tools to our users and providing them with the ability to share their passions with people like them."

Integrating People Networks

One of the first initiatives for People Networks will be to integrate AOL’s other community applications and tools, including IM, chat and mail functionality into Bebo. It will also let users merge AIM and Bebo profiles so they can use common screen names without re-registering. AIM is the leading instant messaging network in the U.S., with more than 30 million users. ICQ has 28 million active users worldwide.

In addition, People Networks will integrate other recent AOL acquisitions, including widget technology company Goowy Media and social search question and answer service Yedda. Integration plans also include the cross-distribution of AOL and Bebo content and applications to expand the scale of the combined networks. For example, AOL will promote Bebo’s successful original programming – including the award-winning “KateModern,” “Sofia’s Diary” and “The Gap Year” -- across several AOL channels. Also, Bebo is integrating AOL music and entertainment content.

“This combination is about more than just putting products together, it’s about bringing together the extraordinary management teams from both Bebo and AOL,” said Shields. “When you combine Bebo, AIM and ICQ, and AOL’s other community products, we not only have an unmatched offering for consumers, we have the best leaders in the business to drive our success going forward.”

For the past 18 months, Shields served as Bebo’s President, responsible for all global commercial aspects of the business. Prior to joining Bebo, Shields was Managing Director for Google Europe, Russia, Middle East & Africa, responsible for building and scaling the company's advertising syndication network and establishing content partnerships. She has more than 20 years of senior management experience at leading technology and Internet companies.

Integrating Marketing Opportunities

People Networks will build on Bebo’s success in creating rich social media experiences that successfully integrate marketing opportunities.

Bebo pioneered the practice of “Engagement Marketing” in social networks, enabling brands to build lasting personal relationships with Bebo’s community of more than 42 million members. Today, hundreds of brands and organizations, including Apple and Nike, among others, use Bebo as a platform to establish ongoing conversations with consumers.

In addition, Bebo has led the way in blending original online entertainment and social networking in a way that lets brands integrate their messages into compelling storylines. Bebo’s productions include "KateModern," the most successful serialized program on the Web, "Sofia's Diary" and the upcoming "The Gap Year.”

Bebo’s Open Media platform lets media companies distribute their content to Bebo’s users and retain 100% of their ad revenues. Open Media launched in November 2007 with CBS, MTV Networks, BBC, Turner, ESPN and others, and now has more than 400 partners providing tens of thousands of videos to Bebo’s extensive video archive.

Bebo's Open Application Platform was the first platform that enabled developers to easily port their applications from Facebook to Bebo, reducing the investment required for developers to extend their reach and enriching the user experience for Bebo's members. Since publicly opening up the platform in January 2008, more than 6,500 applications were launched on Bebo.

To enhance AOL’s ability to monetize Bebo and its other social networks, the company recently announced plans to introduce a “content screening” tool. Based on the same technology AOL uses with its award-winning parental controls, this tool will help advertisers overcome concerns about advertising on social networking sites with user-generated content by awarding these pages a quality score and placing ads only on pages that surpass a quality threshold. AOL plans to launch its content screening tool in the third quarter.

Founded in 2005, Bebo quickly became one of the leading social networks in the UK. It is ranked No. 1 in Ireland and New Zealand, and No. 3 in the U.S. in terms of engagement. Bebo’s worldwide users spend an average of 30 minutes a day on the site. Bebo has approximately 100 employees operating in offices in the UK, San Francisco and Austin, TX. It will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL.

About AOL

AOL® is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/118.html

White Horse Recognized for "Best of the Best"

2008-05-17T13:10:00-04:00

Portland, OR - White Horse, one of the nation's fastest-growing digital agencies, announced today that it has received six marketing awards for its clients Columbia Sportswear, Mountain Hardwear, KinderCare, Celestial Seasonings, and the Washington County Oregon Visitors Association.

"The array of work for which we were honored has one thing in common: in every case we sought to push the boundaries of immersive design and user interaction," said Jennifer Modarelli-DeVoe, agency principal. "It has paid off for our clients in the form of greater customer engagement, and it reinforces our commitment to finding new ways to interact with customers online."

The array of work for which we were honored has one thing in common: in every case we sought to push the boundaries of immersive design and user interaction
The Hermes Creative Awards and the Horizon Interactive Awards honored White Horse's work for Columbia Sportswear. A Platinum Hermes Award, the program's top honor, was awarded to the Columbia Web site, The Ad Deadline user-generated content promotion for Mountain Hardwear, a Columbia Sportswear brand, received an Honorable Mention from the Hermes Awards. The Hermes Creative Awards is an international creative competition and seeks to acknowledge a high standard of excellence and work that serves as a benchmark for the media industry.

Columbia's Thinsulate Promotion Microsite received a Silver Horizon Interactive Award for online advertising.

The KinderCare Web Site received a Silver Horizon Interactive Award in the consumer information category. The agency's work on the Celestial Seasonings Web Site was also awarded a Silver Horizon Award in the e-commerce category.

The Horizon Interactive 2008 Awards, an international interactive media competition, received over 1000 entries and was the most competitive to date. Mike Sauce, program founder, commented, "All of the winning entries displayed a high level of sophistication, aesthetic creativity, technical excellence, and clear purpose."

The 2008 Summit Creative Awards® competition recognized White Horse with a Silver award for its creative work on the Washington County Oregon Visitors Association's Web site. Only 8%ï€11% of entries receive Silver awards. This year the awards program received approximately 5,000 entries from 26 countries.

About White Horse:
Founded in 1980, White Horse is a privately held, woman-owned digital agency with headquarters in Portland, Ore. Forrester Research recently identified the interactive agency as one of the top five Web design agencies in the nation that uses personas to inform Web marketing and Web design. White Horse's client roster includes global, national, and regional clients, including Cisco Systems, Celestial Seasonings, Columbia Sportswear, KinderCare, and Nike. The agency specializes in B2B and B2C Web marketing for retail and consumer brands, healthcare, and B2B companies. Its services include Web strategy, social media marketing, Web advertising and media buying, Web promotions, e-mail marketing, Web site design, Web development, and usability. For more information, visit http://www.whitehorse.com or call 1-877-471-4200.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_design/117.html

Five Sun Microsystems Women Honored with Prestigious Awards

2008-05-17T13:07:00-04:00

SANTA CLARA, CA - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced that five Sun women have been awarded prestigious honors from top Silicon Valley organizations. Susan Landau, distinguished engineer, has been named the Anita Borg Institute 2008 Women of Vision Award winner in the Social Impact category. The YWCA of Silicon Valley has awarded four Sun employees a 2008 Tribute to Women (TWIN) award: Cheryl Cook, vice president of sales; Beverly Glasser, senior director of IT; Noreen Krall, vice president and chief intellectual property officer; and Karen Tegan Padir, vice president, software infrastructure.

Their technical and leadership excellence are clear examples of what it means to succeed individually and as part of a team.
“These award winners are instrumental to Sun's business, inspiring not only women but the entire Sun community,” said Shari Slate, chief diversity officer and director of global inclusion at Sun Microsystems. “Their technical and leadership excellence are clear examples of what it means to succeed individually and as part of a team.”

The Women of Vision Awards, hosted by the Anita Borg Institute Board of Trustees, honored women making significant contributions to technology. One winner was selected in each category: Innovation, Leadership, and Social Impact. Nominees were submitted by high-tech companies, universities, private industry, and the public. The award reception took place May 8, 2008 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.

Each year YWCA of Silicon Valley honors the top women at leading organizations that have had a substantial impact on the organization relative to its growth, profitability, and innovation. Winners have outstanding leadership qualities and are successful role models for other women transitioning into executive positions. Winners were honored on May 15, 2008 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/116.html

Hostway to Offer Revenue Streams at NCTAâ€™s Cable Show â€˜08

2008-05-16T07:00:00-04:00

CHICAGO, IL — Hostway Corporation, the global Web hosting leader, will showcase its turnkey white label Web solutions at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) 2008 Cable Show, May 18-20 in New Orleans.

"We are totally committed to the cable and telecommunications industry, and we're looking forward to showing conference attendees how we can help them expand their service offering and increase customer retention," said Art Matteotti, vice president of sales for Hostway. "Hostway is uniquely positioned to drive revenue for our partners. As one of the largest Web services companies in the world, our plans are backed by a global technological infrastructure and more than 10 years experience in the Web hosting industry."

Through Hostway's private label program, partners can offer their customers any combination of Hostway's innovative Web products under their own brands. Partners can choose from:

•         Web hosting
•         Hosted Microsoft Exchange
•         Business email
•         Online data backup
•         Domain name registration
•         Ecommerce services
•         Web site design
•         And more

Hostway provides the technical and back-end support, so all partners need to do is add their branding and start selling. Conference attendees who stop by Hostway's booth at The Cable Show – booth number 1336 – can learn more about how to add revenue, expand service offerings and maximize customer retention without increasing overhead. It is all done using Hostway's advanced Web services platform designed expressly to launch and support private label Web services.

NCTA's 57th annual Cable Show ‘08 features top leaders from cable and related industries with nearly 400 exhibitors and 14,000 attendees. This year's theme is "Think Big," and the conference features sessions such as "What's Now and What's New in Broadband Media," "Cable's Advanced Advertising Advantage," and more.

About Hostway Corporation
Founded in 1998, Hostway Corporation has extensive experience in migration and driving consumer and commercial adoption and a demonstrated commitment to the development of new products and services, keeping its partners at the forefront of today's technology. With more than 1,000,000 Web hosting customers, Hostway is the largest hosting company in North America, operating more than 450,000 square feet of state-of-the-art data centers and maintaining a direct presence in 11 countries with 15 worldwide operation centers and more than 600 employees. http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/115.html

Hosting provider LeaseWeb Restructures Support Division

2008-05-16T00:27:00-04:00

Amsterdam – Hosting provider LeaseWeb has appointed a new Support Manager, someone with a lot of experience in the hosting industry who will be restructuring the Support Division. This department has 33 employees for now but will be expanded significantly due to LeaseWeb’s fast expansion.

LeaseWeb has engaged Ivo Roomer (35) to manage the Support Division. Roomer previously worked for VNU Media as a Sales Manager Online Media and has a lot of experience in the hosting sector, among other things as a Manager Sales Support and European Business Manager. Roomer will be off to a good start in his new position with an ambitious expansion of 16 additional support agents.

LeaseWeb: 16 job openings in Support
‘The expansion is necessary to decrease response times and increase the availability of our support services,’ explains Roomer. ‘Some 70 percent of our customers are based not in the Netherlands, but abroad. We have customers in the United States, the UK, France, Denmark, Spain, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and other countries. This means that you need to have adequate manpower available because you have to account for time differences. Moreover, customers with a 24/7 business model also expect LeaseWeb to deliver 24/7 service and support.’

Professional hosting support
The new Support Manager also plans to professionalize the department further. ‘LeaseWeb’s Support unit has strong technical qualifications,’ explains Roomer. ‘Now that LeaseWeb is growing – the organization doubled in size in the past year! – it is becoming ever more important to refine customer-friendliness, which will result in increased customer loyalty and satisfaction. Technique and knowledge are important in a support department, but in the end, customer satisfaction is all that really matters.’

Hosting: Creating an additional support layer
Concretely, all this means that the new Support Manager will emphasize the human factor of the department. ‘I will coach the employees and set up an additional support layer to the front of the organization. This extra layer will take more account of customer wishes and a customer-friendly approach to our customer base. We will also use the necessary hardware and software to create a platform that offers agents every tool they need to function well and serve customers optimally.’

LeaseWeb’s enterprising nature
Ivo Roomer opted for LeaseWeb because of its enterprising nature. ‘I was also offered management positions with the traditional, established corporate parties,’ says Roomer. ‘But they didn’t have the enterprising nature and dynamics that LeaseWeb has to offer. The freedom and opportunity to be part of an internet organization that is growing enormously at the international level, that drew me. It matches my leadership style. I give people a lot of freedom, but this includes taking responsibility, which is something I can see clearly in this organization.’

About LeaseWeb
LeaseWeb (www.leaseweb.com) is an international supplier of hosting solutions that focuses primarily on the business market. The company is in the global top 20 of hosting providers and offers services that include domain name registration, web hosting, dedicated servers, co-location, server virtualization, and streaming. LeaseWeb owns a first-class Cisco-powered network offering a bandwidth of over 160 Gbps, which extends across five data centers in the Amsterdam region via the major telecom carriers. LeaseWeb is also present on internet exchanges in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Frankfurt, New York, Vienna, Stockholm, Warsaw, Zurich, Prague and Madrid. Through this network, LeaseWeb enables companies all over the world to create and maintain an online presence in an affordable and reliable manner. Founded in 1997, LeaseWeb now manages nearly 11,000 servers. Its customer base includes Starbucks, Hyves, Telegraaf Media Groep, Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé, PricewaterhouseCoopers, AVRO, Direct Wonen, and Univé.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/leasewebsupport.html

eApps Hosting announces GlassFish is now available

2008-05-16T10:21:00-04:00

The eApps Hosting service has supported Java since 1999, when the company's Tomcat hosting plans were launched. In 2001 a Java hosting service using JBoss, a J2EE compliant Java application server, was offered. Two years later, eApps Hosting was one of the first providers to offer Tomcat and JBoss in a Virtual Private Server. The company now offers the Glassfish Java application server for Java EE 5 in an economical Virtual Private Server using Virtuozzo virtualization software from Parallels™. GlassFish is derived from the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9, donated by Sun Microsystems, and source code from TopLink, a Java object-to-relational persistence architecture, donated by Oracle. Program code from GlassFish is used as the Reference Implementation for the Java EE 5 specification. The close relationship between the GlassFish community and Sun's Java project ensures that users of GlassFish will receive standards compliant support for the Java EE 5 specification in a timely manner.

The decision to offer GlassFish was made to further enhance eApps Hosting's support for Java applications. “Java continues to be the preferred technology for mission critical web applications. High end developers have embraced the Java EE 5 standard and the GlassFish Java application server. With our offering, these developers now have a place to deploy their applications,” stated Barry Deutsch, Vice President of Operations for eApps Hosting.

For additional information contact eApps Hosting at +1-770-448-2100 USA or +44 (0)20 8133 6940 UK or sales@eapps.com or visit http://www.eapps.com. More information on eApps Hosting's GlassFish offering can be found at http://www.eapps.com/ManagedHosting/GlassFish.jsp.

eApps Hosting now offers the GlassFish Java application server for Java EE 5 as a one click install option on economical Virtual Private Server plans. The service is scalable vertically, allowing upgrades to a full dedicated server, and horizontally, by adding VPS servers in high availability clusters.

eApps Hosting is a value added provider of managed hosting services for businesses and organizations, serving more than 4,900 customers, running over 25,000 domains, in 130 countries. eApps Hosting offers a state of the art hosting platform, using Virtuozzo Virtual Private Server technology by Parallels™, for commercial-grade web sites and applications with highly personalized, responsive service. Virtuozzo is a product of Parallels™. Tomcat is a product of Apache Software Foundation. JBoss is a product of jboss.org. GlassFish is a product of GlassFish community. Java and Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 are products of Sun Microsystems, Inc. TopLink is a product of Oracle Corporation.

http://www.gawkwire.com/promotions/113.html

Oliver Mauss, the new CEO of 1&1 Internet Inc.

2008-05-16T00:15:00-04:00

Today 1&1 Internet Inc. announced Oliver Mauss has been appointed the new CEO of 1&1 Internet Inc., as well as of the company’s subsidiaries in UK, France and Spain. In his new position, Oliver Mauss is in charge of 1&1’s international web hosting operations. He succeeds Andreas Gauger, who decided to step down from his position as Chairman of the Board after 13 years.

Previously, Oliver Mauss worked for Vodafone Group for over 10 years, most recently as the Global Director of Business Product Marketing. Before that he held positions in product management and business development at telecommunication companies o.tel.o and RWE Telliance. Oliver Mauss holds a Ph.D. in Communications Engineering from the University of Aachen, Germany.

Andreas Gauger founded web hosting provider, Schlund + Partner in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1995. Three years later, 1&1 Internet acquired Schlund + Partner and in 1999, Andreas Gauger was appointed Chairman of the Board. Within a short time, Andreas Gauger has led 1&1 to become one of the world’s leading web hosts, by defining a standard for user-friendly and cost-effective web hosting solutions and by developing and directing 1&1’s successful international expansion strategy. With more than 10 million hosted domain names, 1&1 today is the leading provider for hosting personal and business websites.

For more information on 1&1 Internet Inc. visit the website at www.1and1.com

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/112.html

Domainmonster.com Pre-Registers .me TLD's

2008-05-15T11:02:00-04:00

Mesh Digital’s Domainmonster.com domain name registration brand today announced the availability of the all new .me Domain Name. "One of only a few two letter domain extensions worldwide and with a trillion fantastic uses, we are very sure .me is going to be incredibly popular", commented Matt Mansell, Managing Director, Mesh Digital Limited.

Run by doMEn, Domainmonster.com is one of only a handful of officially and directly accredited registrars. With no eligibility requirements whatsoever, .me is wide open to everyone! No requirements to have particular content on your .me website, no requests to input your inside leg measurement to prove you're eligible; absolutely nothing, .me is wide open for everyone to take advantage of!

Matt Mansell, commented further, "With so many great uses, the Domainmonster.com team are already more excited about .me than any other domain launch in our history. Allabout.me, want.me, need.me, love.me or even you.me, the possibilities are endless and all with a fun domain name we’ve been waiting for! Maybe you just want to Domainmonster.me, email.me or even track.me! Either way, you can always contact.me at john@bell.me!!"

Already available to pre-order at Domainmonster.com, applicants can start securing their .me domain name right now. Much like the recent .asia launch, the registry is running an auction process for the first public stage. More than one applicant and they will be auctioned off against each other. Applicants are being advised to apply earlier as the best names will likely be gone by general open registration.

Domainmonster.com is offering all applicants a full refund* to their Domainmonster.com account if their Landrush application results in an auction and they lose! At the recent .asia launch, less than 10% received multiple applications at the same auction stage, so it’s highly probable good names will be secured during the Landrush auction stage with no need for an auction!

About doMEn, d.o.o.
The ISO 3165 Maintenance Agency assigned the ME country code to Montenegro shortly after it gained its independence in June 2006. In December 2006, Montenegro submitted its application to IANA for delegation of the .ME Top Level Domain. The delegation was finally approved and took place in September 2007.

The Government of Montenegro recognized the potential worldwide appeal that .ME could have and decided it should be operated as a generic name space to gain the maximum benefit for Montenegro. The Government issued a public RFP in November 2007. The goal of the RFP was to find a Registration Agent that could operate an international registry, provide world class backend registry services, and provide the marketing and promotional muscle needed to make .ME a worldwide success. Ultimately, we believe they made an excellent choice!

The contract was awarded to doMEn, d.o.o., a Montenegro based joint venture (doing business as .ME Registry). Me-Net is located in Montenegro and its principles have been leaders in the ICT sector in Montenegro, including the privatization of its largest ISP.

For more information on doMEn, please visit http://www.nic.me

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/111.html

Comodo Offers Unprecedented Free Expert PC Cleaning

2008-05-15T10:54:00-04:00

New Jersey, NJ - As recently reported by Microsoft, there has been a 300% increase in the number of Trojan attacks launched in past 12 months. To help end users with systems that have been infected in the current wave of attacks, Comodo, a leading security company, today announced the first-of-its-kind free PC cleaning provided by a trained expert. Unlike other security companies that offer free automated cleaning tools that users must manage, Comodo's free malware cleaning service has real people remotely cleaning machines in order to ensure that machines receive a thorough and proper cleaning. This free service is available for a limited time and is offered without obligation - "no catches - no kidding."

Comodo Responds to Trojan Threats
Comodo recognizes that the increasing number of Trojan threats worldwide undermines people's confidence in the Internet as a trusted medium for communications and commerce. In order to help consumers increase their confidence in their online transactions, Comodo is offering its expert malware removal services for free so that everyone can be protected. After receiving remedial virus cleaning services from Comodo, end users should use preventative security, such as the free Comodo Firewall Pro, to prevent future virus infiltration.

This limited time offer provides a Free PC Cleaning service delivered by security experts who remotely access a user's computer and perform the cleaning, removing Trojans, spyware, viruses, rootkits and other malicious code.

Promoting Safe Computing Practices
Comodo is offering this service to introduce consumers to safe computing practices. While almost all users recognize that they need to keep their machine secure, they often do not how to select the best security providers. This initiative is meant to introduce users to Comodo as a holistic provider of preventative and remedial services so that consumers will feel comfortable on the Internet, whether they are surfing, purchasing or performing other transactions.

"By offering a free malware cleaning service, we aim to create a community of confident consumers with clean PCs" said Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and Chief Security Architect of Comodo. "This is how we continue to build on our vision of a trusted Internet so that more and more users will feel safe while surfing - and purchasing - on the web."

For more information, please visit: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/avsmart/malware-removal.html.
About Comodo

The Comodo companies provide the infrastructure that is essential in enabling e-merchants, other Internet-connected companies, software companies, and individual consumers to interact and conduct business via the Internet safely and securely. The Comodo companies offer PKI SSL, Code Signing, Content Verification and E-Mail Certificates; award winning PC security software; vulnerability scanning services for PCI Compliance; secure e-mail and fax services.

Continual innovation, a core competence in PKI, and a commitment to reversing the growth of Internet-crime distinguish the Comodo companies as vital players in the Internet's ongoing development. Comodo secures and authenticates online transactions and communications for over 200,000 business customers and 3,000,000 users of our desktop security products.

For additional information on Comodo - Creating Trust Online™ visit http://www.comodo.com

http://www.gawkwire.com/reviews/110.html

cPanel Partners with R1Soft

2008-05-15T10:52:00-04:00

WHITE HAVEN, PA – cPanel (http://www.cpanel.net), a leader in hosting automation software, announced today it has partnered with R1Soft (http://www.r1soft.com), a developer of Continuous Data Protection? products for Linux and Windows, to offer its data protection solution to users of the cPanel/WHM hosting control panel system.

With the partnership, cPanel control panel license holders – typically Web hosting providers with many clients – receive volume discounts on R1Soft’s Continuous Data Protection software, which offers disk-based, near-continuous data backups. cPanel license holders also receive access to a variety of marketing and sales tools from R1Soft, so they can increase revenue by offering Continuous Data Protection to their own clients.

R1Soft’s data protection solution currently integrates into all major hosting control panels, including cPanel. Administrators and end users alike can easily manage backups and restore files through a fast-loading online interface. In addition, R1Soft’s MySQL module allows information in a database – as specific as a certain table – to be resorted in the event of a disaster or accidental data loss by the server administrator.

“Providing easy and useful backups is a requirement to stay competitive in the hosting industry. R1Soft takes backups to the next level and we want to make sure that our customers have easy access to that technology,” said Dave Koston, Vice President of Operations at cPanel. “With the ability for users to have access to their high-availability backups right from cPanel, along with the performance and ease of use of R1Soft's products, it's a no brainer for our companies to forge this partnership.”

“As a leading provider of hosting automation software, cPanel makes an ideal partner as we continue to introduce our next-generation data protection solution to thousands of hosting providers,” said David Wartell, Vice President of R1Soft, a division of BBS Technologies Inc. “This partnership will make it easier for cPanel’s large user base to move away from age-old tar and rsync backups and transition to near-Continuous backup technology. We will be working closely with cPanel over the coming months to better integrate our products so we can offer more unique features to cPanel users.”

Through May 31, 2008 cPanel license holders exclusively can take advantage of R1Soft’s cPack, offering an introductory collection of Continuous Data Protection software. For only $998 (a savings of more than $2700), cPack includes CDP Agents (x5); CDP for MySQL (x5); CDP Servers (x5); Service Provider API for provisioning; and one year of technical support and maintenance. More information about cPack is available at http://www.r1soft.com/cpanel.

For more information about R1Soft and Continuous Data Protection, please visit http://www.r1soft.com or call 1-800-956-6198.

http://www.gawkwire.com/promotions/109.html

Sybase and Sun Set Guinness World Record

2008-05-14T12:56:00-04:00

DUBLIN, Calif - Sybase, Inc., the largest enterprise software and services company exclusively focused on managing and mobilizing information, today announced that the Sybase® IQ analytics server has set a new Guinness World Record™ by powering the world’s largest data warehouse on a Sun™ SPARC® Enterprise M9000 server. This accomplishment was achieved using Sybase IQ, BMMsoft ServerSM and the Sun Microsystems® Data Warehouse Reference Architecture. This winning combination enables more data to be stored in less space, searched and analyzed in less time, while consuming 91 percent less energy and generating less heat and carbon dioxide than conventional solutions.

Powered by the category-leading column-oriented database Sybase IQ, the data warehouse is certified to support a record-breaking one petabyte of mixed relational and unstructured data—more than 34 times larger than the largest industry standard benchmark1 and twice the size of the largest commercial data warehouse known to date2. In total, the data warehouse contains six trillion rows of transactional data and more than 185 million content-searchable documents, such as emails, reports, spreadsheets and other multimedia objects.

Guinness World Records judge Danny Girton presided over the certificate ceremony in New York to validate the record and confirm that the achievement met the criteria set forth by the organization. “We applaud Sybase, Sun and BMMsoft for their entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for the World’s Largest Data Warehouse,” Girton said. “We congratulate everyone involved in this record-breaking achievement.”

Designed from the ground up as an analytics server, Sybase IQ produces its impressive results because of a unique architecture combining a column-oriented data structure with patented indexing and a scalable grid. Sybase IQ offers extraordinarily high performance at a lower cost than a traditional, row-oriented database. And, unlike traditional row-based data warehouses, the stored data in Sybase IQ is compressed by up to 70 percent of its input size, creating the most optimal and elegant analytics solutions.

“The results of this benchmark showcase Sybase IQ’s capabilities to handle real-world scenarios, querying vast amounts of data representing the transactions processed across the worldwide financial trading networks over multiple years.” said Francois Raab, president, InfoSizing, the consulting firm that oversaw the benchmarking of the record. “Sybase IQ has proven its production strength in handling the volume of multimedia documents representative of the electronic communication between half a million financial traders.”

“This record truly demonstrates Sybase’s vision to the future about what kinds of extreme analytics and volumes of data customers will be facing in the coming years,” said Kathleen Schaub, vice president of marketing, Sybase. “Sybase IQ allows users to manage immense data stores and accelerates analytics processing up to 100 times faster than traditional solutions. It comes as no surprise that combining its power with BMMSoft server and the innovative Sun server and storage products would deliver an industry-leading, and now record-breaking, energy efficient data warehouse.”

“Sun's SPARC Enterprise servers are the workhorses of the datacenter, ably handling mission-critical applications including ERP, BIDW and large-scale OLTP,” said Bob McGaughey, senior director, Enterprise Servers, Sun Microsystems. “The Guinness World Record proves that Sun's data warehouse solution delivers advanced virtualization and consolidation capabilities with the extreme scalability and efficiency to handle the most demanding enterprise workloads.”

To view the Guinness certificate ceremony in New York, please visit: http://www.sybase.com/guinness

For more information on Sybase IQ, please visit: http://www.sybase.com/products/datawarehousing/sybaseiq

For more information on the Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 server and the Sun Data Warehouse Reference Architecture for Structured and Unstructured Data please visit: http://www.sun.com/servers/highend/m9000/ and http://www.sun.com/service/refarch/datawarehouse/

For more information on BMMsoft Server, please visit: http://www.bmmsoft.com/

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/108.html

1Vault Networks Gets Ready for 2008 Hurricane Season

2008-05-14T12:53:00-04:00

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla - With predictions of 15 named storms forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1st and November 30th, Florida businesses are being encouraged to batten down the hatches and have a continuity plan in place.

But 1Vault Networks wonders if they are listening...

Gartner®, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, estimates that only 35 percent of small to mid-sized businesses have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place, and an even smaller percent have crisis management, contingency, business recovery and business resumption plans.

“Too many businesses in Florida are simply not prepared to survive a disaster,” said Helene Wetherington, AICP, CEM, Director of Emergency Management Services for Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Calvin, Giordano & Associates.

A former Assistant Director of Emergency Management for Palm Beach County, Wetherington said an estimated 75 percent of companies without a business continuity plan would fail within three years of a disaster.

“Complacency about disaster preparedness can kill your business,” she added.

The 2008 forecast gives 70 percent odds a hurricane will hit West Florida and 60 percent odds storms will strike the Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama coast and the U.S. east coast.

“That’s a recipe for a catastrophe and should make any chairman, president, CEO, CIO, CFO and Board Director reassess their planning if they haven’t already done so,” opined Jim Thomas, founder and CEO of 1Vault Networks (www.1Vault.net), a Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company offering businesses colocation, disaster recovery and hosted IT servers.

For Thomas, a 25-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, the reality for inaction “certainly will result in the loss of revenue, loss of customers and most probably the loss of the business.”

Is this only an issue affecting larger businesses?

According to the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s FloridaDisaster.org website, which helps businesses in disaster planning, almost 40 percent of small businesses that close due to a disaster event never reopen.

Many companies choose Florida as their base of operations because of the unique combination of a skilled workforce, booming business economy and endless recreational and arts and entertainment options. However, because Florida is located in the North Atlantic Hurricane zone, doing business there requires a well thought out business continuity plan. Having a good plan means including contingencies for weather and other more common business risks, such as fire, flood and power outages—all of which can leave a business disconnected from the world and losing money.

For the majority of companies, staying in business during any major event means protecting its information, as a business cannot run for long if it loses or is disconnected from its data systems for any length of time. This makes data protection a top priority in any business continuity plan.

Data protection for businesses can be as simple as backing up the data to an off-site data storage facility at regular intervals, to housing critical IT infrastructure in a weather hardened colocation facility capable of remaining online even during a Category 5 hurricane.

A colocation center or carrier hotel is a secure physical site or building where data communications media converge and are interconnected. A colocation data center services multiple customers, allowing each to locate network, server and storage equipment and interconnect to a variety of telecommunications and other network service providers. These carrier hotels can provide colocation on a massive scale, offering various services to customers ranging from modest-sized racks to dedicated rooms or groups of rooms. Some sites, such as 1Vault Networks, offer hardware and software installation, maintenance, managed and unmanaged servers and suites and seats where businesses can relocate temporarily to ensure continuity to customers in spite of outside conditions.

1Vault Networks recommends a Business Survival Guide should include the following Check List:

1. Outline a Business Continuity Plan.
2. Carefully audit the plan to ensure all processes are covered, including data protection, business continuity, human resource coordination, firewalls and self-defending networks, e-mail communications, recovery and restoration, and most importantly coordinated management of all of the above.
3. Through your internal IT staff, coordinate a seamless operational plan working with a SAS 70 Certified colocation/disaster recovery partner.
4. Anticipate and budget for all related costs. Remember, many businesses are obligated to certain levels of performance through Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
5. Dry run a full test of your plan so there are no surprises.

For more information go to www.1vault.net or call 954-736-2709.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/107.html

Handy Networks, LLC Announces Adobe Coldfusion Plans

2008-05-14T11:35:00-04:00

DENVER - Handy Networks, LLC announces the addition of ColdFusion 8 to their hosting solutions. Having offered ColdFusion hosting since 2000, HandyNetworks.com is among the first to offer the full version of ColdFusion 8 for their premium and premium reseller hosting plans.

Adobe ColdFusion 8 is a speedy and handy way to create Internet applications. It provides solutions to the day-to-day challenges faced by developers, delivers rich and engaging application experiences for users, and integrates in complex enterprise environments with ease.

Especially well-suited to dynamic Internet applications using a multitude of databases, this new release of ColdFusion permits developers to extend and customize the ColdFusion scripting language, CFML, through tags, reusable object-based components, and user-defined functions. Additionally, ColdFusion integrates with Web services such as Java, .NET and SOAP. Everything in ColdFusion 8 is focused on the application user - multimedia presentations, rich Internet applications, PDFs and much, much more.

“We are pleased to be able to offer the highly sought-after full release of ColdFusion 8 to our customers, reseller affiliates and partners,” commented Mike Griffin, Director of Sales & Marketing and cofounder of Handy Networks, LLC. Jay Sudowski, Director of Technical Services and cofounder of Handy Networks, LLC, noted that, “HandyNetworks.com is proud to have extensive expertise in ColdFusion solutions. This newest release, ColdFusion 8, combined with Handy Networks' 24/7 customer support, offers our customers the handiest solutions in Web hosting.”

About Handy Networks, LLC

Operating since 1997, Handy Networks, LLC is a privately held provider of Windows- and Linux-based hosting solutions including self-managed dedicated server hosting, fully managed server hosting, and a range of server management and consulting services. Based in the bustling downtown environment of Denver, Colo., Handy Networks takes great pride in providing customers with outstanding service through proactive and reactive systems and processes and the knowledge that some of its first customers are still customers today. For more information on the variety of services and support options offered, feel free to call 1-877-70-HANDY or visit www.HandyNetworks.com. - Now That’s Handy!

http://www.gawkwire.com/promotions/106.html

.Pro TLD Now Available Worldwide

2008-05-14T10:45:00-04:00

CHICAGO, IL - RegistryPro, the exclusive operator of the .Pro top level domain (TLD) on the Internet, has received approval from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to greatly expand the scope and availability of the .Pro TLD. The newly ratified terms of service increases the number of professionals who are eligible for the TLD, extends the availability globally, and streamlines the registration process.

Since launching in 2004, access to .Pro has been restricted to four professions: accountants, engineers, lawyers and medical professionals in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Under the new terms of service, the TLD will become available to any professional or professional entity holding credentials from a certifying governmental authority anywhere in the world. These changes significantly broaden the market for the .Pro domain while still limiting the availability to professionals and maintaining the exclusive nature of the TLD.

In addition to the expanded scope, the new terms of service also makes it much easier to obtain a 2nd level domain and greatly simplify the registration process – thereby making .Pro domains both easier to obtain and more desirable.

Previously, stringent guidelines limited the availability of 2nd level .Pro domains (e.g. “doctorsmith.pro,”) and resulted in registrants opting for the easier to obtain 3rd level domains (e.g. “doctorsmith.med.pro.”) The new terms of service eliminates the additional requirements for 2nd level domains, making these shorter, more desirable addresses available to anyone that meets the general TLD requirements.

The registration process has also been simplified. Individuals were previously required to submit written documentation of their credentials from an authorized certifying authority. These credentials would then be manually authenticated and verified by the registry – a process that greatly impacted the time and effort required to register a .Pro domain. Under the new registration process, the registrants need only supply the type of certification they hold, the name of the organization, and their license number on the registration form.

“This is a significant milestone for .Pro,” said RegistryPro General Manager Catherine Sigmar. “By approving these changes, ICANN has given us the opportunity to open up .Pro to tens of millions of licensed and credentialed professionals and entities across the globe.”

Per the published minutes of a Special Meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors posted on ICANN’s Web site, the proposed changes to the .Pro Registry Agreement were approved by a voice vote of 10 to 0.

These changes clearly remove the principal hurdles that have previously challenged the adoption of the TLD, but Sigmar emphasizes that .Pro is still a premium domain space for professionals and professional entities. In the interest of keeping .Pro focused on the professional community, RegistryPro is introducing a Terms of Use Agreement that every customer will be required to accept.

“Our position all along has been we don’t want to become an unrestricted, general use TLD. That’s why we’ve developed the new Terms of Use Agreement," Sigmar added.

As noted in the published ICANN minutes, “Registrants will be required to annually reaffirm that they are using the registration for the professional purpose as intended.”

The new Terms of Use obligates new and renewing registrants to do three key things: 1) self-certify professional credentials, 2) agree that their .Pro domain will be used only by them and 3) consent to use .Pro domains only in relation to professional services. As part of its commitment to ICANN, RegistryPro will monitor new and renewed domains to ensure that registrants adhere to these regulations.

“We understand this is a major shift, and we encourage current .Pro registrants to contact their sponsoring registrars if they have any questions about how these changes impact them,” said Sigmar. “Our priority now is to help registrants and registrars determine how the new agreement affects them, as well as educate professionals internationally about the benefits of the .Pro TLD.”

Plans are in progress to “relaunch” .Pro with a target date of July 14, 2008. For more information, go to www.Registry.pro. http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/105.html

Moniker Unveils Additional Domain Names Available

2008-05-13T11:55:00-04:00

POMPANO BEACH, FL – Moniker.com, an Oversee.net company and provider of Domain Asset Management® services, today announced the availability of additional premium domain names for purchase via a live and online domain name auction at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Orlando.

These names, in addition to highly marketable names such as Israel.com, BlueRay.com GasPrices.com and Pay.com will be up for bid at the exclusive live auction that takes place Friday, May 23, starting at 2 p.m. in the Grand Floridian Hotel.

Premium domain names that will be offered on the auction block include:

• Action.com
• Anger.com
• Assorted.com
• Athlete.com
• BlueRay.com
• BodilyInjury.com
• CarWax.com
• Doug.com
• ForSale.mobi
• GasPrices.com
• Grass.com
• Greek.com
• HonorRoll.com
• Hoodia.com
• HotPotato.com
• Idol.com
• Israel.com
• Jackpot.com
• Ladybug.com
• Lemons.com
• LuxuryGifts.com
• Men.mobi
• Minerals.com
• Mortgage.mobi
• Pay.com
• Records.mobi
• SpecialOffer.com
• Susan.com
• Wagering.com
• CertifiedDiamonds.com
• OH.com
• InsuranceRates.com

To view the complete, final auction inventory, visit: http://www.moniker.com/liveauction.

Multiple Bidding Opportunities Available
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East attendees are automatically eligible to attend the private live auction. Bidders not attending can place bids live online through SnapNames LiveTM, an integrated live and online auction platform developed by SnapNames®, another Oversee.net company. Interested bidders may also submit an absentee bid form to the auctioneer, or sign up for telephone proxy bidding.

Separately, there will be a "Low & No Reserve" Live Auction held on Tuesday, May 20 at 8:00 p.m. EDT (5:00 p.m. PDT). Additionally, Moniker will also host an extended online auction in conjunction with the live events in Orlando, offering thousands of additional names. The online auction will begin on Friday, May 23 and continue through Thursday, May 29.

To learn more about bidding options for this event, see a complete list of rules and procedures for all Moniker auctions or review all live and online domain auctions throughout the year, visit the Domain Auction page on the Moniker website at http://www.moniker.com/liveauction. You may also contact sales@moniker.com or call (800) 688-6311.

Domain Name Financing Available
Moniker and Domain Capital will offer financing to leverage domain purchases made at this event or for other transactions. Please contact a sales representative at sales@moniker.com for more information.

Listen to the Auction Live!
The Live Auction will also be broadcast live on WebmasterRadio.FM. Tune in by visiting http://www.webmasterradio.fm. WebmasterRadio is the premier free online radio network focused on the B2B marketplace. During the auction, listeners will be able to join the chat room and connect with peers in real time.

About Moniker.com
Moniker, an Oversee.net company and the provider of Domain Asset Management® services, offers a complete set of business services that provides companies a single-point-of-access to help manage and maximize the value of their domains. Services include name creation, registration, acquisition, portfolio management, appraisal and escrow services and after-market sales – all backed by unsurpassed customer service and security.

With more than a decade of experience, Moniker is a top 10 domain registrar, holds the industry's highest customer retention rate and pioneered the industry’s first domain appraisal formula.

About Oversee.net
Founded in 2000 by Lawrence Ng and Fred Hsu, Oversee.net is a technology-driven online marketing solutions company, with two primary divisions – Oversee Domain Services and Oversee Marketing Services. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Portland, Oregon, and Pompano Beach, Florida, the company has over 200 employees. Some of Oversee's key brands include SnapNames®, Moniker®, DomainSponsorTM, Low.comTM. and Lowfares.comTM. Oversee has been growing profitably since inception. To learn more, please visit http://www.oversee.net.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/104.html

Compete.com Surpasses One Million Unique Visitors per Month

2008-05-13T01:45:00-04:00

BOSTON and CAPE COD, Mass - Compete, Inc., a leading web analytics company and unit of TNS media, today announced that Compete.com surpassed one million unique visitors in April. The company is celebrating the ranking of its site, which is a rapidly growing source for marketing insights, as one of the top 1,700 most visited websites in the U.S. at its fifth-annual Compete Client Forum. Set to take place at the Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod over the next two days, the forum is a unique gathering of senior executives from the marketing, advertising, and media community who will explore innovative strategies for engaging consumers online.

“Each year, our Client Forum delivers new insights about customer engagement that marketers can immediately put into practice within their own organizations, and it is evident from the one million visitors to Compete.com that marketers are eager to learn more about consumer behavior online,” said Stephen DiMarco, CMO of Compete, Inc. “As consumers, the Internet has become engrained in our daily lives, yet as marketers we still labor over the digital transition. This year at the Client Forum we will engage some of the best and brightest marketers in conversation about what will make “digital” as simple for marketers as it is for consumers.”

Speakers at Compete’s 2008 Client Forum include executives from Compete, TNS Media, Forbes.com and Forrester Research. Topics of discussion include:

- How are traditional “brick and mortar” brands moving their media dollars online?
- How are agencies generating actionable insights from online data for their clients?
- What will Yahoo’s, AOL’s, Microsoft’s and Google’s emergence as integrated platforms mean for agencies, publishers and advertisers?
- How can digital intelligence organizations expand digital measurement capabilities and provide a single platform to deliver services globally?
- How is social media revolutionizing marketing strategy – and what can marketers do to measure the impact of their social media programs?
- In addition to surpassing one million unique visitors, Compete.com recently celebrated its first anniversary and supports an award-winning blog that is currently ranked number 24 on the Ad Age Power 150.

“The response to Compete.com has been overwhelming,” said Gregg Poulin, general manager of Compete.com. “We will continue to add new offerings this year to meet this growing demand as marketers look for new insights into consumer behavior online.”

The success of Compete.com supports TNS media’s strategy of leveraging the organization’s insights into consumers’ online behavior to provide its clients holistic digital measurement capabilities. As Compete continues its growth, TNS media will be able to cultivate new offerings and insights that support companies’ integrated marketing strategies and allow them to make more informed business decisions.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/103.html

iPCS Sues Sprint Nextel over Clearwire Transaction

2008-05-12T10:26:00-04:00

SCHAUMBURG, Ill - iPCS, Inc., the largest independent Affiliate of Sprint Nextel, announced today that three of its subsidiaries filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois against Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) and certain of its related entities. In its complaint, iPCS claims that:

Sprint Nextel’s recently announced WiMAX transaction with Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) would breach the exclusivity provisions of IPCS’s affiliation agreements with Sprint Nextel; and
Sprint Nextel is attempting to evade a judgment of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, relating to the Sprint-Nextel merger, which has been unanimously affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court and which requires Sprint Nextel to cease owning, operating and managing the Nextel network in iPCS Wireless’s territory.
iPCS is seeking a declaratory judgment that Sprint Nextel’s consummation of the recently announced Clearwire/WiMAX transaction, and its plan to compete against iPCS, will breach the iPCS agreements with Sprint Nextel. iPCS is asking the Court for a permanent injunction enjoining Sprint Nextel and those acting in concert with it from consummating the WiMAX transaction until such transaction has been modified to comply with the iPCS agreements with Sprint Nextel.

iPCS noted that it has been involved in litigation with Sprint Nextel for nearly three years about the exclusivity provisions of its affiliation agreements, and has repeatedly won significant court victories. On September 20, 2006, the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois ruled that Sprint Nextel’s ownership, operation and management of its Nextel wireless network in the iPCS Wireless territory violates the iPCS agreements with Sprint Nextel. That judgment was unanimously affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court on March 31, 2008 and requires Sprint Nextel to cease owning, operating and managing the Nextel wireless network in the iPCS Wireless territory within 180 days, subject to Sprint Nextel’s pending request that the Supreme Court of Illinois grant it leave to further appeal the earlier decisions.

iPCS believes that Sprint Nextel’s recently announced WiMAX transaction is yet another attempt by Sprint Nextel to breach the exclusivity provisions of the iPCS affiliation agreements. iPCS intends to fully and aggressively protect and defend its exclusivity rights.

Background

In January 1999, iPCS Wireless entered into agreements with Sprint with respect to, among other things, providing iPCS Wireless with the exclusive right to offer Sprint products and services in its territory. In December 2004, Sprint and Nextel Communications, Inc. announced that they had agreed to merge, at which time Sprint also announced its intent to pursue discussions with iPCS and the other Sprint Affiliates with respect to modifying the affiliates' agreements in light of the ramifications of the merger. Specifically, as iPCS (and other Sprint Affiliates at the time) claimed, competition with Sprint Nextel in the iPCS service territory would violate iPCS's exclusivity rights under its agreements.

The iPCS claim that Sprint Nextel’s proposed conduct following the merger would breach Sprint’s agreements with iPCS has successfully been litigated. In March, 2008 the Illinois Appellate Court unanimously affirmed a 2006 Circuit Court decision requiring that, within 180 days of the date of the final order, Sprint Nextel and those acting in concert with it must cease owning, operating and managing the Nextel wireless network in iPCS Wireless's territory. On May 5, 2008, Sprint Nextel filed a petition with the Illinois Supreme Court requesting permission to pursue a further appeal of these decisions. Additionally, a Delaware court in September 2006 issued a final order in a separate lawsuit prohibiting Sprint Nextel from offering iDEN products and services in iPCS territories in Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee using certain Sprint brands and marks.

On May 7, 2008, Sprint Nextel and Clearwire announced their intention to combine their broadband wireless businesses to form a new company. Sprint Nextel would own approximately 51 percent of the new wireless communications company, which would be named Clearwire. As part of the proposed transaction, certain other parties, including Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) through Intel Capital, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMSCA, CMCSK) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), have collectively agreed to invest $3.2 billion into the new company. According to the parties’ press release, Clearwire and Sprint Nextel plan to offer a nationwide mobile WiMAX network that would compete with the iPCS wireless service offerings in the iPCS territories. On May 7, 2008, Sprint Nextel filed a complaint for declaratory judgment in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware seeking to have the Court rule that the proposed WiMAX transaction is not a violation of the Sprint Nextel agreements with iPCS.

This press release, along with a copy of the iPCS complaint and the Sprint Nextel complaint, is being filed with the SEC as an exhibit to a Current Report on Form 8-K. We encourage you to read the complaints in their entirety.

About iPCS, Inc.

iPCS, through its subsidiaries, is the Sprint Affiliate of Sprint Nextel with the exclusive right to sell wireless mobility communications network products and services under the Sprint brand in 81 markets including markets in Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Tennessee. The territory includes key markets such as Grand Rapids (MI), Fort Wayne (IN), Tri-Cities (TN), Scranton (PA), Saginaw-Bay City (MI) and the Quad Cities (IA/IL). As of March 31, 2008, iPCS's licensed territory had a total population of approximately 15.1 million residents, of which its wireless network covered approximately 12.0 million residents, and iPCS had approximately 640,600 subscribers. iPCS is headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois. For more information, please visit iPCS’s website at www.ipcswirelessinc.com.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Statements in this press release regarding iPCS's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe" or "continue" or the negative thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. A variety of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in iPCS's forward-looking statements, including the following factors: (1) iPCS's dependence on its affiliation with Sprint; (2) the final outcome of iPCS's litigation against Sprint concerning the Sprint/Nextel merger and the scope of iPCS's exclusivity, including with respect to Sprint’s proposed WiMAX transaction with Clearwire; (3) changes in Sprint's affiliation strategy as a result of the Sprint/Nextel merger and Sprint's acquisition of all but three Sprint Affiliates of Sprint Nextel; (4) changes in Sprint's ability to devote as much of its personnel and resources to the remaining three Sprint Affiliates of Sprint Nextel; (5) changes in iPCS's customer default rates and increases in bad debt expense; (6) changes or advances in technology; (7) changes in Sprint's national service plans, products and services or its fee structure with iPCS; (8) declines in the relationship between roaming revenue iPCS receives from Sprint and roaming expense iPCS pays to Sprint; (9) the impact on iPCS's business of the recent amendments to iPCS's affiliation agreements with Sprint; (10) iPCS's reliance on the timeliness, accuracy and sufficiency of financial and other data and information received from Sprint; (11) difficulties in network construction, expansion and upgrades; (12) increased competition in iPCS's markets; (13) iPCS's dependence on independent third parties for a sizable percentage of its sales; (14) the inability to open the number of new stores and to expand the co-dealer network as planned; and (15) the depth and duration of the economic downturn in the United States. For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements and factors that could cause actual results to differ from iPCS's forward-looking statements, please refer to iPCS's filings with the SEC, especially in the "risk factors" section of the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007 and in any subsequent filings with the SEC. Investors and analysts should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this document speak only as of the date of the document and iPCS assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those contained in the forward looking statements.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/100.html

Hostopia launches fax-to-email service

2008-05-13T11:42:00-04:00

MISSISSAUGA, ON and FT. LAUDERDALE, FL - Hostopia.com, Inc. (TSX: H) today announced the launch of a private labeled, wholesale fax-to-email service that telecoms and other service providers can sell to their small business customers. Also known as "IP fax" in the communications services market, fax-to-email services allow a user to send or receive facsimile messages from their computer - typically within their preferred email application such as Microsoft Outlook. The benefit to this is having the ability to send or receive fax messages without the expense and inconvenience of owning a physical fax machine and additional phone line.

"Fax-to email is in high demand as a business service with annual growth of over 25% according to a prominent category study published by Davidson Consulting," says Paul D. Engels, Hostopia's Chief Marketing Officer. "Our wholesale customers such as telecoms and broadband companies are eager to offer these services to their SME customers," he adds.

Hostopia's fax-to-email service is available to telecoms and other communications providers on a wholesale basis. It can be branded by the telecom and sold as a standalone service or as part of a bundle of services, such as web hosting and business email. It can be billed to end users directly by the telecom or sold on a referral model where Hostopia performs the billing and end-user support.

"Service providers who sell this service will enjoy the benefit of patent protection due to our license with j2 Global Communications, the leader in IP fax technology," says Engels.

"j2 Global licenses its patents to leading companies worldwide. We are especially delighted to add Hostopia as a licensee because they have a demonstrated ability to successfully sell IP-based business solutions on a large scale basis to telecommunications and Internet service providers," said Jeffrey D. Adelman, Vice President and General Counsel of j2 Global. "This agreement is a great opportunity to expand the market for digital faxing services by delivering these patented solutions into the hands of a leading service provider."

According to Hostopia - citing the Davidson Consulting report on IP fax services - demand for fax-to-email is driven largely by small enterprises that rely heavily on faxing in day-to-day business. This demand includes the need to be mobile while receiving important documents via email on a PDA or smart phone device, such as RIM's Blackberry.

Hostopia's fax-to-email service has suggested retail prices for service providers starting at US$9.99 per month, which allows for 300 send or received pages. Hostopia's wholesale model is structured to provide at least 40% gross margin to the telecom service provider who retails the service.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/102.html

Microsoft Taps Ad Agency for Office â€™07 Designer Templates

2008-05-13T11:36:00-04:00

In conjunction with the launch of Office 2007, Microsoft today went live with designer templates that utilize many of the new Office 2007 features. MS tapped advertising and design firm Bradley & Montgomery for the creation of designer templates that allow businesses to seamlessly incorporate their branding and present themselves in a confident and elegant manner.

Most small businesses do not have the budgets to hire outside firms for their marketing and design needs. With the release of Microsoft Office 2007, small businesses have greater ability than ever to create professional-looking presentations and documents quickly and easily. The purpose of the templates is to demonstrate the new functionality of Office 2007 while giving small businesses something useful in the process.

There are six template families with 9 colors to choose from located at Microsoft.com/smallbusiness/office2007templates. Each template has a place for a business to place its logo along with text and picture boxes to simply add their content. The templates are completely free, and businesses can also download a free 60-day trial of Office 2007 to use the templates to the fullest extent.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_design/101.html

Supermicro Surpasses $2 Billion

2008-05-12T10:22:00-04:00

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Super Micro Computer, Inc., a leader in application-optimized, high performance server solutions, today announced that the company has surpassed the $2 billion milestone in cumulative sales revenue since it was founded in 1993. Supermicro's annual growth rate during the last five fiscal years was several times faster than the server industry growth rate, as the company has consistently posted double-digit growth figures year after year.

"With our annual run rate now over $0.5 billion, we are squarely focused on our next milestone of $1 billion in annual revenue," said Charles Liang, CEO and president of Supermicro. "As the technology leader in performance-per-watt (up to 290GFLOPS/kW*) server solutions, Supermicro has never been stronger than it is today. With a 57% growth in R&D manpower over the last 12 months now in place, we are offering the strongest product lineup in our history. As a result of this worldwide infrastructure growth, Supermicro is quickly increasing its business with Fortune Global 100 companies."

The company's impressive track record of 14 consecutive years of profitability and consistent growth can be attributed to Supermicro's Server Building Block Solutions(R), its dedicated and talented engineering teams, the visionary leadership of Supermicro management as well as the close customer and partner relationships that the company continues to build and nurture.

Furthermore, as the chair of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) APAC region, Supermicro is strongly committed to the CSCI mission to reduce worldwide computer power consumption by 50 percent by 2010. As a leader in green server technology, Supermicro offers up to 93%* efficiency power supplies, high-efficiency cooling designs, low-voltage memory support, and high-efficiency voltage regulator modules (VRMs) to help customers minimize their total cost of ownership (TCO).

Supermicro's current portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions(R) includes over 570 server boards, over 1300 chassis SKUs, hundreds of servers, power supplies and accessories, as well as an attractive selection of user-friendly server management solutions. With superior performance-per-watt, these solutions deliver exceptional performance, cost savings and energy savings for the ultimate in Earth-Friendly Computing(TM). For more information on Supermicro's complete line of server and workstation solutions go to http://www.supermicro.com/.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/99.html

Study Reveals Datacenter Growth

2008-05-12T10:20:00-04:00

SAN FRANCISCO - Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) , the leading owner and manager of corporate and Internet gateway datacenters, is reporting new research data that indicates a significant increase in the number of datacenter projects being planned by U.S. corporations during the coming 12 months. The findings are from a recently completed survey commissioned by Digital Realty Trust of senior decision makers who are either directly responsible for datacenters or influence significant decisions related to datacenter operations. The results of this new study were compared against a similar study conducted by the Company in 2007 to produce comparative metrics about the growth, and other trends, in the datacenter industry.

Key findings from the research study include:

-- 86 percent of respondents in the 2008 study will definitely/probably
      expand their number of datacenters in the next 12 months, indicating
      an active phase of datacenter development during the second half of
      2008 and first half of 2009.

-- 45 percent of respondents plan to expand in 3 or more locations. This
      is an increase of nearly 20 percent over 2007 indicating that the
      scope of datacenter projects have increased along with the number of
      projects.

-- Planned square footage required for an average expansion site went up
      50 percent from 10,000 square feet in 2007 to 15,000 square feet in
      2008 - another indication that the scope of datacenter projects have
      increased significantly in the past year.

"This survey of Fortune 2000 companies confirms what our team has suspected based on conversations with customers. The demand for datacenter space is, in fact, accelerating and being driven by the rapidly growing IT infrastructure needs of companies across a wide cross-section of industries. Our 2007 survey indicated that there would be a significant volume of datacenter projects on the horizon, and the increases forecasted in this year's survey are consistent with our new customer activity," said Michael F. Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust.

Mr. Foust added, "It is particularly significant that 86 percent of companies are planning datacenter expansions in the next 12 months, especially in the context of the current economic environment. Despite the challenging market conditions, companies are making major investments in IT infrastructure, reflecting the critical nature of these assets to today's corporations."

Other findings from the research study include:

-- Power usage of datacenter centers continued to grow, with a 12 percent
increase in average kW use per rack in 2008 over the 2007 metrics.

-- A higher percentage of companies reported that they expect to need the
      support of a partner for their datacenter projects. That metric
      increased 10 percent in 2008 (from 52 percent to 57 percent). Only 26
      percent of companies are planning a "do-it-yourself" approach to their
      datacenter projects.

-- Disaster recovery and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements were cited most
      frequently as key drivers for datacenter expansions. Power
      requirements, new applications, more physical space, connectivity
      needs and cooling requirements were also as among the key drivers.

-- Among companies that are planning datacenter expansions:
      o 83 percent plan to expand physical space
      o 77 percent plan to expand power capabilities
      o 76 percent plan to expand cooling capabilities

Digital Realty Trust also recently published the research results from studies of green datacenter trends in the United States and in Europe. To read highlights of these studies, visit the "News" section at http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com/.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/98.html

Tucows Announces a $10 million Stock Buyback Program

2008-05-12T00:13:00-04:00

TORONTO - Tucows Inc. announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program of up to $10 million for the repurchase of its common stock. Tucows has also filed a notice of intention with the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") to make a normal course issuer bid through the facilities of the TSX. Tucows will have the option to repurchase its shares of common stock either through the facilities of the TSX or the American Stock Exchange.

The notice filed with the TSX provides that Tucows may, during the twelve-month period commencing May 12, 2008, repurchase up to 6,361,769 shares of its common stock, which amount represents approximately 10% of the public float of Tucows. For purposes of any repurchases made on the TSX, Tucows may only purchase up to a maximum of 4,188 shares in any daily trading session, which number represents 25% of the average daily trading volume on the TSX over the six month period ending April 30, 2008, unless the block purchase exception is relied upon. As of May 7, 2008 there were 73,888,542 common shares outstanding. All shares purchased by Tucows under the normal course issuer bid will be cancelled.

The timing and exact number of common shares purchased will be at Tucows' discretion and will depend on market conditions and may be suspended or discontinued at any time. Subject to applicable securities laws and stock exchange rules, all purchases will occur through the open market and may be in large block purchases. Tucows does not intend to purchase its shares from its management team or other insiders.

During Tucows' previous stock buyback program which ended on February 15, 2008, Tucows repurchased 2,616,600 common shares.

NO STOCK EXCHANGE, SECURITIES COMMISSION OR OTHER REGULATORY AUTHORITY
HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.

About Tucows

Tucows provides Internet services for web hosting companies and ISPs. Through its global network of over 9,000 service providers it provides millions of email boxes and manages over eight million domains. Tucows is an accredited registrar with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Tucows holds a domain name portfolio of approximately 150,000 domain names that are available for sale, monetized through advertising and support our wholesale Personal Names Service. Our Retail division sells Tucows services to consumers and small business owners through Domain Direct, ItsYourDomain.com and NetIdentity. Tucows.com remains one of the most popular software download sites on the Internet. For more information please visit: http://about.tucows.com/.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/97.html

dotMobi Acquires Mowser Assets

2008-05-12T10:11:00-04:00

DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON - dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi internet domain name for mobile phones and the dev.mobi developer forum -- today announced it has acquired the intellectual property assets of Mowser, a San Mateo, Calif.-based mobile browsing company.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

dotMobi's acquisition of Mowser's technology, developed by Bay Area mobile pioneers Russell Beattie and Michael Rowehl, is another way for dotMobi to provide a complete range of mobile content creation solutions for businesses of all sizes.

James Pearce, dotMobi Vice President of Technology, said, "When Mowser's founders decided to make the assets available, dotMobi was first in line to acquire them. The work Russell and Mike put into making Mowser a 'best of breed' product is well-known throughout the industry. Being able to add that technology into dotMobi's product line is exciting because it will exponentially stimulate mobile content growth."

dotMobi plans to integrate Mowser technology into new business-grade and consumer-grade mobile development tools as well as include aspects of it into dotMobi's popular content creation tools like http://find.mobi/, DeviceAtlas and http://ready.mobi/, all of which help businesses more easily create device-aware mobile content.

"At its heart, Mowser is a PC website-to-mobile website content adaptation engine," said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. "dotMobi has been vocal against 'blind' content adaptation because it doesn't allow site owners to have control over their content. dotMobi believes that brands and businesses should always have the final say over how their material is presented, and that the content should uniquely take advantage of the capabilities of a mobile device. This has been one of our core philosophies all along, and something dotMobi is looking forward to addressing with the integration of the Mowser assets into the dotMobi product line."

For more information on dotMobi domains and registration information, visit http://dotmobi.mobi/. Visit the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi/.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/96.html

MySpace Introduces â€˜Data Availabilityâ€™

2008-05-07T20:11:00-04:00

LOS ANGELES - MySpace, the world’s most popular social network, alongside Yahoo!, eBay, Photobucket, and Twitter, today announced the launch of the MySpace ‘Data Availability’ initiative, a ground-breaking offering to empower the global MySpace community to share their public profile data to websites of their choice throughout the Internet. Today’s announcement throws open the doors to traditionally closed networks by putting users in the driver’s seat of their data and Web identity. The launch of the Data Availability initiative marks the first time that a social Website has enabled its community to dynamically share public profile information with other sites.

“The walls around the garden are coming down—the implementation of Data Availability injects a new layer of social activity and creates a more dynamic Internet,” said Chris DeWolfe, CEO and co-founder of MySpace. “We, alongside our Data Availability launch partners, are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences Web-wide.”

Data Availability—User Interface
Data Availability pioneers a new way for users to dynamically share their user generated content and data with websites of their choosing. The Data Availability initiative is founded first and foremost on the simple and comprehensive user control of their own content and data—users will have control over what information they share and who they share it with. Additionally, rather than updating information across the Web (eg. default photo, favorite movies or music) for each site where a user spends time, now a user can update their profile in one place and dynamically share that information with the other sites they care about. MySpace will be rolling out a centralized location within the site that allows users to manage how their content and data is made available to third party sites they have chosen to engage with.

Inside this opt-in framework, they will be offered the opportunity to share their MySpace profiles with the site they are visiting. MySpace, and its landmark launch partners, will be allowing users to dynamically share the content and data of their choosing including: (1) Publicly available basic profile information, (2) MySpace photos, (3) MySpaceTV videos, and (4) friend networks. Integration of the Data Availability project will roll to MySpace users and participating Websites in the coming weeks.

“The launch of Data Availability is an unprecedented move to further socialize the Web and empower users to control their online content and data,” said Amit Kapur, Chief Operating Officer, MySpace. “We are thrilled to begin this initiative with a world class suite of landmark partners and invite websites around the world to participate.”

Partner Website Functionality
Data Availability is about enriching existing Internet destinations with social functionality and valuable pre-existing user generated content and data. By empowering users with the ability to dynamically share, those destinations will create deeper levels of social engagement and new functionality throughout their site. As the online home to 117 million users worldwide, this groundbreaking initiative enables the larger Web to leverage the highly engaged and passionate MySpace global community.

To ease implementation for participating sites, the MySpace Data Availability initiative uses OAUTH and Restful APIs as its core technology underpinnings. MySpace is using open standards in an effort to embrace the open source community and allow the implementation to be as non-proprietary as possible. Today’s announcement is the first step of MySpace’s larger data portability initiatives coming down the pipeline. MySpace is officially joining the Data Portability Project demonstrating our continued commitment to openness and open standards.

Data Availability on Yahoo!
MySpace’s Data Availability complements Yahoo!’s recently announced Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y!OS), a company-wide initiative to open Yahoo! to application developers, unlock the rich social connections across the Yahoo! network, and enable users to customize and make more personally relevant their experiences of Yahoo! and other Internet services.

On Yahoo!, the Data Availability initiative may appear to users in a variety of ways. For example, users that have chosen to share their MySpace content and data with Yahoo! Instant Messenger might find their MySpace default photo, interests, and favorite music displayed to their Messenger contacts directly in the IM client. Additionally, MySpace users will be able to choose to display their data within Yahoo!’s universal profile or leverage it in Yahoo! Mail's smarter inbox, once those upcoming releases are deployed.

“Yahoo! believes in an open Internet that gives users the flexibility to make their Web experiences as relevant, social and personalized as they can. As a longtime collaborator with MySpace on a variety of projects, including the OpenSocial Foundation, we’re thrilled to support this new initiative,” said Ash Patel, Executive Vice President, Platforms, at Yahoo!. “The Yahoo! Open Strategy and MySpace Data Availability are a giant leap towards a more social and open Internet.”

Data Availability on eBay
Through the MySpace Data Availability implementation, eBay profiles can be easily enhanced with MySpace bios, interests, pictures, and videos. In a socially driven marketplace, this will yield a deeper connection between individuals. When browsing or transacting on eBay, the availability of external social information can help users make good decisions quickly about whom they can do business with, and perhaps even make a new friend.

"The MySpace Data Availability initiative will further enrich eBay profiles and create a more elaborate social experience for buyers and sellers worldwide," said Matt Ackley, VP of Internet Marketing of eBay. "As the world's largest social commerce site, eBay is dedicated to creating a social context and personality for the people with whom you transact."

Data Availability on Photobucket
MySpace's Data Availability initiative will allow Photobucket users to enjoy a more seamless photo experience with their MySpace profile. Photobucket users will be able to have a single view of their photos across multiple services, as well as opt-in to displaying their MySpace profile data in their Photobucket albums. Users will also be able to leverage their existing connections on MySpace to share their content on Photobucket more easily, without having to re-establish connections and friend lists.

"MySpace users invest a huge amount of time populating their profile and personal interest data. With the large overlap in users, the Data Availability initiative will allow Photobucket to utilize this profile data to enhance its own products," said Alex Welch, President of Photobucket. "The combination of the Data Availability initiative and the recently announced Photobucket Open-API provides new opportunities to create a more open web"

Data Availability on Twitter
Twitter profiles at present are primarily focused on current updates and are relatively sparse on user information. The MySpace Data Availability initiative enriches the current Twitter profile by empowering users to incorporate their MySpace profile content and data points previously not included in the Twitter product suite. Once the implementation is complete, a user will be able to bring in their MySpace content and data including their bio, blogs, and photos, ultimately making the Twitter site a more enriching site with content previously unavailable in its interface.

"Finding friends to follow is central to Twitter's value as a real-time communication utility." Says Biz Stone, Co-founder, Twitter. "This project enhances discovery and connectivity making Twitter more relevant and useful—we're very excited."

Background and jpg mock for the MySpace Data Availability initiative is available to media upon request.

About MySpace
MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. MySpace has created a connected global community by integrating web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music streaming, music videos, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities, and member forums. MySpace's international network includes more than 20 localized community sites in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Latin America, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, India, Japan, and New Zealand. Fox Interactive Media is a division of News Corp.

(*) Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, March 2008. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to http://www.comscore.com.

About Yahoo! Inc.
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

About eBay Inc.
Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, StubHub, Shopping.com, and others. eBay Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Photobucket
Photobucket is one of the Web’s most popular sites, with more than 40 million unique users worldwide* linking billions of personal photos, graphics, slideshows and videos daily to hundreds of thousands of Web sites, including Bebo, Blogger, Craigslist, eBay, Facebook, Friendster, hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Xanga and many others. In addition to linking content, Photobucket users share their personal digital media by email, instant messaging, and mobile devices. Every day, more than 10 million personal photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with family, friends and the online world. The company actively moderates content to create a safe environment for its users, partners and advertisers. Photobucket has offices in Palo Alto, California and Denver, Colorado and is located online at http://www.photobucket.com. For the latest feature announcements and news, please visit the Photobucket blog at http://blog.photobucket.com. *comScore Media Metrix, March 2008

About Twitter
Founded in 2007, Twitter, Inc. is a communication utility which asks one simple question, "What are you doing?" Responses of 140 characters or less are routed in real time to friends and others over the web, mobile texting, instant message, or downloadable applications for Mac or PC.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/94.html

MojoHD creates Clone

2008-05-08T23:39:00-04:00

Deepak and clan are at it again with a third installment of their unique coverage of the technology news world with The Circuit: Episode III - Attack of the Clone. Deepak sends Clone D:Pak to cover Comic-Con in New York where he meets Stan F***ing Lee, learns that like comic book writer Grant Morrison, he too is a God, and cozies up to countless Slave Leias.

http://www.gawkwire.com/video_tv/95.html

Crimeware Double Threat Menaces Internet

2008-05-07T22:43:00-04:00

LOS ALTOS, Calif. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The APWG announced today that its January survey shows a new record high in the number of unique keylogger crimeware variants detected - while the number crimeware-spreading URLs rose to nearly its old record attained in November of last year.

The number of unique keylogger variants detected in January reached a new high of 364, an increase of 1.4% from the previous high in October, 2007. The number of websites that were found to be hosting keylogging crimeware systems rose by over 1,100 from December, reaching 3,362, the second highest number recorded in the preceding 12 months.

Websense Security Labs believes much of the increase in crimeware-spreading URLs is due to attackers' increasing ability to co-opt sites. Dan Hubbard, Websense Vice President of Security Research said, "The attackers appear to be getting better at infecting good sites through automation and tools."

Highlights from the APWG January Phishing Trends Report:

The total number of unique phishing reports submitted to APWG in January 2008 was 29,284, an increase of over 3,600 reports from the previous month.

The number of brands targeted by phishers in January reported decreased by more than 10 brands to 131.

The number of unique phishing websites detected by APWG was 20,305 in January 2008, a decrease of over 5,000 from the month of December 2007.

In January, the United States moved back to being the top hosting country for password-stealing malicious code with 43.39%, after being eclipsed by China in December.

In January, APWG saw the United States remain the top of country hosting phishing websites with 37.25% of all such websites.

The full text of the January Phishing Activity Trends report is available at this URL:

http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/apwg_report_jan_2008.pdf

The APWG is an industry, law enforcement and government coalition focused on eliminating the identity theft and fraud that result from the growing problem of phishing, email spoofing, and crimeware. Membership is open to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs, the law enforcement community and solutions providers. There are more than 1,800 companies and government agencies participating in the APWG and more than 3,000 members. The APWG's Web site (www.antiphishing.org) offers the public and industry information about phishing and email fraud, including identification and promotion of pragmatic technical solutions that provide immediate protection. APWG's corporate sponsors include: 8e6 Technologies, AT&T, Able NV, ActivCard, Adobe, Afilias Inc., AhnLab, Anakam, BBN Technologies, BlueStreak, BrandMail, BrandProtect, Bsecure Technologies, Cisco, Clear Search, Cloudmark, Comodo, Corillian, Cydelity, Cyveillance, DigiCert, DigitalEnvoy, DigitalResolve, Digital River, Earthlink, eBay/PayPal, Entrust, Experian, eEye Fortinet, FrontPorch, F-Secure, Grisoft, GeoTrust, GlobalSign, GoDaddy, Goodmail Systems, GuardID Systems, IronPort, HitachiJoHo, ING Bank, Iconix, InternetIndentity, Internet Security Systems, IOvation, IS3, IT Matrix, Kaspersky Labs, Lenos Software, LightSpeed Systems, MailFrontier, MailShell, MarkMonitor, McAfee, MasterCard, MessageLevel, Microsoft, Mirapoint, MySpace, MyPW, MX Logic, NameProtect, National Australia Bank Netcraft, NetStar, Panda Software, Phoenix Technologies Inc., Quova, RSA SalesForce, Security, SAIC, SecureBrain, Secure Computing, S21sec, Sigaba, SoftForum, SOPHOS, SquareTrade, SurfControl, Symantec (SYMC), TDS Telecom, Telefonica, Trend Micro, Tricerion, TriCipher, Tumbleweed Communications, SurfControl, Vasco, VeriSign, Visa, Websense Inc., WholeSecurity, and Yahoo!

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/93.html

Companies Go Green and Save Tons With VMware Virtualization

2008-05-07T22:41:00-04:00

PALO ALTO, Calif. - VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today announced that its virtualization solutions are saving customers tons in costs and CO2 emissions. Using VMware virtualization, customers can consolidate 10 or more physical machines onto a single server and reduce power consumption and cost by 80-90 percent. VMware customers that have moved from a 1:1 application to server ratio to 60:1 or higher have achieved millions of dollars in capital and operational savings.

For every server virtualized, customers can save about 7,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), or four tons of CO2 emissions, every year. VMware has virtualized more than 6 million server workloads since 1998, resulting in an estimated energy savings of nearly 39 Billion kWh, or roughly $4.4 billion. This is roughly equivalent to the total energy consumption of Denmark for one year. PCs virtualized and hosted on servers in the datacenter can also reduce power consumption and cost by 35 percent. Hosting desktops in the datacenter also doubles the replacement cycle of PCs or thin clients, reducing the environmental impact associated with manufacturing new equipment.

“Most servers and desktops today are still consuming 70-80 percent of their rated power even when idle,” said Stephen Herrod, chief technology officer, VMware. “VMware is able to deliver substantial power and cost savings through innovative power management capabilities in our virtualization solutions that safely power down or throttle servers when not in use. By powering down servers and desktops during inactive periods such as evenings or weekends, we can help customers save another 25 percent or more on power consumption without affecting applications or users.”

Since 2006, VMware has been an active pioneer in working with utility companies to offer incentive programs supporting virtualization projects in datacenters. VMware works with utilities across North America including Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, SDG&E, BC Hydro and Austin Energy to provide customers incentives based on the amount of energy savings achieved through data center consolidation.

Sheffield Hallam University Virtualizes with VMware, Cuts 269 Tons of CO2 and Saves £43,000 on Power Bills Annually

Sheffield Hallam, one of the UK’s most innovative and progressive universities with more than 28,000 students and over 5,000 staff, required a number of new IT services to support its user community. This led to the number of servers within the datacenter doubling within twelve months. The building’s electricity grid could not supply enough power to reliably support the required number of servers within the main datacenter, and physical space was also a major issue. Sheffield Hallam is using VMware’s market-leading datacenter virtualization and management platform, VMware Infrastructure 3, to reduce power and cooling requirements in the datacenter and improve the delivery of IT services. VMware Infrastructure 3 provides the capability for automatic load balancing, business continuity and power management and the ability to move a virtual machine across physical machines to minimize service interruption.

“With the server farm growing towards capacity, we knew a completely new strategy was required,” said Dave Thornley, service support manager, Sheffield Hallam University. “We decided that moving to a virtual infrastructure would be the most effective way to tackle cost management and space issues. Using VMware, we have made a huge impact on our power bills as well as leading to major savings in the deployment of new services to users.”

For more information on how other companies have gone green and reduced costs using VMware virtualization, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/solutions/consolidation/green/.

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New Internet Domain - .ME â€“ Opens Registration for Trademark Holders

2008-05-07T22:36:00-04:00

PODGORICA, Montenegro - doMEn d.o.o., the official registry operator for the new .ME domain name extension, announced today that .ME is now open for trademark owners to register their marks. .ME is expected to be utilized as both a personalized Web address and as a catchy business marketing tool around the world.

Anyone with a registered trademark or service mark applied for before June 28, 2006 is eligible to apply for a .ME domain. Applications will be accepted until May 20, 2008. If there is only one application for a domain name, the domain name will be awarded to that applicant. If more than one application is received for a name, the competing applications will be sent to auction following the close of the application period.

All Sunrise registrations require a minimum 5 year registration term. Members of the public will have an opportunity to begin to apply for .ME domains during the Landrush period, which opens on June 6. Real-time registrations will commence on July 17.

Anyone interested in purchasing a .ME domain name should apply through the domain name registrar of their choice. A full list of accredited registrars is available at www.domain.me

About the .ME Registry:

doMEn, d.o.o. was chosen by the government of Montenegro to operate the new .ME domain name extension. doMEn partners include ME-net, Afilias Limited, and GoDaddy.com. Me-Net is located in Montenegro and its principles have been leaders in the ICT sector in Montenegro, including the privatization of its largest ISP. Afilias Limited is headquartered in Ireland with offices around the world, and is a leading registry services provider supporting more than 13 million domains worldwide. GoDaddy.com is located in the USA and is the world’s largest domain name registrar and the largest paid hosting provider in the world, according to Netcraft Ltd.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/90.html

SoftLayer Adds Washington, D.C. Data Center

2008-05-07T10:41:00-04:00

Dallas, TX – SoftLayer, the on-demand data center provider, opened a new data center location in the Washington D.C. area. The addition of this facility increases the company’s total capacity to 45,000 servers throughout their facilities located in Dallas, Seattle, and now D.C.

“Now with three geographically diverse data centers, we will bring even more new services to our customers in the coming months,” stated Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “As we searched for the best site for expanding our presence to the East Coast, the D.C. area was an easy choice. It has one of the highest concentrations of fiber connectivity in the U.S., providing us and our customers multiple network options and world class performance.”

SoftLayer Washington D.C. is located just 7 miles from Dulles International Airport in a facility designed to full Tier IV standards. It features multiple redundant power connections in addition to the three 2-megawatt generators and eight, fully redundant, 750 kVA UPS systems. As with all SoftLayer data centers, the facility has 24x7 onsite support and multiple security protocols controlling entrance to the building. In addition, the facility boasts infrastructure features including:

• 34 x 480v 3-Phase PDUs
• Redundant 30-ton CRAC Units
• FM-200 Fire Suppression System with VESDA
• Biometric Security System
• Digital Security Video Surveillance

SoftLayer has already begun pre-selling servers in the new data center to current customers, receiving an unprecedented level of demand resulting in a high backlog of server requests. “We knew interest in the new location would be high, from both existing and new customers. We wanted to give our current customers an opportunity to request servers here and meet their demand prior to opening sales to the general market,” added Mr. Crosby.

For more information please visit www.softlayer.com

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/89.html

America.com up For Sale

2008-05-05T15:34:00-04:00

NYON, Switzerland - The most beautiful domain name on the Internet, America.com, is to be auctioned off through GreatDomains.com and Sedo.com from May 22 to 29, 2008.

Major corporations have already expressed interest. The record selling price for a domain name could be broken.

Past records include:

    - Vodka.com - 3,000,000 USD
    - Korea.com - 5,000,000 USD
    - Casino.com - 5,500,000 USD

This year, sales of domain names have been setting record after record, for example:

- Pizza.com - 2,600,000 USD
- Fund.com - 9,999,950 USD

America.com was appraised by independent evaluators like Duff & Phelps, Sedo and Afternic within a range from 3.5 to 7.3 million US dollars (files available upon request).

    Contact:
    Internet Media Consultants SA
    Paolo Belcastro
    E-Mail: imc@geneve.com
    Phone: +41-22-362-74-14

    Useful links:
    http://www.america.com
    http://www.greatdomains.com
    http://www.sedo.com

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/82.html

GigaOm Welcomes PEER 1 as the Headline Sponsor of Structure 08

2008-05-07T10:33:00-04:00

San Francisco and Vancouver, BC – PEER 1, a leading provider of online IT infrastructure, is sponsoring the first-ever Structure 08, presented by GigaOM. Focusing on the innovations of internet infrastructure, the conference will bring together the most influential leaders of the industry at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco on June 25, 2008.

"PEER 1 is proud to support this conference. With the emergence of virtualization, cloud computing, on demand services and rich media, PEER 1 is seeing unprecedented demands being placed on IT infrastructure,” said Robert Miggins, vice president of business development for PEER 1. “Structure 08 is the perfect venue to continue a dialogue with important partners to help determine the most viable paths for the infrastructure market, and for businesses looking to host their online presence cost-effectively.”

Committed to offering the smartest, most reliable solutions for its customers, PEER 1 engages in every stage of IT infrastructure development and provides the needed platform for innovation. The company is one of the only hosting providers to offer all three types of web hosting under one roof, co-location, self-managed and managed hosting. These solutions are backed by PEER 1’s fully redundant network that delivers high performance bandwidth through 15 state-of-the-art data centers and 17 points-of-presence (POPs) across North America. This unique approach has enabled PEER 1 to achieve more than 300 percent growth in the last three years.

“Web businesses have seen tremendous growth in the past several years and a range of new Internet infrastructures and technologies are driving this,” said Om Malik, founder and CEO of Giga Omni Media. “I am glad to see PEER 1 join an influential group of companies sponsoring and presenting at Structure 08, including Sun Microsystems, and offer their insights into the new requirements of web businesses. We’re happy they will be a part of our inaugural annual event, which will help shape and guide the future of the current Internet infrastructure buildout.”

At the conference, PEER 1 will host a private press event as well as a private VIP dinner, hosted by Om Malik. PEER 1 will also be recognized on the “Refresh The Net” (www.refresh.gigaom.com) micro-site before and after the event and sponsor all evening events, in addition to being included in all marketing efforts around the event.

Presented by GigaOM, Structure 08 is a significant one-day event that will sort through the emerging and disruptive computing technologies now becoming the building blocks for the next generation of the Internet. The conference will examine the technology innovations, such as virtualization, SaaS and cloud computing, associated with the current Internet infrastructure buildout and the companies leading the way, including Sun Microsystems, VMWare, Amazon.com and others. The full conference web site is available at http://www.structureconf.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/88.html

Go Daddy Revs up for Return to NASCAR Spotlight

2008-05-07T22:39:00-04:00

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Go Daddy is looking for another big auto racing win Friday when Mark Martin races the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet on NASCAR’s toughest track – Darlington Raceway.

Martin is considered one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers and is the all-time leader in Nationwide Series victories. He’s ready to drive the GoDaddy.com sponsored car for the first time this season at South Carolina’s fabled Darlington Raceway.

The No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet was designed by GoDaddy.com spokesman Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and is a sleek black, orange and green Monte Carlo SS. Earnhardt was the first to drive the car at the Texas Motor Speedway Nationwide Series event last month.

The month of April was a great one for Go Daddy and its auto racing sponsorships. Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick made history as the first female ever to win in IndyCar with the Japan 300 victory.

“We are ecstatic to be a part of both NASCAR and IndyCar racing,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “How lucky are we to have outstanding drivers like Danica, Dale, Jr., Mark Martin and Ron Fellows all representing Go Daddy?”

Martin will have his work cut out at Darlington’s legendary egg-shaped oval – the track is nicknamed “Too Tough to Tame.”

Go Daddy has a reputation for being “too tough to tame” when it comes to advertising. The company is known for its edgy advertisements and controversial Super Bowl commercials that push the limit. In fact, the term GoDaddy-esque has come to mean advertising that is edgy, fun and a touch inappropriate.

The company is best known, though, for being the world’s top Internet domain name registrar. It was recently voted “Best Registrar” by Web users worldwide and is nearly three times the size of its closest competitor. Go Daddy is also one of the world’s top Web hosting companies and can help novices or experts enhance their online presence with fast, friendly customer support.

The Diamond Hill Plywood 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series airs live ESPN2 Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/91.html

3rd Annual Domainfest Global is On!

2008-05-06T10:06:00-04:00

LOS ANGELES, CA – The third annual DOMAINfest Global™, the premier conference and networking event for the domain name industry, will be held at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, California from January 28-30, 2009. Event registration will open later this year.

Sponsored by Oversee.net’s domain monetization business, DomainSponsor™, the conference will once again offer an agenda designed for advanced and intermediate/beginner domain investors. Discussions will include finance, buildouts, corporate branding, regulatory environment and the aftermarket.

The sold-out 2008 event featured the first Town Hall meeting hosted by renowned domain investor Frank Schilling as well as panel discussions by an unprecedented number of domain experts. John Battelle, best selling author and CEO of Federated Media, was the keynote speaker.

The event will also feature a Moniker® domain name auction powered by SnapNames Live™ technology. Last January, the SnapNames Live auction garnered more than $4 million in live and online sales and featured high-profile names that included bookmarks.com, photograph.com, yemen.com, and females.com.

More information can be found at http://www.domainfest.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/87.html

SmarterTrack Customer Service Software Released

2008-05-05T05:26:00-04:00

PHOENIX - SmarterTools, Inc. is proud to announce the release of SmarterTrack 3.x. SmarterTrack is a revolutionary product that has all the features and functionality of a robust Help Desk, Ticket System, Live Chat, Cost Analysis, Data Mining, Knowledge Base, and Reporting software applications delivered within one elegant web interface. Unlike products such as LivePersonTM and Bold ChatTM which have limited installation options, SmarterTrack can be installed on a dedicated server, VPS, shared hosting environment, and—coming soon—can be provided monthly in a Software as a Service (SaaS) option.

"Companies require choice and flexibility in any Customer Service solution they choose,” said Tim Uzzanti, CEO of SmarterTools. "Having the ability to fully customize the SmarterTrack interfaces, access internal and external databases, and define service levels is vital. But so is having the option of installing and using their software when, where, and how they want to as their business grows and adapts to the demands of their market. SmarterTrack does not impose limitations; it empowers organizations to exceed them."

SmarterTrack’s powerful Ticket and Live Chat System will exceed competing products which are focused on only one objective, and provides administrators and agents the ability to create custom fields to collect information that can assist agents in handling Tickets and Live Chats more efficiently. Knowledge Base articles are provided to customers through an auto-responder or when they submit tickets in an effort to provide immediate service and reduce overall agent workload. Agents are also provided instantaneous solutions from Knowledge Base articles or previous Resolutions, to reduce research time while improving the organizations overall response times.

Managers have access to over 60 Summary, Trend, and Cost Analysis reports to drill into their organization to see what products and services are costing the company the most money and which ones are the most profitable. Summary and Trend reports can be grouped and filtered in hundreds of different ways to provide the organization with specific, relevant reports that can be delivered to individuals, teams, and executives on any schedule required.

“SmarterTrack has been one of the most anticipated releases in our history,” continued Mr. Uzzanti. “Up until now, companies might have been required to purchase several applications and add-ons to accomplish all of this functionality. SmarterTrack delivers a complete solution in one cost-effective application—giving small businesses and large organizations equal access to world-class Customer Service Software.”

SmarterTrack includes many more features and is now available at the SmarterTools Web site or through Authorized Resellers. A complete list of features is available by viewing the SmarterTrack 3.x Release Notes.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/81.html

Where is Steve the Dell Dude?

2008-05-05T11:22:00-04:00

Ever wonder where Ben Curtis, the guy who played “Steve, the Dell dude” has been and what he’s been up to? “MOJO’s the Circuit” host Deepak Ananthapadmanabha delves deep on the latest “webisode” (http://thecircuit.mojohd.com/). Also, Deepak introduces a pretty sad robot and correspondent Emery Wells enters the world of “Dungeons & Dragons.”

Mojo provides excellent video feeds in tech news with a humorus twist. This is something you can't miss for the morning.

“MOJO’s the Circuit” is available online in streaming HD and for download to iPods and iPhones.

http://www.gawkwire.com/video_tv/78.html

Yahoo! Issues Statement in Response to Microsoft

2008-05-05T15:05:00-04:00

SUNNYVALE, Calif.- Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company issued the following statement today in response to Microsoft Corporation's announcement that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo!:

“We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo! for success and leadership in its markets. From the beginning of this process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our belief that Microsoft’s offer undervalued the company and we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view. Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making. Today, Yahoo! has:

- a refined strategic focus to drive enhanced volume and yield;
- reorganized to focus its efforts on its most promising products and services;
- invested in innovations designed to revolutionize display advertising and facilitate closing the competitive gap in search; and
- enhanced expense and resource management to support improved profitability.”

Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. added, “I am incredibly proud of the way our team has come together over the last three months. This process has underscored our unique and valuable strategic position. With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users.”

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/80.html

Man Sentenced to 30 Months in Operation Copycat

2008-05-05T02:13:00-04:00

SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced today that David M. Fish, 26, of Woodbury, Conn., was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., to 30 months in prison on charges of criminal copyright infringement and circumvention.

Fish was also sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte to a three year term of supervised release following his release from prison, a mandatory special assessment of $500, and the forfeiture of computer and other equipment used in committing the copyright offenses.

The case is part of Operation Copycat, an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office targeting online warez groups, which illegally distribute newly-released movies, games, software and music online. Operation Copycat has resulted in 40 convictions thus far and is part of a larger federal crackdown against the illegal online distribution of copyrighted materials known as Operation Site Down.

On Feb. 27, 2006, Fish pleaded guilty to five counts in federal court in San Jose, including four counts in the Northern District of California case for conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement; distribution of technology primarily designed to circumvent encryption technology protecting a right of a copyright owner and aiding and abetting; circumventing a technological measure that protects a copyright work and aiding and abetting; copyright infringement by electronic means and aiding and abetting. On the same day, Fish also pleaded guilty to one count of criminal infringement of a copyright in the Southern District of Iowa. The two cases involved separate investigations and conduct in both jurisdictions. The charges were consolidated and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.

In the Northern District of California case, according to court documents and information presented at the sentencing hearing, from approximately August 2004 to July 2005, Fish served as the site operator as well as a scripter, equipment supplier, broker and encoder for warez sites. As a site operator, he built and managed the warez site and controlled the daily operations of the site and server. Fish also circumvented technology measures designed to protect or limit access to copyrighted materials. Without circumvention, many of the copyrighted works could not be reproduced and made available to others. Once the DVDs were circumvented, they were uploaded onto the warez site and downloaded and accessed by hundreds of other warez participants.

Scripters for warez sites create, program and help build the sites. Suppliers provide an unauthorized copyrighted movie, game or software while equipment suppliers provide hardware (such as hard drives, computer parts, and computer servers) to the warez site. Brokers find groups to participate on the warez site and encoders circumvent the technological measures and protections of copyrighted works on the DVDs designed to prevent unauthorized access and copying.

In the Southern District of Iowa case, Fish participated in a separate warez site from Jan. 21, 2003, through April 21, 2004. The warez server used in this case was determined to contain approximately 13,000 pirated software titles including movies, games, utility software and music. Transfer logs confirm that defendant Fish assisted in the uploading of 131 software titles and downloading 373 software titles to and from the warez FTP server between Aug. 16, 2003, and March 29, 2004. The Iowa case resulted from an earlier national initiative against online piracy known as Operation FastLink.

Operation Site Down and Operation FastLink are the largest and most successful global criminal enforcement actions ever taken against the organized piracy groups which are responsible for most of the initial illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music on the Internet. Consisting of multiple FBI undercover investigations, these two operations have so far resulted in a total of 108 felony convictions; more than 200 search warrants executed in 15 countries; the confiscation of hundreds of computers and illegal online distribution hubs; and the removal of more than 100 million dollars worth of illegally-copied copyrighted software, games, movies and music from illicit distribution channels. Countries participating in these U.S.-led operations include: France, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Hungary, Israel, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Belgium and Germany.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krotoski, currently at the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) prosecuted the case with the support of Paralegal Lauri Gomez. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hanley Chew and Shawna Yen have also assisted on the prosecution of other defendants convicted in Operation Copycat. CCIPS Assistant Deputy Chief Clem McGovern and Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Richards prosecuted the Southern District of Iowa case with the assistance of the FBI.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/79.html

Pay.com and others in Upcoming Moniker.com Auction

2008-05-05T15:38:00-04:00

POMPANO BEACH, Fla., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Moniker.com (http://www.moniker.com/ ), an Oversee.net company and provider of Domain Asset Management(TM) services, today announced an initial list of premium contenders for a live and online domain name auction at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Orlando. The exclusive live auction will take place Friday, May 23 at 3:30-6:30 p.m. EDT (12:30-3:30 p.m. PDT) at The Grand Floridian Hotel.

The auction will include the following premium domains:

-- Israel.com
-- Jackpot.com
-- Liens.com/BankLiens.com
-- AirlineFares.net
-- BabyFood.com
-- Boats.mobi
-- Vote.info
-- ClothesShopping.com
-- Denmark.net
-- DesktopComputer.com
-- DiscountTravel.com
-- Drugs.mobi
-- FootballScores.com
-- Judgment.com
-- Invest.org
-- LaptopComputer.com
-- Lemons.com
-- Marina.com
-- Michigan.info
-- OH.com
-- Organic.info
-- Pay.com

-- Religion.mobi
-- Hoodia.com
-- Greek.com
-- TVSchedule.com
-- ForSale.mobi
-- Men.mobi
-- AutoBody.com
-- Chocolate.net
-- Confession.com
-- Emeralds.net
-- Groceries.net
-- Koran.com
-- Partner.com
-- BodilyInjury.com
-- BadCredit.net
-- Yachts.com
-- Athlete.com
-- Track.com
-- Grass.com
-- Model.net
-- Flossing.com
-- Gouda.com/GoatCheese.com/Havarti.com

A complete auction catalog will be available soon. Get the latest inventory updates at www.moniker.com/liveauction.

Various Bidding Opportunities Available

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East attendees are automatically eligible to attend the private live auction. Bidders not attending can place bids live online through SnapNames Live(TM), an integrated live and online auction platform developed by SnapNames(R), another Oversee.net company. Interested bidders may also submit an absentee bid form to the auctioneer, or sign up for telephone proxy bidding.

To learn more about bidding options for this event, see a complete list of rules and procedures for all Moniker auctions or review all live and online domain auctions throughout the year, visit the Domain Auction page on the Moniker website at www.moniker.com/liveauction. You may also contact sales@moniker.com or call (800) 688-6311.

Domain Name Financing Available

Moniker and Domain Capital will offer financing to leverage domain purchases made at this event or for other transactions. Please contact a sales representative at sales@moniker.com for more information.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/83.html

Best of the Web Hosting Show Guides

2008-05-05T11:01:00-04:00

May 2, 2008 (Gawkwire) - The web hosting podcast, the Web Hosting Show (http://www.webhostingshow.com) released last week their first collection of web hosting and development guides as a downloadable eBook PDF.

The host of the Web Hosting Show podcast Mitch Keeler had this to say, "I love to be the helping hand to any who may need it. I figured it was about time we took some of the fun and information from the podcast and shared it in other means so that everybody who wants it can get it". The Web Hosting Show podcast has been running for over three years and has published over one hundred and fifty episodes to date.

Titled the Best of the Web Hosting Show Guides (http://www.webhostingshow.com/web-hosting-guides/), the eBook runs around twenty pages and covers many topics from the web hosting industry. Some of the topics included are moving from web host to web host, getting started with an e-commerce site, finding a job in the hosting industry, a guide on setting up your first blog and a top to bottom discussion of domain names.

Unique to other eBooks out there about the web hosting or web development worlds, the Web Hosting Show has also released each chapter as an audio file too. So you can download the audio chapters, the PDF eBook or both. All are released for free to anybody who wishes to download.

http://www.gawkwire.com/promotions/77.html

Blueye Wins Web Designer Award

2008-05-05T15:42:00-04:00

CHICAGO,IL - Blueye Corporation, a full-service Internet development and design company, was named in Entrepreneur as one of The Ten Most Dependable(TM) Web Designers in The Central U.S. by Goldline Research.

Blueye Corporation President Shannon Smith, who heads a team of strategic, creative and technology professionals, said of the award, "This is an especially important honor for us because we're entrepreneurs, too. It's coming from our peers. They know we understand the pressures they face."

Design director, Brice Faubel added that strong branding delivered a dependable experience to clients. "We work with our clients to create a visual identity, story and position that are stronger than their competitors. We're happy to know they think we're doing our job."

Goldline Research's proprietary research process includes individual company interviews and quantitative analysis of key company data, as well as customer reference checks to confirm high levels of customer service. "Blueye Corporation truly distinguished itself during our evaluation of the industry," said Allen Scott, Research Director, Goldline Research. "The firm met or exceeded every expectation we have for holistic, client-centric firms. Those companies like Blueye that ultimately earn Goldline Research's Most Dependable(TM) designation demonstrate a commitment to service unparalleled in their industry."

Perhaps in no area is dependability more important than in technology applications. Blueye's technology director, Tim Jahn said that ambitious entrepreneurs should ask themselves a question: "Am I working harder than my Internet strategy? If the answer is 'yes,'" Mr. Jahn continued, "They should take heart. Most of the web's most powerful and dependable applications are readily available to them -- like open source programming for example -- which can lower costs while expanding market reach."

Blueye Corporation is quickly emerging as one of Chicago's major Internet strategy, content development, interactive media, and design studios. Besides area entrepreneurs, advertising agencies are quickly joining Blueye's client list as they ask Ms. Smith and her team to play specialized roles in their own commercial projects. Also, with Blueye's offices located in the middle of Chicago's worldwide commodities industry, many traders, independent advisors and financial services firms are finding their way to Blueye.

"Our approach has been simple," Ms. Smith concluded. "We listen to our customers and articulate their vision. Then we turn their vision into Internet-driven results, so they stand out from the crowd -- and get the notice they deserve."

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_design/84.html