GoDaddy - The Swiss Army Knife of All Things Web

Written by Robert Bacal |

Who We Trust/Use - Website and Blog Hosts

In 2010, I wanted to do and try some things that I couldn't do on my other hosts. I'd maxed out the number of domains I could host on Futurequest and Hostnexus (another of our hosts), and I wanted to capture some additional domain names for future use.

I wanted a hosts that offered a number of services, but at a low cost, since my plans were/are experimental, and not likely to generate revenue for some time. There are occasions when that fits. I ended up setting up an account at GoDaddy, which is both the bigh daddy of hosting and the swiss army knife of hosting. They offer a dizzying array of services and have the clout and size to deliver on their promises.

Just as examples, they operate a service to sell domains in an auction or fixed prices format, and we have two domains I'm interested in disposing of. They offer the cheapest domain registrations I've found anywhere at about $7.50. They offer regular hosting, of course, and the now common ability to install pre-set up applications like Joomla or message boards, something that's important if you aren't tech savvy. There's also email packages.

We haven't had any problems with the technical side of using Godaddy. However, I find their system of navigation plus the odd array of addons to be very confusing. It took me a while to actually figure out what I'd purchased, and whether it included emails and how that all worked. There are a few reasons for the difficulties. Different from most webhosts, you pay for each service you might want to use. Want an extra email account? You might have to add it on separately for a fee depending on what hosting plan you purchased. This piecemeal approach makes it a bit complex to understand their interface. The other reason I had trouble was that I'm used to a particular set of processes to set up and use accounts, and GoDaddy's is quite different. It's not a technical issue per se, and perhaps if I wasn't used to other ways, I'd not have gotten so confused. Still, I asked for and got clarification quickly.

I'm not sure I would use GoDaddy for web site hosting per se. I'm not saying I wouldn't but only that I haven't tried quite yet. I would definitely use them for email, domain registration and domain selling. I'm comfortable saying that because I've already done that.

I also think Godaddy might be a good starter host for those with minimal experience, and I suspect their interface will drive experienced webmasters crazy. But maybe not.

One thing is for sure. Their prices are good, and their package options are good.

If you are interested in checking them out, click on the graphic below:

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Social Media Peril

MicroThoughts

The biggest peril facing social media users and businesses has to do with trust. Anyone can be anybody they choose in social media since there are no even close to adequate methods to verify identities. The peril lies with users who, after interacting with someone they think they know, will believe they know them well enough to trust them as if they had known them for a long time. It's a dangerous situation on many levels, and I wish social media proponents would start educating people as to the dangers. Even if a person is who they say, we have no idea of the vested interests and agendas, and that's one reason to verify anything important heard via social media.

No Social Media Experts

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Mashable no-no

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This is just terrible "journalism". First, the giveaways brought the people in. Second, we have no idea how many people came for the freebies hearing on it from Twitter or not. Third, They could have pulled people into their stores with this promotion in any of a number of ways. This is not a social media success, anymore than having sandwich board guys outside of each store would constitute a success for loitering.

SocialMediaBust