A newly launched web hosting provider, Hosting Unlimited, is planning to shake up the local hosting market with ‘free’ and ‘unlimited’ hosting packages.

“Hosting Unlimited offers a fast reliable quality web hosting solution which we believe is the best value for money as far as web hosting in South Africa is concerned,” the company’s website states.

The new company was started by Jonathan Tricker, who argues that “the Internet is commonly thought of as a free and unlimited space, yet most domain owners will know all too well that being on the web can be a costly business that’s fraught with limitations and complications.”

The company currently has three main hosting plans:

An added advantage with the Unlimited package is that domain registration is free, an advantage over some of their competitors.

For web development companies and providers looking to host multiple domains on a single account, Hosting Unlimited has a ‘Pro Plan’ which offers unlimited domain hosting.

The Pro Plan offers 55 GB of monthly traffic and 25 GB of disk space at R450 per month. On this plan traffic over usage is charged at R0.04c per MB while additional disk space is available at R5 per 15MB bundle.

“With this option you are purchasing a ‘Mass plan’ which means you can create hosting packages which suits your needs,” said Hosting Unlimited.

Tricker is determined to make having a website trouble-free: “Clients can email queries through and we guarantee a response within 30 minutes. We also encourage our clients to join our Twitter community, where we offer prompt responses to queries.”

In the current climate of communication online, Google Wave looked to be a winner on paper. Its existence combined both instant messages and emails to enable people to communicate in real time using shared documents.  ‘Waves’ including text and multimedia were transmitted to users as soon as they were typed or created.  Individuals involved within a wave could reply to and edit a wave as well as linking it to other waves and adding other people to waves. All individuals involved within a wave can see text as it is being typed.

The concept of Google Wave does indeed sound complicated and did put some users off but it should have been a very useful tool for businesses, especially multinational companies. Two reasons for its failing are thought to be the absence of a successful marketing campaign and the lack of people invited to Google Wave. Google Wave’s marketing strategy relied on a 1 hour video, which is sure to have put some people off after 10 minutes. When a new program launches people want to know almost everything about it within 10 minutes, not an hour. Regarding the lack of invites, initially only 100 000 people were invited to try out Wave. It is assumed most of these invitees got bored with Wave as they had no one to ‘wave’ with.

It is hard to believe a Google project not working; after all they have massive success with all their other online programs. One does wonder what mastermind Google will come up with next. As their CEO, Eric Schmidt said “This is a company where it is okay to try something that is very hard and not have it be successful”. Eric’s mindset is basically that it is necessary to take risks and aim high, and that not all Google projects have to be winners. Therefore I think we will not have to wait too long for the next Google project to surface, which is looking more likely to be in the social media sector after a recent investment in Zynga and taking over Slide.

Obama, 48, was running neck to neck with ‘Poker Face’ singer Lady Gaga, 24, who became the first living person to touch the 10 million mark on the social network.

“Thank you for helping President Obama reach 10 million supporters on Facebook,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Organising for America, which is Obama’s political arm, as saying in a message.

“Let’s continue the work of bringing change to our country. Ask your friends to join as well,” it added

1.) Make it Memorable
With so many different domains online, it’s easy to get lost in a crowd. One of the best ways to stand out is by crafting a domain that is clever or witty. Making your domain uniquely odd will gain attention and be remembered. For example, if I have a side business selling baseball cards, the domain CrackerJackCards.com is shorter and much more memorable than BestBaseballCardSeller.com. Consider using lingo from the industry that is relevant for your market rather than common terms that could already be taken. Using uncommon words also gives you a better chance at finding a shorter domain.

2.) Go for the .com First
By far the most popular Top Level Domain (TLD) is Com. Here are a few of the more common TLDs to consider if you aren’t familiar with them: Com, Net, Biz, Info, and Org. The majority of searchers out there will put a .com on the end of every domain. Many people still think there aren’t any other domain extensions available. If you don’t own the Com extension, you’re missing out on a lot of traffic.

3.) Consider Misspellings
To protect your brand and prevent misdirected traffic, consider registering any common misspellings of your domain. If you find yourself misspelling your domain, chances are, other people are too. Domains with double letters in them are constantly misspelled when the second letter is omitted. As an example, if you owned the domain WeddingGuestRegistry.com, you should also purchase WeddinGuestRegistry.com. In addition, typosquatters and competitors are always on the lurk. Protect yourself by owning these misspelled domains. Once you own the misspelling, just redirect them to your homepage as always. Here’s a typo generator site that will spit back a list of common misspellings of your domain.

4.) Buy other TLDs
When it comes down to it, paying an extra $15+ dollars a year isn’t too much to ask for all the additional traffic and peace of mind you’ll get by registering other TLDs. Cybersquatters and competitors are always looking for ways to increase their profits, and you should too. If you don’t register other TLDs of your domain, chances are, your competitors just might. Our domain registration page will let you check for domain availability.

5.) Keep it Short
It goes without saying, the shorter the better. If you have a short domain, it will be easier for people to remember and find. Short enough for ya?

6.) Don’t Include Hyphens or Numbers
Although you might see a lot of domains with hyphens in them, I would suggest doing otherwise. I know it’s so tempting when you see that your desired domain is taken and all you need to do is insert a hyphen and you’ve got it! Inserting odd characters like a hyphen in your domain name can often cause you to miss out on traffic. Many times, people forget to include the hyphen and be directed to the other domain that you originally wanted. The hyphen can also get lost in translation, like when you tell someone over the phone. The same thing goes for substituting a number where a similar phonetic word would go. I’m not pointing any fingers (numbers 2 and 4), but you know who you are.

7.) Consider a domain for Promotional Purposes
When running a promotion, try buying a domain that fits the name of the promotion and use the domain as a landing page. That way, if you were to do any advertising for that promotion, you can mention the promotional domain name so it sticks with your audience even better.

Did I miss any? Of course I did. What other tips do you have when choosing a domain? I know there are plenty of hilarious and often sad stories about domain registration out there waiting to be told. Let’s hear them.

Additional tips:

• If you want to protect your personal information from the public whois records when you register your domain you should consider getting domain privacy.
• If you’re not intentionally registering for a misspelled domain, make sure you check the spelling of the domain BEFORE you purchase it. Let’s just say I now know that the word “fashion” is spelled with an “i”.
• If your domain is simply a side project rather than your business name, and you are just trying to test it out to see how it goes, it’s best to do a 1 year term. This will save you from overpaying for a sunk domain if doesn’t work out.
• If you have a new business idea, be sure to check the domain availability of your new business before you register the name legally or begin printing those T-shirts and fliers. If you plan on selling the business in the future, it will be more profitable if you also own the domain of the business name.
• If you register your domain for 1 year but you aren’t sure if you’ll want it after the 1st year, make sure you set a reminder a few weeks before your domain us up for renewal so you don’t lose it when it expires. You can also or consider setting an auto-renew if you’re worried about forgetting.
• If all else fails and you can’t find your ideal domain available, you can always take the route of choosing a commonly know, zany, single-term domain. This method has been known to work out for

“It happens very rarely that an Internet address of this caliber goes on sale,” Cologne-based Sedo said. “(The) sale of sex.com offers the new owner a unique opportunity to became market leader.”

Sedo, which said it is the world’s biggest trading platform for domain names, is selling sex.com on behalf of US firm Escom after creditors filed for insolvency protection, a joint statement said.

Other domain names have also changed hands for huge sums in the past, with vodka.com selling for three million dollars, kredit.de for 892,500 euros (1.1 million dollars) and poker.org for one million dollars, Sedo said.

“Owners of domains like this have a clear competitive advantage.

Visitors land automatically on the websites of the owners just by entering what they are looking for. The listing in search machines is also improved,” it added

Google today announced that it has launched Street View in South Africa, allowing Internet users to view street level images and 3D models of South Africa in Google Earth.

Seven of South Africa’s new football stadiums, including Soccer City in Johannesburg, Peter Mokaba in Polokwane and Moses Mabhida in Durban are now available to explore from pitch-level in 360 degrees, both inside and out.

These detailed images were collected over the last few months, using the Google Street View Trikes and some serious pedal power!

Street View images are also available of around 27 South African towns and cities including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth, helping tourists get to know the local area or navigate their way to their hotel.

Julie Taylor, Communications Manager for Google South Africa, said: “This is a first for Africa, and a really exciting development for South Africans, who can now explore their country in new ways, whether a local neighbourhood in the city or a scenic costal route they’ve never seen.”

“But it’s also going to be a massive bonus for the tourism industry, especially with all the international visitors arriving in South Africa. Tourists will be able to take a look at sights and stadiums before they get here, while the rest of the world can enjoy the view from their mobile phone or PC.”

Roshene Singh, Chief Marketing Officer at South Africa Tourism added, “We’re delighted that Street View has arrived in South Africa.  Whether you’re looking at Cape coastal scenery, the Blyde River Canyon, or at our state-of-the-art new soccer stadiums, Street View is going to be an excellent tool for the tourism industry at large.”

William Mabasa, HOD: Public Relations, Kruger National Park said, “Kruger is an iconic South African destination, and the launch of Street View in South Africa means that we can bring Kruger’s spectacular wildlife to even more people around the globe. In fact, our elephants are the first elephants ever on Street View!”

Internet users can access Street View images at http://maps.google.com

he phrase “how to quit Facebook” generated nearly 17 million results in a recent Google search, and prominent tech industry figures are ditching their accounts on the social networking site.

Whether they are driven by privacy concerns or fed-up with the amount of time they spend updating their accounts, apparently Facebook users are increasingly curious about the social networking site’s farewell policies.

The phrase “how to quit Facebook” generated 16.9 million results in a Google search Tuesday morning, while “how do I delete my Facebook account?” resulted in 15.9 million links.

Some well-known industry names have made much-publicized cuts to their Facebook ties. Google’s webspam chief Matt Cutts deactivated his Facebook ties on April 22, according to comments he made on Twitter. “I just deactivated my Facebook account using the guide [here]. Not hard to do & you can still revive it later,” he wrote. “It was really useful. I wasn’t expecting the FB guilt trip + dynamic “don’t go” box + password request + captcha though.”

Peter Rojas, Gizmodo and Engadget founder, and co-founder of technology blog gdgt tweeted about his decision to cut his Facebook ties. “I was spending more time managing my account than actually using my account,” he toldABCNews.com. “Having to constantly monitor the privacy settings was way too complicated. You can never be sure if you actually caught everything.”

In a feature I’ll likely find useless, Google has added the ability to drag images directly into e-mails written in Gmail on Chrome rather than rely on a dialog box to select them as an attachment.

It’s a nice idea, and I’m all for it, but here’s why it’s not for me: screen real estate. For most programs I use, they’re set to fill the entire screen, so to drag an image into Chrome, I’d have to resize the browser, position it and the image so it’s visible off to one side, then drag.

Testing it on Mac OS X, I had to laboriously move and hide a bunch of background windows, too. It’s far easier to just use the dialog box. If you have a gigantic screen, it might be useful, but it still could take a lot of careful rearrangment.

According to a blog post, the technology is an adaptation of the Gmail drag-to-attatch technology that arrived for Chrome and Firefox 3.6 users in April. That method brings forth a large green drop zone when you drag a file or files onto the Gmail message.

The image drag and drop is slightly different. Instead of aiming for the drop zone, you plop the image directly into Gmail’s message composition window. After you’re done, tag at the bottom of the image lets you resize or delete the image.

It worked fine for me on Windows XP, Windows 7, and Mac OS X 10.6, in all cases using the newest Chrome 5.0.396.0 developer-preview version. Make sure you have “rich formatting” enabled, though. It’s only for Chrome now, but Google promises other browsers will come later.

Also, be warned: because the image is embedded into a rich-text e-mail, recipients will have to proceed differently if they want to save or otherwise handle the image compared to what they’d do with an attached version.

Drag-and-drop is one of the fancy new features in the effort to revamp HTML, the Hypertext Markup Language, with HTML5. Another one that’s arriving in browsers, the Files interface, is good for selecting multiple files in a dialog box, which for people like me could be more helpful for adding attachments. Gmail currently uses a Flash-based mechanism for the task so people don’t have to go through the hassle of multiple single-file selections.

VIa CNET

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1. Access phpMyAdmin (from cPanel)
2. In the left panel, access the Joomla! database
3. Now, in phpMyAdmin are displayed all Joomla! tables. Look for the jos_users table (the tables are alphabetically ordered)
4. Click on the jos_users table and Browse. Here you will find the administrator user.
5. Click to edit the administrator user. For the 5th field “Password” select MD5 Function, delete the value and write a new password. The password can be modified later from the Joomla! backend
6. Hit the “Go” button to save the changes.