Yahoo! jumps into the web-hosting business with unlimited disk space, unlimited data transfer and unlimited email storage. Webhosting is not something new to Yahoo! The Small Business section always had a full featured hosting package with a handful of plans and features. Anyone could register a domain with Y! and create a starter page without much effort. But till now the Yahoo! Web-hosting looked like a bastard child that everyone knew existed but always avoided. With today’s announcement Yahoo! has jumped head first in to the highly competitive hosting business.

Features

So what is included in the unlimited web-hosting package? Well it includes several features. For just under $12 a month anyone can take advantage of the package. The plan does require a minimum 3 month commitment but does not have any of the annoying fees – no setup fees, no transfer fees etc.

Features That Stand Out

• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited data transfer
• Unlimited email storage
• Free domain name
• Forms to collect visitor information
• Maps and driving directions so customers can easily find your business
• 99.9% uptime
• Backups of your web site in different geographic locations in case of emergency
• 200 password-protected accounts
• Shared SSL certificates and encryption
• Easy-to-use design tools
• 24-hour customer service
• Reliable and secure hosting
• 1000 email addresses
• Easy web access to email
• Compatible with email applications such as Outlook
• SpamGuard Plus, for powerful spam protection
• Norton AntiVirus, for virus protection
• $100 credit toward Yahoo! Search Marketing
• $50 credit toward Google AdWords
• Free, automatic submission of your site to Yahoo! Search and Google
• 30% off Yahoo! Local Enhanced Listings
• Basic website analytics

Server side components include:

• Support for third-party tools like FrontPage 2000/2002 and Dreamweaver
• PHP version 4.3.11
• Perl version 5.8.7 and support for the standard library plus 12 additional modules
• MySQL 4.1, with unlimited databases
• Support for most FTP accounts
• Support for Flash, Shockwave, videos, and more
• Blogging options for beginners and professionals, including Yahoo! 360°, WordPress, and Movable Type
• Web site enhancements, like guestbooks, PayPal payment, Yahoo! Maps, site search, phpBB bulletin boards, and PHP-Nuke content management

Tomorrow I will discuss the good and bad of Yahoo! web-hosting and compare it to the “other hosting providers”. Since I use Hostmonster for several of my websites and I am quite pleased with their service I will draw a competitive picture between the two. Stay tuned.

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