I have a quote here that will scare the pants off of you.

60 percent of the top 100 most popular Web sites either hosted malicious content or contained a masked redirect to lure unsuspecting victims from legitimate sites to malicious sites.

That comes from Websense’s latest “State of the Internet Security” report.  They say that their research also shows that 75 percent of malicious sites are from legit, trusted sources with “good” reputation scores.

Also in the report, now more than 76.5 percent of all emails in circulation in the past six months contained links to spam sites and/or malicious Web sites.  That is an increase by 18 percent since December of 2007.

That is only a handful of highlights I saw, but the full report has a lot more interesting information I think we should all read and take in account when browsing the Web.  Download the Full State of Internet Security Report (.pdf)

Here is a video of the Websense Security Labs Manager discussing some of the report’s highlights:

This report covered the first half of 2008, from January 1 to June 30, 2008.  For more information about this recent report be sure to check out Websense.com.

From web site launches to why you shouldn’t backup your PC to your digital hosting home.  This podcast has been in production for two weeks thanks to a slew of interruptions but I am happy to say finally the Web Hosting Show is back on the air.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 154!
Running Time: 16 minutes | File Size: 7.17 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• What is Your IP and Why Do You Need It?
• Don’t Backup My Documents on Your Hosting Account!
• Checking Web Popularity with URLmetrix?
• Gawkwire, a new Internet and Hosting News Site Launches!

Podcast Exclusive - Part 2 of Our “How to Purchase a Web Hosting Business” Series with Web Strategist Errett Cord. Download the podcast to check it out!

Ever have one of those periods of time where it seems like nothing is going right?  Two weeks ago my main podcasting powerhouse of a machine was fried and I was still waiting to get it back from HP.  Last weekend, I had no power due to a line of wicked weather.  This week I am knocking on wood and tossing spill salt over my shoulder because thus far, nothing has interupted me.

There are tons of goodies on and about the web hosting world if you know where to look Online. Here are a few gems I scrapped out of the blogging dirt this week.

The Hosting Industry Organization

This new virtual posse of the hosting industry promises to be a socialized group of hosting professionals. Based off a list from LinkedIn - there are many that have already joined (including yours truely) and I am looking forward to seeing what becomes of this just budding project later on down the road.

New Blog! Web Hosting Topics Rocks!

Here is yet another good hosting blog worth subscribing to. Brought to you by the same folks as the DAW Web Hosting Blog and HostingBookmarks.com it promises fresh content for the web hosting addicted. Yes, that would be both you and me!

Blog.Verisign.com? (I didn’t know either)

Did you know that VeriSign had their own collection of blogs from insiders in the company? The company is based around providing secure SSL certificates so, I mean, how exciting can the blog be? Well I was delightfully surprised by a few so the list here is well worth checking out.

Have you found any hidden treasures in or on the web hosting blogs out there? If so drop me an e-mail or leave a comments and let me know about it.

There has been lots of talk about web hosts offering and clients needing upgrades to PHP 5. For those of you who might be outside the loop, let me first explain what PHP is. PHP is a framework that works on your hosting server’s side of things. It is a programing language that allows web developers to create content that dynamically interacts with databases.

Now the main reason you would want to upgrade to PHP 5 is that development for PHP 4 ceased at the end of 2007. You will no longer get updates for it, unless they are security related. Critical security updates for PHP 4 will be provided till August 8, 2008. So this is another good reason why a move to PHP 5 might be a good idea.

Where are the advantages of PHP 5 over PHP 4? Well without getting too geeky on you there are a number of improvements that just make it more robust, faster, more secure and easier to work with. What was wrong with PHP 4? Well, nothing really - it is just getting a little long in the tooth. PHP 4 you have to remember was released back in 2000. Think of it as a pair of old shoes you really love. the laces might be lost and your holding the heel on with duct tape but you can still put them on your feet and use them. PHP 5 would be the pair of sneakers you always wanted.

There have also been several public movements to help lead the charge to PHP 5, one of the more popular ones was the GoPHP5.org project that shared information about PHP 5 and kind of helped push a lot of web hosts in the right direction when it came to supporting the most recent stable release of PHP 5.

The name of the game is evolution. As with any technology, we need to move forward as soon as there is a solid stable release because in doing so we can continue to make things bigger, faster, better and stronger.

In my opinion, the worst thing that could ever happen for the web hosting industry as a whole would be if Google bought GoDaddy. Now before you write me off as being some crazy anti-corporation loon let me explain the web hosting industry’s doomsday scenario.

The Merger Begins

Lets say in this alternate reality, Bob Parsons (the man in charge over at GoDaddy) gets an offer he can’t refuse from the Google team. He decides to sell to Google for (well, insert large dollar amount here) and Google is now the world’s biggest search provider and the world’s biggest domain name register all in one smart business move.

A few months down the road, Google announces it will get into the web hosting game. They have the money, servers and resources to start doing serious web hosting at any given moment now. Some might say they already are with their page creator service - but I don’t really count that as it has yet to even really get any decent buzz. If they needed a base for it, they could always use GoDaddy’s hosting business as a starter. Yes, ladies and gentlemen we now have Google Daddy.

Google Daddy Takes Over Web Hosting

With their two tier plan, you can get unlimited disk space, bandwidth and resources for free. Then they charge you five dollars for a domain name and your web site is up and running. Where is the catch? Well Google’s main business is not search - it is advertising. To pay for the hosting, you will agree to put Google AdSense ads on your web site and split the profits with Google 50/50. They get half of your ad revenue (on top of what they take from AdSense profits already) and you get reliable free hosting.

The End is Upon Us

Over the next few months, web hosts would start to drop like flies. Nobody out there can compete with Google Daddy and in one year or so down the road (after that acquire the Planet, Rackspace and a few other dedicated server hosts) they control seventy-five percent of the hosting market. What Google was just a little over a year back for just search they are now for search, domain registration and web hosting.

That would be the ultimate doomsday scenario that would bring the web hosting world to its knees. Google Daddy controls the three things that pretty much defines the Web as we know it and there is not a major force that can stand in their way.

I won’t lie to you, web hosts do some pretty annoying things sometimes to get your business.

I hate it when… the “Live Chat” link hovers over the web site content!

Dear web hosts, if I wanted to chat with your sales representative I would be more than happy to click the link on the side. I do not need the option hovering in front of my face like I am a moron who couldn’t find it located in a static spot. If your live chat link reminds me of a “punch the monkey to win an iPod” ad your not making a good first impression.

I hate it when… the words free, unlimited, or little green check marks in every single comparison chart box!

Any sort of comparison chart usually tends to make me angry just because if you have looked at enough web hosts they are nearly all the same. The top two or three comparisons (with things like disk space and bandwidth) are useful. The fact that you offer WordPress on every single plan or FTP access is not. If it is a comparison chart, give me some differences between the things you are offering.

I hate it when… web hosts list meaningless “services” they offer that make no sense or that are overly obvious!

This goes back to the idea that the web host thinks you are a total idiot so the sell you services that you know you are getting. Think of this as a shoe salesman selling you on the fact that your new pair of sneakers also come with shoe laces! Need some web hosting examples? Here are some obvious hosting features you’ll get that I have seen advertised:

• Support! - “Yes, every web host supports their customers”
• Hosting with a Domain! - “You need something to point people at, right?”
• A Real E-mail Address! - “Not like those ‘fake’ ones you get with other web hosts?”

I hate it when… meaningless flash covers the top 1/4th of the web host’s web site and does nothing at all!

Oh this one grinds my gears the most, because there is no reason to have that huge flashing flash logo on the top of the page. Does it do anything for you? No! It is useless eye candy that somebody told the web host would “look pretty”. Give me the basics - don’t give me a flashing picture of servers with a sunset behind them.

What annoys you about web hosting or web hosts?

One phrase that gets tossed around a lot in web hosting is “oversold”. This is what happens when a web host is selling more server space than they actually have got, in the hope that their clients will never actually use the full offer that they bought into.

Take this as an example. Tom had a pie that he cut into six pieces. Tom’s problem is that he wants to give pie slices to twelve of his friends. When all of his friends show up to eat some pie, he gives each of his twelve friends a half of a pie slice and promises them if they need more pie they can have it. Tom’s problem?

He only had one pie - so he hopes his friends get full off that half a slice.

Now why does this happen? Well with prices for hosting getting cheaper and the offers for hosting as far as disk space and bandwidth go getting bigger, some web hosts don’t have any other choice.

From a purely visual side by side comparison if one place offers you 50 GB of space for five dollars and another offers you 150 GB of space for five dollars, most people are going to take the bigger offer.

Is there a real future for overselling? In the long haul - I don’t think so. Eventually web hosts are going to run into a bottle neck of what they can really promise in comparison with the technology that is out there. My hope is that people actually start to grow suspicious of such offers and rise up against it. When your getting a gift though - you don’t want to ask why or how your getting it, you just take it and smile.

For that one simple fact, the future of overselling might be a little longer in the tooth than expected.