Hello everyone! After a well deserved break, I'm back and blogging once again. Ok, so it wasn't a break so much as it was a whole heck of a lot of work squeezed between three holidays, but you get the point.

Unfortunately, this post comes in the wake of a tragedy of sorts. It is with great sadness that I pass along a piece of news that will make many a seasoned Web developer weep. Last week, Tom Drapeau, a former principal software engineer and now the director of Propeller Social News for AOL, Announced the end of life for Netscape Navigator in his blog.

(Read his blog post here.)

Think what you will of Netscape Navigator. Lord knows it's had its ups and downs. It's been highly regarded as a vehicle for Web innovation, And more than a few Web designers have cursed its existence over the years too (NS4.x, your memories haunt me to this day). But Netscape is an institution, and its passing comes with much sorrow.

That being said, I know I'm not the only one who has a less-than-favorable opinion of AOL (I have personal reasons), and one could argue AOL's purchase of Netscape eight years ago is really when the browser began to die. Honestly, it's been a long time since I've cared about Netscape and its browser, but that doens't mean it doesn't have a place in my heart. Sure, Netscape has been dead for years, but its name has always lived on as a symbol of the Internet in its infancy through today. Sadly, not through tomorrow.

R.I.P. Netscape. You'll be glad to know your legacy is thriving in Firefox. You will be missed.

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========
PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

That's right - you heard me. If you want a truly effective customer service organization, ideally, you should not base any portion of your hiring or training on the your (potential) employees' manners.

Now, in order to get you to drink my Kool-Aid, you need to understand and agree with my definition of manners. For the purposes of this post, we're going to consider definition 2b of Dictionary.com, which I believe is the most applicable definition to the customer service environment: "ways of behaving with reference to polite standards; social comportment."

(Definition 3 applies pretty well too.)

Some quick background: two days ago, I had the pleasure of missing a connection flight in Atlanta Int. airport in transit from Ft. Lauderdale to home. What ordinarily would have been a 45 minute lay-over turned into a three hour wait. No problem - my wife and I were coming back from a little cruise R&R, and we weren't in a rush to get home for any reason. However, our extended stay in Atlanta meant getting some dinner, a book, a travel pillow for my wife, that sort of stuff. During those three hours, I noticed something very interesting. The people working various stations in the airport had no manners whatsoever! They never smiled. I never once heard a single "thank you" or "your welcome," even in response to such courtesies extended by customers.

At first, this bugged me a bit, but very quickly it dawned on me that the employees I observed had traded in manners/courtesy for honestly. They weren't thankful, and so offering a "thank you" to a customer would be a hollow, insincere sentiment at best. I'm guessing most people would be put off by the lack of manners, but I came to understand it and even respect it.

Here's what I decided: manners are an excuse to pretend you care. An employee in a customer service role can only pretend to care for so long. Once they stop caring, a predictable and costly cycle plays out - dropoff in production, firing, search for new applicants, and new training for your new, "well mannered" employees.

Does that mean you should employ rude people? Of course not. I'm not suggesting the behavior displayed by the airport staff was proper. I'm suggesting they hired the wrong people.

Instead of hiring people who display good manners, look for people who are genuinely gracious, where words of kindness and gestures of pleasantry are not motivated by a need to pretend, but by the innate character of the individuals who extend them. The overt result (at least in the beginning) might look identical - the differences between good manners and genuine caring might be very subtle, but in the long run, you'll cultivate a more positive, more efficient work environment for your employees, with results your customers will notice in a very good way. Customer loyalty goes up, costs associated with maintaining a workforce (large or small) go down. Bottom line - everyone wins!  Manners are an excuse to lie and falsely represent the character of your company.  Genuine caring is simply...genuine.

I'm sorry, are you asking how to tell the difference between manners and caring when interviewing potential customer service representatives? How should I know? C'mon now - I can't solve all of the world's problems for ya :)

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PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

With all the recent discussion surrounding SaaS, I thought this would be a perfect time to highlight a creative use of Web application technology that fits squarely into the SaaS definition without competing with the traditional software licensing model.

Google is great. Why? Because love 'em or hate 'em, they give us something new to talk about almost every day, and that makes a blogger happy! It's latest innovation is a natural extension of a service it has been perfecting for a while now.

Google Maps is coming to a gas (petrol) station near you! Google is licensing (or providing free?) software that allows gas station owners to set up monitors on their pumps, connected to Google Maps, which patrons can use to locate, well, anything the station owner wants them to be able to locate, while they pump their gas.

The genius is in its simplicity, both how natural it was to do this and how well it works for all parties involved:

1. Someone at Google realized gas stations are likely the most common place people ask for directions. That same person realized Google has an application that helps people get directions. Duh!
2. Service stations that offer Google maps are more valuable to customers, most likely drawing a larger customer base.
3. Because the gas station owner can program points of interest into the system, he/she has additional revenue opportunities.
4. Google might charge for the software, or it might use advertisement deployment to profit from the system (I don't know the pricing models for this, if they've even been released yet). If the gas station makes substantially more money as a result of the system, the cost is justified. Is the additional income is less than licensing costs, ad deployment could make the system free, and all additional revenue is strictly profit.

Here's the best part: no other map sites or PC software vendors were harmed during the production of this system. Kudos to Google for putting 1+1 together before anyone else, particularly since they're one of the last mapping companies to go live with a stable service. Mapquest could have done this seven years ago. Maybe they never thought of it? Maybe they thought of it, but didn't think it could work? I guess you don't become a pioneer in an industry unless you...well...pioneer something, eh?

SaaS at its finest, folks!

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========
PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

Wait for it...........I told you so!

Google has made a major algorithm tweak, and a whole lot of Webmasters are seeing red over it. Page Rank is dropping all over the place, in places people were certain it would stay strong, most notably, directories. Now, in my WHIR blog offering regarding SEO last December, I made a statement about purchasing links and link farms, specifically, it was probably not a good idea, and the results would be uncertain.

Uncertainty is no longer an issue. Directories have taken big PR hits. Blogs (typically those that sell links) have taken a hit as well. Who has come out of this unscathed? Why, those of us who paid attention to the Google endgame - that's who. I've been saying this for the longest time; search engines are most interested in producing results that reflect how the human brain works. They determine relevance through site content. They determine importance through external recognition in the form of links. When you purchase or even just exchange links, you are tainting the part of the algorithm that determines importance. Your site become more important based on how much you spend to make it so.

This is directly in conflict with Google's ranking philosophy. Google doesn't even give a boost to its own advertisers! Why did people think doing SEO in conflict with Google's ranking policies was a good idea?

So, how much was your site affected by the shift? Does your company rely on backlinks from directories, blogs and participatory sites? Did your SEO company sell you on a purchased backlink scheme? I'll bet it worked for a while, and I'll bet that strategy is going fail a little more every day.

For what it's worth, my own Web properties either stayed the same or went up. My personal site was the only when to go down, from PR5 to PR4, but I was getting organic backlinks (people attributing stuff to me within their site content) from a few sources that had sold/exchanged an abnormally large number of links. They went down a few points, which will naturally trickle down to other sites like mine.

If you haven't noticed, I'm not terribly stressed about it. Page rank has much less value than most people give it.

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========
PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

Yesterday, I received an email from the director of marketing and sales at one of the local Marriot Hotels in Northeast Ohio. He was sending me a reminder that the hotel was about to celebrate its grand opening, and my presence at the function would be appreciated.

Problem 1) The email arrived at my private email address, an address people only get if they have ongoing business relations with me and I know them and trust them. It's an address that hasn't received a single piece of direct spam since I created it more than two years ago.

Problem 2) Ready for this? He sent the email to 590 people and DIDN'T blind carbon copy them!

So, not only was my email address placed on a mailing list without my permission, it was also shared with every other recipient on the list. I now have a list of 590 email addresses that presumably belong to business people of some influence in our local market, given to me courtesy of the friendly folks at Marriot. Does anyone else see the problem with this?

It gets better. I respond to the email, asking him how he received my email address and why I was able to view his entire recipient list. He didn't know how my address got on the list. That's right - there is no record of me having ever signed up for his email blasts, and there is no record of which lists were given to him to form his mailing list.

He ignored the part of my inquiry regarding having allowed the recipients list to be viewable. Actually, he ignored this three times in three subsequent emails, and I eventually gave up asking.

I'm not going to bother expounding on the title of this rant. It's pretty self explanatory. No, I have much more interesting things to ponder, like...

...what should I do with the email addresses? I'm not bound by Marriot's Privacy Policy (which I believe he broke when he published those addresses for me to see). The possibilities are endless!

I suppose I could sell them. Or I could use them to blast Equentity LLC services to these unsuspecting souls (backlinks, how I love thee). But these are such mundane ideas. I need something more creative.

You tell me! What would you do with a list of email addresses belonging to prominent business people in your area?

Disclaimer: This discussion is just for fun. I have no intentions of doing anything with the addresses Marriot gave me. But the possibilities are fun to imagine :)

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PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

I know I promised a couple open letters in my next posts, but those are going to have to wait. I have a question/topic of much greater importance to me and the industry as a whole.

Almost a year ago, I blogged about the formation of a hosting association, a noble endeavor for which I was witness to both the waxing and waning of inertia that went into and eventually left the project. I'm sure it came as no surprise that the effort was being made; apparently it's been made more than a few times in the past. It's probably no surprise the efforts came up short. So far, the formation of a comprehensive hosting organization has a 0% success rate.

The fact that it hasn't happened doesn't make it any less important a pursuit. The hosting industry has a very weak voice (consumer media, mainstream business, government, etc.) and has very little means of providing support to the businesses and individuals of whom it is comprised. Outside of some (thankfully very active) online communities and vendors who typically satisfy very channel-specific hosting company needs, there's not much in the way of collective activity. What's missing is the right platform for that activity to take place.

At HostingCon 2007, a group of us were lamenting the lack of a unifying body in the industry. Indeed, the Web hosting industry is one of very few large industries that lacks this, and conversations arose over what such a body could accomplish if given the opportunity. So, a small group of us set forth to discover why given so much anecdotal support, the formation of a hosting association has yet to be achieved.

We've been quietly researching the industry, asking a lot of people and companies a lot of questions, essentially in an effort to assess the feasibility of pursuing this endeavor again. The assessment is complete. The research is done, and without getting into too many details, we are moving forward.

During the course of exploratory research, we compiled a lengthy list of holes in the industry where an association could have real impact on hosting businesses, individuals and suppliers. We held our own brainstorming sessions. We also asked a whole lot of tough questions to hosts and hosting vendors, shut our mouths, listened and took notes.

The purpose of this blog post isn't necessarily to drum up publicity for the association (though I suppose it inherently has this effect). We'll make official statements about it when the time is right, explaining what it is, why it exists, its name, etc. I'm posting this because I want you to be aware an effort is underway, so you can speak up about ways an association could help fill needs and gaps in your professional life.

If you'd like to respond here, please do so! If you'd like to email me privately, use the link to my personal site below and fill out the form. If you wish to post encouraging comments, thanks, we'll take 'em! If you wish to post disparaging comments, think of ways you can voice concerns constructively so they can be taken into account as we move forward.

The best type of response to this post would be your own personal wish list. For example, "I'm a small host, and I wish I had easy access to affordable benefits, legal services and a comprehensive vendor directory," or "I'm a larger host, and I wish I had a thorough library of research available to me, hosting industry-specific binding arbitration services and a voice in the Net Neutrality debates happening in congress."

What's on your wish list? What keeps you up at night? What would get you more excited about hosting if it existed?

(P.S. The organization will be entirely non-profit, and the principles involved in its formation will derive no additional benefits from its formation. This is an altruistic effort in its purest form.)

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PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

From IsabelWang.com:

In August 2007, I realized I'm marching in place too. I've written a zillion blog posts about the need for commodity hosters to broaden their horizons; shouldn't I as well? So I'm taking some time off to find the next big thing. If you've got ideas, you can reach me at...,

Isabel, if indeed this is your final decision, thank you for everything you've given the hosting industry over the years. You will be greatly missed!

It just so happens I do have a great idea about your next big thing! Invent something, anything, and call it a "widget." Think about it - you'll never have to actually market it yourself. You have an established, worldwide marketing presence by virtue of every book or article in academia, trade publications, news, magazines, etc. that refer to widgets as commodities of value. You'll make billions, and naturally you'll be compelled to share some of that newfound wealth with the person who gave you that awesome idea, right? :)

In all seriousness, absolute best wishes to you in your future endeavors, whether they bring you back to Web hosting or take you on completely new journeys in life.

In a grand departure from most of my blog posts, this one is not going to contain scathing commentary, strong opinions or poetic wit (some might argue none of my blog posts contain the third).

Recently, I had two articles brought to my attention that nicely cover some of the common traps and pitfalls plaguing Web designers daily. We're at a point in Internet development where techniques for overcoming coding and programming obstacles are more important than ever. The development and maturity of many different browsing environments makes this so critical.

I have two articles to present, neither of which were written by me, but both of which I read closely and feel reasonably good about endorsing. Whether you're a designer who reads The WHIR out of interest for the hosting industry, or a host who relies on the performance of your Web site, these articles can only help you have a more effective, less buggy Web presence!

Those Cross-Browser Blues: How To Develop Web Sites For Both Internet Explorer And Firefox - Don't let the name fool you. It's really not as narrow in scope as the title would lead you to believe. The author discusses Opera in some depth, and references how covering bugs in the top three browsers filter down to a wider selection. It's a nice, compact guide to bug fixing.

Nine JavaScript Gotchas - A couple of these are my constant nemeses. This is a great little article to bookmark if you do any sort of JavaScript programming.

Hope these are of some use to you! For my next installment, I intend to post a couple open letters to a couple groups of people. You know how fun open letters can be ;)

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PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

A few months ago, I had a most interesting customer service experience, one that mystified me, about which I promised I would eventually blog. LONG STORY ALERT: if you don't want to read this, skip down to "---END LONG STORY---" to get to the point.

I was a Sprint PCS customer for nearly 7-1/2 years...was...nearly. After two years of off-contract month-to-month service, I decided I would purchase a new phone (at a discount) and re-up my contract. Now, Sprint has not been great to me (lots of telemarketing recently, some network issues, etc.), but they've been good enough for me to not bother switching.

I purchased my phone, contracted my plan, and went on my way. The phone was essentially DOA. The battery held a 15 minute charge and then died. I used it for a few days (plugged in mostly), went to return it, and instead of returning it, I ended up upgrading to the new UpStage - sweet phone!

Well, a few weeks go by, and I come to the realization I need a phone that has a full keyboard for business purposes. I also need to upgrade my plan (by ~$50/mo., up to ~$120/mo.). I went back to trade up, and got a nasty surprise. Since I had traded up once previously on that broken phone, I wasn't eligible to trade up again. What's more, including the time I spent using the broken phone, I was six days past the deadline to switch plans or back out.

No one at the Sprint store could help me. No one at Sprint customer service could help me. They insisted I pay $650 for the phone I needed, and I was on my own figuring out what to do with my UpStage.

I started shopping around. I looked at Verizon and AllTel. Verizon offered to sell me the phone I wanted for $150, plus they threw in a free belt clip, car charger and $100 bluetooth headset.

I called Sprint and told them after doing the math, even with the $200 disconnect fee, I was going to save hundreds of dollars by leaving them! I tried spelling everything out for them. I was a customer of more than seven years. I was upgrading my plan from $70 to $120/month. and I was happy to commit to a two-year contract. I was trading back the phone I had, which has some value to them. All I wanted was for them to roll back my status by six days so I could get the products and services I really needed and stay a Sprint customer.

They said they weren't authorized to do this.

I called one more time, this time to the department that handles account closures. I explained the entire situation, and that I was outside the Verizon store, about to leave Sprint. I told them I didn't want to have to leave under these circumstances. They said there was nothing they could do...except, perhaps they could work on plan pricing to make up some of the difference. Well, ok - that's a start. Sure, you can put me on hold for a couple minutes while you figure out what you're able to do. Waiting...waiting...waiting...click. Five minutes later, the line goes dead. I believe it was the network (if that's not a sign, I don't know what is). Still, I gave them 20 minutes to call me back and work with me. Nothing. So, I walked into Verizon, switched my service, bought my phone for $150, got my freebies, and a week of eBay later, I sold my UpStage (I paid $150 for it - promotional price) for $263, which easily covered the Sprint disconnection fee. All in all, I saved roughly $400 by leaving Sprint for Verizon.

--- END LONG STORY ---

That was a very long story, I know, but it comes with a very strong point. As a hosting company, (cue Pussycat Dolls) don't you wish your entire customer base was just like me ? Don't you wish every customer stuck around for seven+ years, through good service and bad, and didn't leave at the first sign of trouble or the first hosting deal that was $1 less per month than you charge? Don't you wish your customers would call you three or four times while considering leaving to give you the opportunity to keep them as customers under very reasonable terms? Don't you wish your customers would solicit you to work through any and every angle possible to remain your customers in the face of adversity?

You don't need me to tell you this, but most of your customers are not like me. They will leave a whole lot more quickly than I left Sprint, and they won't give nearly as much notice. Sprint failed me, not because they employed bad people, not even because they weren't right (I was technically past the switching date). Sprint failed me because they chose not to give their employees the power to keep me as their loyal customer. Sprint failed because they chose to implement a policy that leaves no room for people to make decisions that are best for customers and truly best for the company.

Smaller businesses typically don't have this problem as much as larger businesses. Either employees are given the power to make customers happy, or the decision makers/management are not so far removed from customer service that they are unavailable to make such decisions themselves. It seems the larger an organization gets, the harder it is to remember customer service is a very human process. No matter what size your business is, I encourage you to purchase a book called The Simple Truths of Service, by Ken Blanchard and Barbara Glanz (I linked to Amazon, but they may not have any copies available at the moment). The stories they share about good customer service are simply amazing! The book is short (you'll finish it in 20-30 minutes, maybe), but the lessons are profound.

Perhaps a small investment of time spent reading this book will equip you with the ideas and motivation to do things for your customers that will make them show the loyalty I showed Sprint up to the very end, and perhaps the actions you take will result in a much happier ending for everyone.

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========
PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

Dear Web hosts,

Please learn the difference between bandwidth and data transfer and apply terminology appropriately in the future.

Thank you,
Paul

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PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host