July 29, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Much of this week's news from the Web hosting industry followed two very closely related trends. First, a variety of Web hosting providers all added new supplemental services to their offerings. And second, several hosting-related business launched Web hosting services of their own.

Australian Web host SmartyHost announced on Tuesday that it had added a blog hosting solution, known as SmartyBlog, to its portfolio of services. For $10 per month, SmartyBlog provides a domain name, hosting, technical support and a publishing tool. The company says the blog hosting package will save customers interested in blogging the trouble of having to learn and assemble the components required to publish a Web log.

Web host Aplus.Net announced on Wednesday that it had introduced a hosted customer relationship management solution, iCRM Pro, providing small businesses with a means to work more efficiently and better manage relationships with prospective and existing customers. The service, based on the open source SugarCRM solution, is installed, maintained and hosted by Aplus from its own data centers. Aplus says iCRM is available for $29.95 per month with a $25 setup fee.

Domain registrar and Web host GoDaddy said on Thursday that it had launched Online Group Calendar, a tool designed to make it easier for users to share their calendars, schedule meetings and events and share files with other group members via the Internet. The tool enables users to see when other group members are available, as well as to send email invitations for events and schedule reminders for those events. The tool also provides for the privacy and security of user information.

Also on Thursday, Web host WebDivisor announced that it had introduced affordable SSL certificates to its product lineup. The company says its SSL certificates enable customers to install enterprise-class encryption without inflated costs. WebDivisor's SSL certificates have a 99.3 percent browser compatibility and include warranty ranging from $50 to $10,000.

Along with the new services added to existing Web hosting services, several new Web hosting offerings were added to other existing services this week.

Media solutions provider Sonic Foundry said Tuesday that it had launched managed hosting, content management and delivery services for its Mediasite line of rich media recorders. The Mediasite appliances record and deliver rich media content. The company's new services work with Mediasite recorder to form a turnkey solution for getting rich media communications up and running quickly. The managed hosting service will be introduced first, enabling customers to take advantage of the company's services without dealing with IT or network requirements.

Search engine marketing firm Apply Marketing announced this week that it had spun off Web hosting start-up BigBlueHost, which will now operate under the parent company Open Planet Solutions LLC. Apply Marketing says its search marketing expertise helped build BigBlueHost to the point that called for the creation of an independent company. Since opening in 2003, BigBlueHost has grown 200 percent from year to year.

This week's Web hosting news illustrated two opposite sides of the ongoing exercise vital to success in the Web hosting business: the constant enhancement and upgrading by Web hosting providers seeking to make their services more competitive and more appealing.