Most everyone has heard about the depletion of available IPv4 addresses and the urgency to get new IPv6 ones. IP addresses have a limits,so to compensate for that web hosting providers offer shared hosting accounts rather than dedicated IP hosting.

Whether you are using web applications for CRM (customer relationship management), POS (point of sale), or for an e-commerce storefront and shopping cart, you will probably want to make sure transactions, logins, and the collection of user data is secure. Unless you are using a third-party e-commerce provider to handle transactions, the best way to make sure they are secure is to use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security). With this security technology, your customers will connect to your site via secure HTTPS rather than plain HTTP.

In order to function properly, SSL requires a dedicated IP address, and many web hosts will offer special packages for e-commerce users who need them. You will also need an SSL certificate, which user agents (web browsers) will use to validate the authenticity of your secure transaction. Anytime a customer initiates a transaction on your secure site, the information exchange will be encrypted and safe from prying eyes.

So can you have an e-commerce site without a dedicated IP address? Yes, but not having SSL certificate will prevent you from being able to offer customers a secure shopping environment directly on your site. When it comes to customers you want to build a trusting relationship, and for that, you will probably need a dedicated IP so as to be able to offer them the security they need.

Will the Downtime of ICANN’s New gTLD Application System Affect Web Hosts?

In an statement released by ICANN chief operating officer Akram Atallah he stated that while they continues to investigate the technical glitch that forced them to take the new gTLD application system offline two weeks ago, they are making progress. Atallah said that over the weekend, “ICANN was able to identify all the applicants that were affected by the technical issue that allowed some users to view a limited number of other applicants’ file names and user names.”

ICANN will inform the affected applicants prior to reopening since it is still gathering information, and continues to test the fix. While the TAS was first slotted to be reopen last week, that deadline was pushed to April 30, and now ICANN expects that date to be carried over into May, although it hasn’t given a specific date yet.

Their post in their FAQ says, “ICANN reassures applicants that the system was not the target of a hack, and has not found any evidence that the issue caused corruption or loss of data, but despite this, the delay has caused a lot of frustration for applicants.”

Since they opened up in January, and organizations or individuals had to pay upwards of $185,000 to participate, the application process has already been lengthy, and costly, two factors that have compounded the frustration.

“I think a lot of what’s happening here and a lot of the noise that you’re hearing is a bit of frustration given that this whole process has taken a while, and a lot of people have a lot invested in these applications,” Adam Eisner, director, OpenSRS product management says in a phone interview with the WHIR. “A lot of what happens next is dependent on when these get approved. I think in the grand scheme of things it’s a small delay, but a frustrating delay.”

Eisner says that in the short-term, there’s no impact on OpenSRS or web hosts because regardless of the problem with the application system, new TLDs wouldn’t have been live this year anyway. He says that most web hosting companies that are planning to roll-out some of the new extensions don’t expect to do so until 2013.

One of the major concerns of the technical glitch was the exposure of applicant names and file names, but Eisner doesn’t think it will have a real effect on the outcome of the application process.

“One of the big mysteries about this whole application process is that most people are holding their cards close to their chest so a lot of people don’t know who is going to apply for what,” Eisner says. “If you happen to have logged in and you happened to see a file name so you know that a certain string was applied for or a certain person was applying for that string it gives you a little bit of knowledge.”

“If you know that somebody was applying for the same string as you you could start talking to that person I suppose or you might be able to plan accordingly or make other adjustments but it’s not going to influence ICANN’s decision on your application or anything,” he says.

Despite the delay, and the bad press that has come with it, Eisner is sympathetic to ICANN since it is under a lot of pressure and scrutiny from a lot of different groups.

“when you’re building a complex system like this there can be a tendency to over-engineer things when really what they’re trying to do is satisfy the requirements of so many different players involved and that can be really tough,” Eisner says. “Long term I don’t think it’s going to have an adverse impact but I can also appreciate that a lot of people are a bit frustrated that a process that has taken a while is now going to be extended that much more.”

I recently wrote this post, http://www.seohosting.co.uk/seohosting-co-uk-to-sponsor-uk-search-awards on SEOhosting.co.uk sponsoring the UK Search Awards.

Below you will find a list of the winners:

Best Integrated Campaign

Fast Web Media – Coors Light – Closest To Cold

Best Local Campaign

Adido – The Colbornes Group Dominance of Google Locally

Best use of Search – Retail

Fast Web Media – Bravissimo

Best use of Search – Travel

Further Search Marketing – Richardson’s Boating Holidays; ‘Book Direct’

Best use of Search – Finance

Koozai – Payday Power Organic Search (SEO)

Best use of Search – Leisure

Further Search Marketing – Richardson’s Boating Holidays ; ‘Book Direct’

Best Mobile Campaign

Found / Autoglass – Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile

Best Blog

SEOptimise – Search Marketing & SEO Blog

Innovation

Stickyeyes – Stickyeyes Search Dashboard

Best PPC Management Software

Marin Software

Best SEO Software

Majestic SEO / Receptional – Majestic SEO’s Site Explorer

Best PPC Campaign

Fuse8 – Intelligent Internet – Landing Pages with Brains

Best SEO Campaign

Verve Search – SEO services for Yale Door

Best In-House Team

www.just-eat.co.uk

Best Agency

Fast Web Media

Search Personality of the Year

Lisa Myers

Grand Prix Award

Fast Web Media – Bravissimo

Here are some pictures from the award ceremony:

UK Search Awards, Best SEO Campaign Category to be Sponsored by SEOhosting.co.uk

“Don’t Panic in association with Manual Link Building and SEMPO, are launching the UK Search Awards, a national awards competition celebrating the very best in SEO and PPC as well as the talent that the search industry has to offer. Entries into this competition are now closed.”

There were 17 free to enter categories and some of the biggest names in UK search on our judging panel. Below is the Short List:

Best SEO Campaign

Recognition of a campaign that has achieved outstanding results in search engines in natural, free or organic listings

Fast Web Media – Bravissimo
Guava / talkSPORT – Re-tuning online identity to deliver natural search success
Just Search / Euro Car Parts – Best SEO campaign for increasing online sale
Koozai – Payday Power Organic Search (SEO)
Met Office – Met Office Events Calendar
Tecmark – Icelolly.com Search Campaign
Upstream Connections / eHarmony UK – Finding love online
Verve Search – SEO services for Yale Door

Sponsored By: SEO Hosting

Best PPC Campaign

Recognition of a campaign that has achieved outstanding results through PPC advertising

Adido – Overhaul of PPC campaign for Postgoldforcash.com for second quarter 2011
Fuse8 / Persimmon Homes – Intelligent Internet Landing Pages with Brains
iProspect – AA Travel Insurance Restructure Back to the basics
Just-Eat.co.uk – Supply and Coverage campaigns
Lakestar Media – A successful PPC campaign for Parcel2Go
LBi/bigmouthmedia – PPC campaign tastes good for Tastecard
Steak – Debenhams Christmas Spectacular
Tecmark – Sunsave PPC Campaign

Best Integrated Campaign

Recognition of a campaign that has achieved outstanding results through an integrated campaign using a variety of both online and offline activity

Auto Trader – Automotive Search Excellence
Fast Web Media – Coors Light – Closest To Cold
LBi/bigmouthmedia – integrated campaign is spot on for Redspottedhanky.com
Tecmark – 8Ball.co.uk Internet Marketing Campaign

Best Local Campaign

Recognition of a campaign based around a specific geographical location that has delivered outstanding results or visibility in search engines

Adido – The Colbornes Group Dominance of Google Locally
Branded3 – LA Fitness SEO, Google local and PPC
SEOtastic – Estate Agent Dominates City

Best Mobile Campaign

Recognition of a campaign that has successfully enhanced the visibility of a website or web page in mobile search engines

Found / Autoglass – Smashing the Glass Repair Market on Mobile

Best use of Search – Retail

Recognition of a campaign that has successfully enhanced the visibility of a website or web page in the retail sector

Blueclaw – A hole in One SEO Strategy for Direct Golf UK
Fast Web Media – Bravissimo
Found / Red Letter Days – Driving a Unique Experience
Interflora / Branded 3 – Interflora’s Retail Search Strategy
Mediaworks Online Marketing – Leisure Lakes Bikes
Receptional – Putting Vertbaudet First
Tecmark – Fawkes Cycles Campaign
theMediaFlow – BathEmpire Organic Search Campaign

Best use of Search – Finance

Recognition of a campaign that has successfully enhanced the visibility of a website or web page in the finance sector

Greenlight / Santander – How to launch a high street Financial Services brand
Koozai – Payday Power Organic Search (SEO)
MoneySupermarket.com / Branded3 – Financial SEO

Best use of Search – Travel

Recognition of a campaign that has successfully enhanced the visibility of a website or web page in the travel sector

Branded3 – SpaBreaks.com SEO
Further Search Marketing – Richardsons Boating Holidays; Book Direct
Real Web SEO – Experience Nottinghamshire Tourism Campaign
SEOptimise – SEOptimise for Audley Travel
Stickyeyes / SkiHorizon – Multilingual site development
Tecmark – Icelolly.com Search Campaign

Best use of Search – Leisure

Recognition of a campaign that has successfully enhanced the visibility of a website or web page in the leisure sector

Branded3 – SEO Campaign for LA Fitness
Further Search Marketing – Richardsons Boating Holidays; Book Direct
Guava / talkSPORT – Re-tuning online identity to deliver natural search success
Real Web SEO – Experience Nottinghamshire Tourism Campaign

Best Blog

Recognition of an outstanding industry blog

Branded3 – Blogstorm
SEOptimise – Search Marketing & SEO Blog
Tecmark – 8ball.co.uk Blog

Innovation

Recognition of search innovation in the development or use of a campaign or platform

Branded3 – Competwition.com
Stickyeyes – Stickyeyes Search Dashboard

Best PPC Management Software

Recognition of the development of an outstanding management software package that successfully manages and enhances pay per click marketing campaigns

The shortlist for this category will be announced soon

Best SEO Software

Recognition of the development of an outstanding software tool that successfully manages and enhances an organisations search engine optimization efforts

Analytics SEO – Analytics SEO Software
Majestic SEO / Receptional – Majestic SEOs Site Explorer
Screaming Frog – SEO Spider Tool
Wordtracker – Wordtracker Strategizer

Best Agency

Recognition of an outstanding agency that demonstrates consistently great understanding and use of search and / or PPC

Branded3
Fast Web Media
LBi/bigmouthmedia
Mediaworks Online Marketing
SEOptimise
Tecmark
White Hat Media

Best Client Side Team

Recognition of an outstanding in-house team or practitioner that demonstrates consistently great understanding and use of search

Auto Trader
Just-Eat.co.uk
Met Office

Search Personality of the Year

Recognition of a talented and inspiring practitioner who has revolutionized the UK search industry
The winner of this category will be announced on the evening of 3 November at The Emirates Stadium, London

Grand Prix

We will also be recognising the best of the best with a grand prix award to be selected from the previous categories.

The awards dinner takes place on the evening of Thursday 3 November 2011 at the Emirates Stadium in London in the spectacular Dial Square Suite with its amazing pitch views.

Tickets for the awards are priced as follows:

£125 +VAT for individual places
£1200 + VAT for a table of 10

To book your place please contact Rowan Jamieson at Don’t Panic, call 01706 828855 or e-mail rowan@dontpanicprojects.com