Choosing a host for your new website or application

I regularly advise clients as to which hosting provider to utilize for their new website or web application. The choice is wide and varied, and there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution that I point to every time. If you are currently considering your hosting options, or are looking for a place to start your research, you may well find this brief guide helpful. I’ll start off with a definition of terms, then detail a small checklist of questions you will need to answer, and then finish up with a brief summary of my preferred hosting providers.

You Don’t Understand How Big Mobile Really Is

If you did, your company would put other web initiatives on hold and scramble to launch the best mobile experience for your industry.

With mobile smartphone use growing at such an astounding pace, I’m constantly amazed that there are still so many top-tier companies that do not have a dedicated mobile website experience. I believe that this rapid growth seems to be outpacing many  IT and marketing executives’ ability to digest and grasp how mobile is going to drastically affect their business growth – particularly in the consumer space.

With mobile, the year 2012 will be a unique parallel to 1996-97, when many industry titans were caught with their pants down by the speed at which web use grew, and were unable to launch a compelling website faster than their competitors.

Upcoming Trends for 2012

2011 proved to be an exciting year, and we anticipate 2012 to be even better. Take a peek at the trends we’ll be watching in 2012. Happy Holidays!

Mobile Payments Accelerate

Wallet? What wallet? I have my phone.

There is no doubt the penetration of smartphones has changed the way we communicate, inform and entertain each other. Mobile devices have also changed the way we shop—helping us locate, evaluate and recommend every kind of product or services imaginable, but we still have to pull out the plastic (yeah, some still carry cash) to transact… Well, that final frontier of the commerce experience is also changing, and fast.

We stand against SOPA and Protect IP. Here’s why you should too.

In late November a truly unprecedented cadre of tech companies with the likes of Google, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Facebook, eBay, Twitter, the Wikimedia Foundation, Microsoft and many others came out in vocal opposition against H.R. 3261 – the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Senate bill S.968 – Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (Protect-IP).

ThoughtMatrix is joining Silicon Valley tech leaders in opposing this legislation because provisions in these two bills will irrevocably damage the technically and civilly free internet as we know it, and potentially wipe out the fastest growing Silicon Valley job creators.