More on GoDaddy

It took a bit of work, but I've moved my 10 domains and three hosting accounts from GoDaddy to DreamHost Web Hosting. I have some cleanup work, including file uploads, but the basics are in place. It might also take another day for all of the DNS records to propagate around the InterTubes.

This has been a while in coming. GoDaddy is, by most accounts, the largest domain and site hosting on the web. As a service, they've been reliable. I can't recall a time when my sites have been down or even noticeably slow. Prices are comparable to other services, if a bit high, but there are frequent promotional offers.

The account user interface is a bloated mess, particularly for the infrequent user. I have logged in, on average, once every two months and forget where things are. Routine tasks take much longer than needed because the layout is non-intuitive and the screen is constantly refreshing as it generates dynamic views of things that you don't care about it. Lots of flashing, spinning, and needless clutter.

Those attributes aside, GoDaddy, through the persona of its Executive Chairman and Founder, Bob Parsons, has a developed a reputation as being, well, being a guy who introduces his video on hiring great employees like this:

All of which is somewhat easy to ignore.

Until he shot an elephant: Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons: Africa Elephant Hunt Video 'Nothing to Be Ashamed Of' - ABC News.

Which was less easy to ignore that their recent support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This bill, which got caught in the tax standoff at the end of the recent House session, is a particularly odious piece of legislation that could wreck the Internet technically. See An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress | Electronic Frontier Foundation for more details.

When GoDaddy appears on a list of SOPA supporters, lots of people, including yours truly, decided that it was time to take our business elsewhere. GoDaddy has since recanted, a cynical gesture at best.



The company's behavior is already showing up as a case study in how not to deal with a customer revolt: Lessons from the GoDaddy Customer Revolt - Scott Kominers and Paul Kominers - Harvard Business Review

At this writing, my 10 domains have been added to some 72,000 others, out of 32 million hosted by GoDaddy. We can barely see over the top of the decimal point. GoDaddy might not notice, but we will.

This morning's retail business news

The T&G has editorialized on the news that Sears will likely be closing more than 100 stores. This is sad news for the chain that had once been the mainstay of American retail business. Sears and the now banished Mr. Roebuck started a catalog company with its beginnings more than 125 years ago.  For many years, they offered young men a first glimpse of women in underwear.

Even into the 1960s, the catalog and, that most odd retail offering, the catalog store, were Sears' mainstay. Sears has managed to update the catalog experience for the 21st century. You can now go to the store, find that they don't have what you want, locate a kiosk where a sales clerk might be helpful, and place an online order that can be shipped to your home or back to the store.

Kohl's, meanwhile, is paying no heed to he coming retail apocalypse, has leased property on Lincoln Street where they may or may not have plans to build a store.

Poetic inspection

Rhyming works for now, but stickers that expire in 2012 are orange.

 

VZW: the iPhone can't do that.

It's getting close to time for a new phone. My HTC Incredible keeps kicking the SD card offline. In a related failure, about half of the time, my phone will crash when I use the camera. The SD is unmounted, so the camera app freaks out and takes down the phone with it. I've missed many good pictures over the holidays while the phone was rebooting. (Yes, I've run error checks on the SD card itself, tried different cards, and reinstalled the phone's operating system. No joy.)

Because I also had a couple of questions regarding my account, I thought it best to go to the local Verizon store in Shrewsbury. The store was moderately busy for a weekday afternoon, attributable to the holidays. I signed in at the unhelpful kiosk and waited for my name to be called.

While waiting, I had a look at the iPhone 4s. I had a question about setting up a hotspot with the phone, a question answered by checking the Settings app. Another question popped up. Is there a way to synchronize my Gmail contacts with the iPhone's address book? The settings didn't offer an obvious path.

I heard a faint voice call my name. I turned and was greeted by a salesperson. I told her that I was interested in the iPhone, but had a question about Gmail contacts. She replied immediately that contacts are stored in iTunes.

I told her that I use Gmail for all of my email and contacts now and that synchronization is essential.

"The contacts are stored in iTunes," she repeated. "But, I can check." She disappeared around the corner for a few minutes and returned to tell me that there was no way to do this.

I shook my head and said I couldn't do without my Gmail contacts. She said that the Android phones would work. I nodded and said that I'd take a look at some of those. On my way across the store, I sent a tweet about my experience.

I was interested in two Android phones, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the RAZR by Motorola. I've heard bad things about battery life with 4G phones, but great things about the power and features of the phones themselves.

A woman was making a call with the one Nexus on display. I wandered around for a bit, waiting but trying not to be creepy about it. On she talked.

The RAZR was a few feet away. It was unavailable for other reasons.The woman was still talking on the Nexus, a good sign, I guess, about battery life.

I left the store to get on with my other errands of the day. Soon, I received a helpful tweet from @vzwsupport:

@RoasterBoy We would love to have you! I hope you haven't completely changed your mind.
I can provide you with instructions. ^CM

A quick check of Google showed several solutions for iPhone/Gmail contact synchronization. I should have thought of that first. (Let me google that for you.)  I might have even asked Siri. But, I'm only interested in buying a phone. I'm not in the business of selling them.