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One of our long time employees, Dwayne St. John had a birthday today. Check out the cake: Now THATS dedication! Happy Birthday Dwayne! [Link] [Cache]

Welcome to Austin We have arrived in Austin, TX! A lot of our customers and employees at our Houston headquarters wanted to know more about the new office and, of course, see some pictures. August 9th, 2010 myself and other members of our management team arrived at our new home. Walking around we saw really nice cubicles not wired , no workstations, and a blow up mattress in Brent’s office. The date for our first training class was August 16th, we had a total of 7 days to get everything setup for our first Austin employees . We needed at ... [Link] [Cache]

Many will remember “Billy the Human Billboard“, who we covered in our previous blog post after he received a HostGator tattoo on the back of his neck. Billy’s HostGator tattoo has sparked a range of responses from: people asking to get this done, outrage, and even proposed boycotts. Someone even went as far as to compare HostGator with human traffickers as you can see in the video below: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXSJUu8-zkU Billy has gone on to receive additional tattoos from other companies 27 and counting , moving him closer to his goal of having the most tattoo advertisements in the Guinness Book ... [Link] [Cache]

QuickInstall We are proud to announce the deployment of our new in house developed script installer, QuickInstall. QuickInstall has been rolled out to all shared servers at this time in its last test phase. To use QuickInstall, just login to your cPanel and click the QuickInstall icon. QuickInstall is a HostGator designed auto installer, similar to Fantastico, that allows you to install common scripts with just a few clicks of your mouse! All programming for QuickInstall and the software library for QuickInstall is in house, which means faster updates and more flexibility. For example when WordPress 3.0 was released, it ... [Link] [Cache]

We are proud to announce our sponsorship of WordCamp Houston. The event is scheduled for August 7th at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. WordCamp is a conference exclusively about WordPress and all things related to WordPress. Conferences are held around the nation and this will be the first one of many to come in Houston TX. When we found out that WordCamp was coming to our backyard here in Houston we had to jump on board. We have been in attendance at WordCamp before and it is an amazing conference for WordPress users, developers, designers, and other enthusiasts! WordCamp ... [Link] [Cache]

Our Reseller Hosting clients might be happy to hear they have a new feature awaiting them in the form of over 400 brandable, support video tutorials. For awhile now, HostGator has been using similar video tutorials to assist us in supporting our clients. Now our resellers will be able to access these tutorials in their Web Host Manager WHM and be able to: .tutorialbullet{margin:0;padding:0 0 12px 0;} .tutorialbullet ul {margin:0;} .tutorialbullet ul li{line-height:11px;padding-left:30px;} .screenshot{float:left;width:190px;paddi~ 10px 0;} .tutorialbullet2{margin:0;padding:4px 0 12px 0;float:left;width:350px;} .tutorialbullet2 ul {margin:0;} .tutorialbullet2 ul li{line-height:11px;padding-left:30px;} .moviecont{text-align:center;margin-left~ .movieimg{} .movieimg a{background-image:url '/images/movie2.jpg' ;background-repeat:no-repeat;display:blo~ left;text-decoration:none;} .movieimg a:hover{background-position:bottom left;} function popUp3 URL { day = ... [Link] [Cache]

Life in the fast lane. As most of you know HostGator was founded in 2002 by Brent Oxley in his Florida Atlantic University dorm room. Since 2002 we have grown by leaps and bounds! We now host over 3.5 Million domains and have outgrown a 4 story building in Houston, Texas with our support and sales staff. Our growth has been so fast it is only natural that our advertising be on the same track pun intended . We are proud to announce that we have inked a deal with Joe Nemechek for our very own HostGator NASCAR Sprint Cup ... [Link] [Cache]

Most of you know that HostGator has a very active twitter following. We not only field questions but also interact with our customers. Our goal for our social networking sites is to not follow the ‘norm’ by giving you an inside look at our company and employees. HostGator has always been a very open and honest company, as we continue to grow by leaps and bounds we will definitely stick to what made us what we are today. I took over the twitter/facebook/forums a little over two months ago with the goal of not only making it more personal, but ... [Link] [Cache]

Here at HostGator we service an extremely diverse group of clientele and as such we get to interact with many different interesting people. These interactions encompass everything from angry clients seeking retribution to happy clients showering praises. Also included are some of the most absurd and downright strange communications imaginable. In this post I’d like to focus on those absurd communications I just mentioned. I mean after all, they definitely help keep the job interesting. Let’s start with one of the linux administration teams all-time favorite tickets: Ticket is read from bottom to top The Dress shirts ticket, or should ... [Link] [Cache]

Gator Happenings The Harbor has been secured. HostGator is now Safe Harbor Certified. Safe Harbor is the name of a policy agreement established between the United States Department of Commerce and the European Union E.U. in November 2000 to regulate the way that U.S. companies export and handle the personal data such as names and addresses of European citizens. The agreement is a policy compromise set up in response to a European directive that differed from traditional business procedures for U.S. companies dealing with the E.U. In 1998, the E.U. established the European Commission Directive on Data Protection, which prohibited ... [Link] [Cache]

In 2006 HostGator.com moved from Boca Raton, FL. to Houston, TX. We made the move because we could not find enough employees in Florida, also we ran out of space in the tiny office we occupied at the time. We are proud to announce that we once again are faced with this problem and are expanding even more! We have chosen Austin, Tx as our newest location. We closed on a 102,000 SQFT office building on the East side of Austin and have already started working on getting the office setup. We have been working diligently this past week closing ... [Link] [Cache]

This last week Our CTO Dave Collins celebrated his birthday. His sister was kind enough to illustrate how his Birthday party went. Happy Birthday Dave from the HostGator family. [Link] [Cache]

Gator Happenings Well, it’s been quite a month here at HostGator. We had what we thought at first was a very cruel late April fools joke played on us. HostGator purchased a 102,000 Sqft building in Austin, TX as we have simply ran out of space here in our 4 story Houston headquarters. There are cubes on top of cubes it seems here and we are now finishing up construction on our 3rd, yes 3rd addtional parking lot! We were set to close on the new Austin building April 20th, at that time we sent our money to the mortgage ... [Link] [Cache]

Being a nerd has it perks, Nerds can pickup mad chicks in Second Life, Photoshop acne out of pictures, and if they’re truly 1337, even have a real life girlfriend one day. I know being a nerd sounds glamorous and all, but there are a few major drawbacks. When you’re a nerd, you usually develop a serious case of Big Bonedinitis. In college, everyone talks about the Freshmen 15, but here at the Gator, we have what’s known as the Hatchling 40. If you come to work at the Gator, it’s usually not a question of whether or not you ... [Link] [Cache]

Finding a reliable web host can be more challenging than wrestling a penguin in a tub full of apricot jelly. I know this all too well after going through a few web hosting horror stories of my own. Having a reliable web host is vitally important for business owners and entrepreneurs whose uptime can make or break their business. A reliable web host can mean the difference between paying your rent or standing out on the corner with a tea cup in your hand. Since finding the right web host is such an important task, here are ten ways to ... [Link] [Cache]

Chances are that you have almost certainly heard of the recent and very tragic earthquake that has nearly devastated the Caribbean nation of Haiti. In the wake of such a sudden and severe tragedy, it can be hard to see hope. The American Red Cross, along with thousands of other support and aid organizations, has been making a huge effort to get things as close to normal for people in Haiti. To support that relief effort, HostGator is making a $100,000 donation to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development fund. The press release announcing the donation is below: ... [Link] [Cache]

It looks like GeoCities, the Free Web Hosting service owned by Yahoo!, is officially ending service to website owners today. I’m sure many of you have used their service at one point or another, so it’s kind of sad to see them go down with all of the web sites they hosted. My first web site was on GeoCities, complete with a looping, low-quality instrumental midi file, and animated graphics. Many other free web hosting services like GeoCities have risen and fallen over the years because the free hosting business model just doesn’t seem sustainable. It’s amazing how many web ... [Link] [Cache]

HostGator recently reached 200,000 active customers and we are on pace to break 300,000 within a year. I remember when I’d be out celebrating if HostGator managed to get two signups in a week. Now, we’re seeing thousands of signups a week. Back in the day, my celebrating consisted of nothing more than dropping the Ramen noodles or the tuna can I had in my hands and grabbing some sushi for an hour before scrambling back to work. At the time, I was a poor college student who invested every penny I had back into the business I was building. ... [Link] [Cache]

Inc. Magazine just ranked HostGator #239 overall on their prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing privately owned companies in America. Here’s how the companies that make Inc’s list are ranked: The Inc. 500|5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2005, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies — as of December 31, 2008 a ... [Link] [Cache]

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 started out as a normal day at HostGator’s Houston headquarters. Around 4:00 PM CT, a major power surge that occurred as the result of a transformer near our office blowing up made the day anything but ordinary. Lights flickered, battery backups beeped, fire alarms went off, and Internet signals all died down almost immediately. People began to wait for the building’s $200,000 hurricane-ready generator to start up, but it didn’t. In the mean time, one of the three major “legs” of power that feeds the building with the power it needs to function was out because ... [Link] [Cache]

**CONTEST HAS EXPIRED** Follow us on twitter @hostgator for future contests. HostGator has teamed up with one of our customers, BlogertizeWorld.com, to give away 30 free iPhone 3GS’s in the form of a Twitter contest. The rules are simple and this contest is open to everyone. Click here to re-tweet the details with the hashtag #HGBW, and get entered for a chance to win. There’s no limit on the number of tweets you can submit with this hashtag, so the more submissions, the better your odds. Don’t forget to follow @hostgator on Twitter! [Link] [Cache]

Update: Thanks to all of those who participated! Our second Open Session was a success. A recording of the session is available on this page. Due to the success of the first Open Session we hosted a couple of weeks ago, we’re hosting another one soon. This Open Session will be held on Wednesday, July 29 at 8 PM CT. Just like last time, this Open Session will be a chance for both potential and existing HostGator customers to come into a live chat with other customers and HostGator employees and get tips, information, and have a chance to ask ... [Link] [Cache]

Update: This took place and was a big success. HostGator employees answered a ton of questions about backups, VPS solutions, Windows hosting, affiliates, and more. We appreciate people taking the time to come by and ask questions. This upcoming Thursday July 2, 2009 at 5 PM CT Houston-time , HostGator is going to be hosting an Open Session where potential and existing customers alike can come chat with HostGator employees and each other. The Open Session is going to be pretty informal, but for some context, some things we do want to do include: Question and answer session with HostGator ... [Link] [Cache]

It seems like no matter what business industry you’re looking at, there’s always room for shady activities. Web hosting and the domain industry are no exceptions. However, most people are totally unaware of one such practice known as domain tasting. Domain Tasting is essentially when a someone buys a domain name for the sole purpose of seeing whether or not it can generate ad income. The domain registrant puts ads on the domain, and if the ads don’t make any money, the registrant has five days to request a refund. There have been many big companies involved with Domain Tasting, ... [Link] [Cache]

I’m going to share some quick facts about our business with you. HostGator currently spends: More than $30,000 per month advertising with Google Adwords More than $350,000 per month on affiliate commissions And $100,000’s more per year on random advertising. When you spend as much as we do on advertising, you start to run out of places to advertise online. This has left us with no other choice but to become a lot more creative and a lot crazier with our choice of advertising venues and locations. I present to you Billy the Billboard. Billy proudly wears the first ever ... [Link] [Cache]