Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting
I recently had the misfortune of working with a client who had registered a domain name and signed up for web hosting through smallbusiness.yahoo.com.
Although the domain name control panel was pretty standard and not bad at all, the web hosting starter package that the client had purchased was clunky and achieving the desired results proved very difficult. This client requested a basic WordPress installation with a modified skin that they could use for basic blogging needs.
The only way to install the WordPress Software with the Yahoo! small business starter package was to go through the prepackaged installation process. This resulted in the installation of an out of date piece of software that was shamelessly rebranded by Yahoo! and represented as their own.
WordPress requires a Mysql database to operate, so there was obviously at least one available for use. The database was set up automatically during the WordPress installation process, and included an automated username, password, and access level user permissions. The big issue with this is that when I tried to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress (2.1.3 I think) the account didn’t have the privileges to make all of the necessary changes to the database. The result was a partially upgraded database that caused errors in the program. If this were not a fresh installation I would have needed a backup of the database in order to recover to a more usable state.
That said, I think there are a lot better options when it comes to web hosting than the larger companies like Yahoo!. I think this is still an industry where bigger is not necessarily better. When you choose a provider I would definitely recommend someone who’s been in business a while and has a good track record, but would steer clear of the big guys like Yahoo!, GoDaddy, etc. They’re great for domain names, but there’s really no reason to put all your eggs into the same basket.