Webs (web hosting)
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| Type | Web hosting |
|---|---|
| Foundation date | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Silver Spring, Maryland, USA |
| Founder(s) | Haroon and Zeki Mokhtarzada with help of Liam Veditrat |
| Services | Web hosting service |
| Employees | 40 |
| Parent | Vistaprint |
| Website | www.webs.com |
| Alexa rank |  341 (April 2013[update])[1] |
| Type of site | Web Hosting/Web Design |
| Available in | English |
| Launched | 2001 |
| Current status | Live |
Webs, formerly Freewebs and XWebs SiteBuilder, is a freemium, primarily static site-only web host founded in 2001. The service offers free and premium website hosting plans, and their own templated website building service. Unusually, Webs does not offer any dynamic content support aside from their own dynamic "apps", despite offering FTP access and allowing HTML uploads.
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History [edit]
Webs began in 2001 as Freewebs just after the dot-com bubble. It was a start-up launched by brothers Haroon and Zeki Mokhtarzada after their last year at the University of Maryland, College Park.[2][3] Their goal was to make the Internet accessible to anyone and to protect users' rights to free speech.[4] As of April 2007, the site recorded 18 million unique visitors a month.[3]
On November 14, 2008, Freewebs changed its name to Webs, but users' URLs remained in the freewebs.com domain unless they chose to change over. Now, new websites are given subdomains of webs.com, but the old freewebs.com/sitename format still works, even for new websites.
On December 29, 2011, the online printing service Vistaprint completed its acquisition of Webs for $117.5 million.[5]
Product [edit]
Webs offers its own templated site builder, as well as a selection of its own dynamic "apps". Webs also has the option of irreversibly "reverting" to static HTML-only hosting, which notably lacks any sort of dynamic content such as CGI or PHP scripts. Webs also offers FTP access to premium members.
Webs offers "drag and drop" technology and templates for users creating a new website. For business website, there are e-commerce features, and users can also link their websites to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. [6]
Free websites are limited in features but also do not place banner ads like other free website services. The company offers premium plans with more tools and features and also allows customers to buy custom domain names.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ "Webs.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
- ^ "CEO Haroon Mokhtarzada Interview". Social Networking Watch. April 3, 2009.
- ^ a b Hart, Kim (April 9, 2007). "Venture Capital Drawn to Freewebs". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
- ^ Sandoval, Greg (April 26, 2007). "The free-speech fundamentals of Freewebs". CNET News. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
- ^ Mitroff, Sarah. "Vistaprint completes $117.5M acquisition of DIY website builder Webs Inc.". VentureBeat. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ^ Features retrieved 2 March 2013
