What is it?

U.S. Web hosting took off faster than any other country when hosting services were first offered, as most of the companies that provided hosting services with the tools and hardware to set up shop were U.S.-based companies. However, other countries such have provided comparable services and quality hardware to match that offered in the U.S. Open source collaboration and the spread of proprietary software and hardware has enabled U.S. Companies to grow, but this growth also has allowed other countries to mimic this country’s progress with varying levels of success.

What Are the Issues?

The U.S. still remains the best place to host a Web site, as this country is more lax on censorship and restriction issues and allows many sites to bring forward contentious issues for debate and discussion. With that said, privacy issues are on the line. Most of the problems have arisen since 9/11, with security against terrorism as the impetus for the government to demand information about online users from various resources.

Like the UK, many US Web hosts are leaning toward the ‘greening’ of hosting services through use of alternative energy sources to support their hosting energy drains and carbon footprint. However, this is a large country, and the ability to meet the demand for green alternatives may be slow to catch on nationwide.

Domain name registration is a hobby in this country, as domain names are inexpensive, and – in many cases – the ability to park those domain names for free is widespread. Most top level domain names worldwide can be purchased through U.S.-based domain name registrars and Web hosts that offer that service. Additionally, budget hosting and other inexpensive alternatives to host a site inexpensively are just as widespread and available to anyone worldwide who wishes to host a site in the U.S. Once again, although restrictions on free speech are rare, overseas individuals, organizations and businesses that wish to be contentious and/or display anti-U.S. sentiments through a U.S. Web host may face censorship.

Web Hosts that Offer U.S.