When news came out the other day about Google’s move to host some of the more popular JavaScript libraries on their servers I was going to write a post about the privacy implications. As I sat down this morning to write that very post I came across another JavaScript related news story that trumped the one from Google.

SocialHistory.js is a brand new piece of JavaScript code that, while clever, is also a little bit disconcerting at the same time. This script allows a site to determine what social networking (or regular sites) a visitor has previously visited. The creator of the script uses the example of implementing this to determine what social bookmarking links to provide on a page.

My first thought was the amount of market research a person could collect with this. What’s stopping me from taking the script, slightly modifying it so that it actually stores the data is collects and then using that data to determine if making pushes to promote my site on certain social networks would be worth my time? The answer is probably nothing.

But is that a good idea? The data is probably relatively harmless. For instance, the script can tell that I personally use sites like Facebook and del.icio.us but that’s true for, quite literally, hundreds of thousands of people. Maybe the data you could gather from SocialHistory.js to use for research means wouldn’t prove to be very valuable in the long term but I’m just not sure it’s any of my business to see that information in the first place.

Ever since my interview with Chris Bibey I’ve been anxious to learn and get involved more with freelance writers. Fortunately, a few projects have come up over the last few months that have required a lot of content to be written. This was an excellent opportunity to try my hand at hiring freelancer writers.

Programmers and designers who work freelance have a sometimes deserved reputation as being a bit flighty and unreliable. Well, I’m here to tell you that freelance writers have earned the same reputation with me after this experience. I’m not going to mention any names but I’ve hired about half a dozen different writers so far and have only had success with three of them. The others either took the money and ran, never to be heard from again, or they were so slow in getting the finished product to me that they caused delays with my projects. For the most part, I was pretty unimpressed with the quality of work I was finding regardless of the price.

To be fair and balanced I decided to see what life was like on the other side of the transaction. I found someone looking for articles to be written about WordPress. I offered my services for $0.015/word and they agreed. My first article was accepted and I was paid promptly. They were happy enough with my work that they asked for a second article to be written. After the second article was written they said they weren’t happy with the topic (it presented a conflict of interest with the site they would be posting it on) so I agreed to write a third article instead. The third article was written and delivered. I never received a reply on the work and was never paid. It was like they totally vanished off the face of the planet.

So I guess the freelance writing game is tough from both sides. Both buyers and sellers alike can be disappointing and let you down. My suggestion, at least from the buyer standpoint, is to stick to someone like glue once you find a writer that is reliable; no matter what their price is. The money you spend on the writing might be higher than most but the time you’ll save will make it worth it.

I’m sure a lot of you who read this blog have your own personal horror stories about web hosting companies. I’ve dealt with so many different web hosting providers over the years that I could probably sit down and write a dozen reviews of their services and pros and cons for you.

Luckily, thanks to Web Hosting Geeks, I don’t have to take the time to do that. This site is overflowing with unbiased web hosting reviews for all sorts of different providers. Anyone looking to switch hosts or just get started in the web development game might want to check the site out.

The most convenient part of their site, in my eyes, is the break down of hosts by theme or category. They’ve taken all of the hosts in their system and selected the best for such things as: blogs, forums, ecommerce, etc. There is also a breakdown for Unix and Windows hosting.

Web Hosting Geeks provides more than reviews though. They also have an entire section of their site dedicated to web hosting articles. This is a great resource for anyone struggling with picking a host, managing their current host or those just interested in how web hosting really works. In addition to host related topics, there are articles that cover standard web development subjects such as traffic, SEO and domain names.

Picking the right web host is sometimes a hit or miss proposition especially if you’re just starting out. It’s important that you take the time to do proper research before picking a web host. Remember that going with the cheapest option isn’t always the best idea and that many people have probably gone before you and have advice to give. That’s what makes a site like Web Hosting Geeks is so valuable. You can use it to learn from others’ mistakes and make the right choice for yourself.

I mentioned in my last post about eBay that I had a framework in place for quickly launching these types of affiliate sites. Today I’ve launched another one: Discount Sports Items

This site is actually built as a companion piece to all of the sports news sites that make up the Jack’s Sports Report network. Each one of the sports reports has team-based pages that previously contained a few links to related eBay auctions. Now with the Discount Sports Items I can cross-link the sites and offer visitors a wider variety of auctions to choose from almost seamlessly.

There wasn’t much effort involved in this new site since it runs on the same set of code that made Golfing Galaxy so quick and simple to setup. One of my big ideals whenever I do something is to build it in a manner that makes it easy to roll out similar sites quickly and efficiently if the idea behind the site proves to be successful. I’d already had a few conversions on the golf site and eBay listings on the sports report sites is proven to work so I’m optimistic for Discount Sports Items.

When I first started getting involved in freelance web development the requests for building online stores were few and far between. In recent years this has totally changed, as people want more and more to begin selling their products and services online. This trend has increased just as quickly as people’s concerns and interests in Search Engine Optimisation.

I’ve used my fair share of Ecommerce Software in this time and, really, they’re all about the same. They come in two flavors: hosted and self-hosted. My preference is to always go with the hosted solution because while the costs are usually higher the headaches are few and far between. A lot of the hosted solutions also have really excellent hooks that let you tie into your own CMS or scripts.

The one big knock on hosted shopping cart packages is that you lose almost all control over the look and feel of the interface. This is unfortunate because the best Web Design firms out there didn’t exactly build most of these carts. This is where the hooks they provide or so important. With the right hooks and programming you can do as much as you can on your side of the equation to offset what’s lacking on the hosted side.