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In the November 2010 survey we received responses from 249,461,227 sites.

Apache continues to gain market share, with an increase of 1.29 percentage points since last month. This is the result of 12.9M new Apache hostnames, mostly in the United States (8.1M) and the Netherlands (1.6M). As seen in previous months, other server vendors lost market share as a result, though all of the major vendors apart from Google actually gained hostnames this month.

nginx saw an overall increase of 927k hostnames, despite a loss of 135k at China Telecom, as the resulting loss in Asia was outweighed by large growth in both EMEA and North America. The most significant changes were 213k new hostnames at BurstNet and 207k new hostnames at ServePath, both in the United States. As a result, nginx overtakes Google in this metric, although nginx still trails in terms of active sites, where Google maintains a lead of more than 4M.

At the end of September, Microsoft announced the migration of Windows Live Spaces sites to WordPress.com, which will happen over the next few months. Wordpress.com uses load-balanced hosting at Layered Technologies and Peer1 and this month both companies saw modest increases in the number of sites using nginx (60k and 48k hostnames respectively). For the moment, Windows Live Spaces sites in the sites.live.com domain whose blogs have been moved to WordPress.com remain online redirecting users to their new location. For example, http://mikese.mobile.spaces.live.com still exists served by Microsoft but when accessed redirects to http://mikese.wordpress.com, which is running nginx. In contrast, blogs on their own domains will result in losses for Microsoft as the DNS can simply be updated with no need for redirection. An example of a site in this category is http://ozzie.net which switched over in the middle of October; at the time it was not clear if this change from IIS on Windows to nginx on Linux was a deliberate move by Ray Ozzie as he prepared to step down as Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, though it now appears to be part of the wider Windows Live Spaces to WordPress.com migration. Since WordPress.com is served by nginx, we expect to see a continued increase in sites using nginx as the migration takes place.

Despite the changes described above, Microsoft gained 3.1M hostnames this month, mostly in the United States. The largest increases were 942k hostnames at GoDaddy and 717k hostnames at Demand Media Inc.

Lighttpd gained 690k hostnames, making up for the large loss last month. The growth came as the result of large number of new hostnames at SAVVIS Communications in Australia.

For more information on active servers, see Active Sites

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Earlier this morning,
GitHub
announced that it had
changed its revision control website to use
SSL only; however, a significant
flaw in the implementation means that session cookies can still be captured by
Firesheep and other network
sniffing tools.

Firesheep brought

session hijacking to the masses when it was released last month. Ironically,
its own GitHub repository includes a

github.js handler, which was designed to capture unencrypted session cookies
from GitHub users. This allowed novice attackers to monitor shared network
traffic (such as public WiFi) and hijack those sessions.

A day after its release, Firesheep’s author stated that a basic expectation of privacy should not be a premium feature, referring to the fact that, at the time, you had to pay GitHub if you wanted to use full-session SSL. GitHub’s move to SSL
this morning should have eliminated the session hijacking vulnerability,
rendering Firesheep useless; however, the session cookies used by the site are
not always handled securely.

When a user logs in to GitHub, the server sets a _gh_ses session cookie in the client browser. This cookie is not marked with the Secure
flag, which means it will be transmitted unencrypted if the user subsequently
visits http://github.com, even though that page immediately redirects the user to https://github.com.
This means the site’s users may still be vulnerable to sniffing tools such as
Firesheep.

Netcraft successfully hijacked a session from the GitHub site by sniffing the cookies that were sent via unencrypted HTTP. Many legacy URLs will still point to the HTTP version of the site, so an attacker may not even need to entice a victim into visiting the HTTP site. Once a session has been hijacked, the attacker can freely create repositories, delete/add email addresses and change passwords, so it looks like the sidejack prevention that GitHub implemented a week ago (which did use a Secure cookie) has been undone.

Although GitHub’s move to SSL has not yet been implemented securely, it is at least a
step in the right direction for Firesheep’s author, Eric Butler. When he released the tool on 24 October 2010, he said:

Websites have a responsibility to protect the people who depend on their services. They’ve been ignoring this responsibility for too long, and it’s time for everyone to demand a more secure web. My hope is that Firesheep will help the users win.

GitHub announced the SSL-only change on Twitter this morning, and is expected to publish a blog post about it soon.

Update

GitHub has since fixed the session cookie to be secure. Now that it can only be transmitted over encrypted connections, this makes the site invulnerable to Firesheep.

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(The Hosting News) — As Windows Phone 7 goes on sale in AT&T and T-Mobile USA stores across the United States, Microsoft Corp. has commissioned and released the findings of a recent Harris Interactive® survey showing the surprising ways mobile phones have become a part of the fabric of Americans’ lifestyles — a point illustrated by the fact that 55 percent of all phone owners surveyed age 18–35 have used their phone in a bathroom. To commemorate the U.S. launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is challenging consumers to get a grip on their mobile phone habits.

Although consumers love their phones, there is growing annoyance with the distracted behaviors people exhibit while their heads are buried in their phones. Most U.S. adults indicate they have witnessed examples of bad mobile phone behavior, yet relatively few have admitted to engaging in such behavior themselves. Key findings from the study show the following from the surveyed adults:

• Seventy-two percent identified bad mobile phone behavior as one of their top 10 pet peeves, but only 18 percent of mobile phone owners admit they are guilty of displaying such behavior.
 
• Nineteen percent of phone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 have dropped their phone in a toilet.
 
• Forty-nine percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have tripped or walked into something while walking and texting or e-mailing on their mobile phone.
 
• Sixty-nine percent of mobile phone users between the ages of 18 and 34 have used their phone while in bed.

The new Windows Phones offer a different kind of phone experience designed to get users in, out and back to life. With Windows Phone, Microsoft set out to design a mobile experience that would bring the things people care about most right to the start screen. In doing so, Windows Phone combines basic everyday tasks — tasks associated with e-mail or activities related to taking and sharing pictures — so people can do more in fewer steps.

Better Design Encourages Better Behavior?
By reimagining the way people access information on their smartphones, Windows Phone 7 is designed to help people perform common tasks more easily and faster. In an effort to root out bad phone behavior and test the theory that better phone design leads to better phone behavior, TV personality Rob Dyrdek and actor Minka Kelly are currently traveling the country on an adventure to challenge people to change their relationships with the mobile phone. Consumers can follow the Windows Phone 7 Really Rally Road Trip at http://www.windowsphone.com.

Source: Windows Phone 7 Goes on Sale in the US

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(The Hosting News) – British firms are neglecting the needs of consumers accessing websites from mobile devices, according to research released today by 1&1 Internet Ltd, www.1and1.co.uk, a global leader amongst web hosts.  From a study of 530 small firms, 53 per cent have never checked the appearance or functionality of their website for Smartphone users.  From companies that have, 41 per cent admit their website has a reduced appearance, and 36 per cent offer reduced functionality.   65 per cent of firms have not optimised their websites for mobile usage and have no plans to do so.  Despite widespread adoption of mobile browsing by Britons, the data reveals less than 1 in 4 firms recognise that their sales or brand could be enhanced with a more mobile-friendly website.  Many companies could be alienating mobile online consumers and risking their own growth.

British businesses have worked hard in recent years to create visibility for themselves on the Internet and adapt to the needs of the online consumer.  At the same time, there is clear evidence that more people are browsing the web on the go with devices such as the iPhone, BlackBerry or Android phone.  IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, predicts Smartphone shipments worldwide will jump by 55 per cent this year – 10 per cent more than projections it made earlier this year.  However, research from 1&1’s ‘SME Mobile Website Audit’(1) finds that a worrying number of UK firms may be at risk of losing the audience they worked hard to acquire as consumers now switch to browsing the Internet from a mobile device.  Despite 64 per cent of small business owners having used a mobile device to surf the web in their private lives, more than half (53 per cent) have not yet checked the appearance or functionality of their own business website using this method.

The smaller screen and touch functionality of mobile devices can often make it necessary to adapt the design of websites. Furthermore, a significantly higher number of operating systems and browsers have to be supported as compared to local hardware like PCs.  From companies that have examined their web presence from a mobile, 41 per cent admit their website has a reduced appearance from a mobile device, and 36 per cent know of reduced functionality.  Worryingly, only 7 per cent of firms were confident they have optimised their websites for mobile usage, whilst 65 per cent have no plans to do so.

Oliver Mauss, CEO 1&1 Internet Ltd. said, “Many websites have not yet reached the Smartphone age.  As a result, small firms in particular can miss a massive opportunity.  Businesses must ensure that when their website is viewed on a mobile, it loads promptly, functions correctly and comprises an attractive and fitting representation of them”.

British business owners today place a low importance upon whether their website can be used comfortably from a mobile device.  Only the minority of owners (18 per cent) believe that a mobile-friendly website would positively impact sales revenue, 23 per cent recognise a link to brand enhancement, and 31 per cent feel it could provide access to a broader range of customers.  43 per cent of owners agree that an optimised website could make a difference to the overall visibility of a business.  The figures suggest that complacency on the issue has the potential to place firms at risk of losing website visitors and failing to engage with consumers.

Thus, it is perhaps unsurprising that mobile-friendly website features are still not common place.  Remarkably, only 1 in 4 firms have a location map on their website, or have location listings on popular search engines such as Google.  Some 20 per cent of companies were submitted within local business directories.  Only 2 per cent offer eCommerce functionality optimised for a mobile device.

Interestingly, the level of optimisation for mobile devices varies on an international scale.  Spanish business owners are most likely to have checked their website for mobile usage (58 per cent), whilst German firms are the least likely (31 per cent).  French companies have made the most efforts to optimise the design of their websites (13 per cent).  German companies were most apathetic to the issue, with 50 per cent foreseeing no potential benefit at all to their business – in stark contrast to American firms, 28 per cent of which believe a mobile-friendly website could lead directly to an increase in sales revenue.

Mauss added, “On-the-go web access is a strong trend, one that can be used to every business’s advantage.  Firms of all sizes must ensure they are online whenever and wherever the consumer needs them.  By accommodating the mobility of their online audience, customer loyalty and spend can be enhanced”.

In order to help business website owners to benefit from the boom in mobile internet surfing, 1&1 currently offers it web hosting packages with free professional web design software.  For a limited period, depending on the chosen hosting package, new customers receive full versions of either NetObjects Fusion 1&1 Edition or Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, (both for Windows OS).  Both solutions allow easy creation of a website optimised for mobile viewing.  Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 includes the Adobe Device Central module that enables testing for the latest mobile devices. In doing so, users can ensure their website is fully optimised for mobile visitors.

As the world’s largest web host, 1&1 is well placed to deliver a high quality service to business customers.  The company currently holds more than 9.5 million customer contracts worldwide and manages over 11 million domain names.

For more information on 1&1 hosting visit the website at www.1and1.co.uk

(1) 530 UK small companies with a website surveyed via electronic feedback form

Source: British Firms Not Checking Their Mobile Websites

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