Microsoft Free Website Hosting

Microsoft is offering Free Web Site hosting. After a very frustrating call with GoDaddy, I went in search of a new provider. "Office Live" had just what I wanted.

Backgrounder:
I assigned my teenage daughter the task of setting up a website for a client. The client wanted to maintain the website after intial setup. It was a basic billboard type website. I had initially purchased Websight Tonight from GoDaddy to setup the site. We had purchased two months to get started. We had not used the Websight Tonight yet but the timer starts clicking at time of purchase not at time of inital use. By the time we got around to actually using the software one month had already gone by. So, I call GoDaddy to get one one month that had expired back. They refused. I ask GoDaddy where I could find this in agreement, the customer support said this was it was not in the agreeement it was an internal policy. The support person was very rude and would not give me his name. Amazing enough, this is the only phone call in which I did not receive GoDaddys usual followup survey.

Resolution:
Needless, to say Office Live Basic will be hosting the website. The website design tools are simple and easy to use. They keep the interface basic enough to keep the beginner from digging theirselves into a hole. You can't get fancy with CSS or XML. You pick a theme and a style from a list of choices. This is good enough for the beginner. This is just what my daughter wanted and the client wanted.

You can define a page description and tags for the search engine. I did not see where you could upload an web page. This is the free web hosting.

The additional bonus was there was not an advertising banner at the top of the page. GoDaddy's free web hosting puts an advertising banner at the top of the page. Microsoft does put a "Office Live" tag in the lower corner of the page.

Here is an one of the websites I set up in less than an hour. Horizon Data Management

In case you are wondering, the client knows my daughter was setting up the website. Thus, the babysitting rate.

If your not impressed with GoDaddy's e-mail service you may want to try "Office Live". GoDaddy's e-mail is slow cumbersome and tedious to log onto. If someone sends you an email with the website you have hosted through them, it may be 15-20 minutes before it is finally forwarded to your personal e-mail.