Why e-commerce remains top of the agenda for Fasthosts
Over the last few years, e-commerce has become a significant part of the global retail industry, with this presence boosted even further during the pandemic.
As internet adoption continues to rise, the number of digital buyers is also simultaneously increasing year-on-year, as having a more digitally inclined ecosystem means consumers rely more on online stores over physical ones.
More retailers are focusing on their e-commerce websites as the demand continues to skyrocket across many industries worldwide. One month after Fasthosts launched its ecommerce website builder, TechRadar Pro spoke to its CEO Simon Yeoman to discuss the pivotal changes that occurred to help push its creation.
Why was now the time to launch an ecommerce website builder platform?
In the last year there has been a large shift away from the high street. Online retail is now bigger than ever. 2021 has set new record highs in the UK, with online sales growing 74% year-on-year in January 2021. Therefore, it was the perfect time to provide customers with a new ecommerce solution. Â
Our new solution makes it easier than ever for small business to get set-up online. The new Ecommerce Website Builder has simplicity at its core with intuitive features and drag-and-drop designs. It has been created to allow a business of any size flourish online, quickly and easily and, importantly, without a big price tag.
What is the company expecting from the website builder sector?
At Fasthosts we believe the website builder sector will only continue to head towards a do-it-yourself model, where customers will increasingly look for website building tools that make it as easy as possible to establish their online presence.Â
As such, we expect features such as drag-and-drop designs or set-up wizards to continue to grow in popularity.
What is one thing about Fasthosts that your customers may not know?
Back in 1999, Fasthosts was born out of a school project. While we have moved on from those roots now, it’s still nice to think of our company as potentially one of the most successful A-Level projects of all time.
What key elements stand out to you in regard to how the Fasthosts brand was built?
Our brand is built around reliability and trustworthiness. It runs through everything we do and it’s why we continue to offer 24/7 online as well as phone support to our customers.Â
We are committed to assisting our customers however we can which is why we are starting to introduce more supplementary services into our products to help our customers best design and manage their web presence.
What else is Fasthosts working on for its customers?
We currently have a few exciting new products that have just released or that are in the pipeline this year. Our latest WordPress hosting packages, for example, allow users to set up a great-looking WordPress site in mere minutes with the new WPAssistant.Â
Around the business we have even been getting our children to test the product out to show just how easy it is to get set up online.
We’ve ensured that the ease of set-up doesn’t come with any compromises on performance. In fact the improvements allow websites to load more quickly than ever, in just 0.3 seconds on average, which according to benchmark data is much faster than you could expect from similar products.
How does Fasthosts stand out from competitors based on its WordPress hosting and web hosting services?
Fasthosts products focus on simplicity and price transparency. What you see is what you pay, unlike many competitors who charge hidden costs.Â
Our data centres are also all based in the UK and run exclusively on green energy. Within our centres we ensure there are the right levels of redundancy and reliability to allow our customers to grow or scale-back as and when they need. We are currently building another brand new UK-based data centre to support these efforts even further.
Are there any trends you have witnessed in the web hosting and website builder sector?
With the huge shift to online in recent years, there have been a number of trends in the web hosting and website builder sector.Â
A focus on ease-of-use is one example – the sector isn’t only for experienced professionals anymore. Increasingly no-code or low-code software is allowing non-tech minded people to get involved in creating and maintaining simple sites. Green practices are also become increasingly important.Â
In all facets of society, environmentalism is coming to the forefront and it is no different in our sector. Energy efficient software and the use of green energy in data centres are two great examples of how the sector is moving towards a greener future.
What is Fasthosts' 2021 strategy?
In 2021, we have and will continue to focus on investing in our WordPress products, however, another large focus is the upcoming launch of our partner network. This will be a space where web professionals and SMEs can meet.Â
At Fasthosts we don’t claim to be experts in high-end web design but we do have many customers who are and therefore we want to create an environment which will allow these two groups to meet and work together.
These scam macOS apps won't let you quit without paying a subscription
Despite Apple’s rigorous App Review process, a new crop of scam apps for macOS have been discovered on the company’s App Store.
As reported by The Verge, principal software engineer at Red Hat, Edoardo Vacci discovered the first in the latest batch of scam apps. The app in question, My Metronome, locks up and won’t allow users to quit using either the menu bar or keyboard shortcuts (it can be Force Quit though) until they agree to pay a $9.99 per month subscription.
According to FlickType founder and scam app hunter Kosta Eleftheriou who spoke with The Verge, the developer behind My Metronome seems to have “experimented with various techniques over the years of preventing people from closing the paywall”.
Following a tweet from Eleftheriou, My Metronome was removed from the App Store but its developer, Music Paradise, LLC is also connected to another app development company called Groove Vibes that has created similar scam apps. In fact, according to the privacy policies of both companies, they’re registered at the same address and both mention Akadem GmbH.
Pay to quit apps
To see for themselves, The Verge decided to test Music Paradise’s Music Paradise Player app along with all of the Mac apps made by Groove Vibes.
According to the news outlet, all of the apps it tested immediately displayed a pop-up that asked users to sign up for a subscription. While three apps from Groove Vibes allowed users to quit using the menu bar or by pressing Command+Q, two of the company’s apps along with the Music Paradise Player app greyed out the quit option in the menu bar and prevented users from clicking the red button at the corner to close the app. Keyboard shortcuts were also of no use.
Unlike ransomware, the apps in question don’t lock users out of their files but instead prevent users from easily closing them so that they fall for the scam and sign up for a monthly subscription instead.
Surprisingly, all of these scam apps appeared to slip through the cracks during Apple’s App Review process which should have prevented them from being published in the first place. While scams like these do reappear from time to time, at least Apple added a “Report a Problem” button to the App Store so at least users can warn the company about scam apps.
Chrome 98 brings better screenshot support and a privacy guide
Another month brings a new version of Google’s web browser, with Chrome 98 showcasing a bunch of features that are hidden behind a flag.
A privacy guide gives you a better understanding of the sites that have been tracking you for example, alongside a better screenshot function that’s been in development since 2021. Chrome should have updated itself automatically, but you can check by going to About Google Chrome and seeing if it’s either at version 98 or if it’s in the midst of being updated.
For the time being, however, these need to be enabled through the flag feature. This hides experimental features under development, but by going to chrome://flags, you can enable the screenshot and privacy guide function that Google Chrome 98 brings.
With Chrome being released on a monthly schedule, and version 100 being on track to be released in March, there are features being brought to the forefront to better help users, rather than the incremental background updates that are invisible to the casual user. But it shouldn’t be long until we see the privacy guide appear without having to be enabled through a flag.
Analysis: Google, let’s refine the flags page at last
The flag feature has been in Chrome for as long as the web browser has been released to users. Since 2010, the feature was renamed from Labs to Flags, where the experimental features have remained at chrome://flags.
But the way of navigating these flags has always been a struggle, as you can use a search engine to find a feature, but there’s currently no way of filtering the flags that are enabled. It’s either scrolling up or scrolling down to find these.
(Image credit: Google)
While Google maintains that this is strictly for power users and developers, having to enable a better screenshot function in Chrome 98 seems pointless for these types of users. It would be great to see a refresh of the flags page, with screenshots for each flag, alongside a way of displaying what flags have been enabled so far.
As we’re heading into triple figures in March with version 100, it could be a nice touch to see this page be modernized for the next 100 updates that Chrome is inevitably going to get.
In recent releases, we’ve seen improvements to the engine that powers Chrome and how it displays web pages, but it would be encouraging to see more features be showcased on the flag page, for the casual user instead.
We’re heading into an age where the web browser is going to be used for much more than work and gaming, as Opera has currently showcased. To appeal to users of features that they can switch on and off by themselves while explaining the benefits could be a good next step for Chrome going forward.
