As awareness of phishing grows among consumers, hosting providers and law enforcement officials, the operating window for phishing crews is likely to shrink. But anti-phishing efforts haven't stemmed the continued growth of these scams, which combine technology and trickery to steal login information for web banking and online retail sites. There were 1,422 separate phishing scams in June, according to the APWG, a 52 percent increase from May. Nearly 500 attacks targeted Citibank alone.

Amsterdam-based VIA Net.Works hosts about 204k hostnames, and says it will add 4,000 new customers by buying PSINet Europe from majority owner Israel Corporation Limited. VIA will take over PSINet Europe operations in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, but PSINet Europe's U.K. operations are not part of the acquisition.

The www.bcentral.com domain now redirects to the new Microsoft Small Business Center, which offers shared hosting accounts starting at $29.95 a month, with domain names available for $20 a year. Existing bCentral customers will see no change in services, according to the frequently asked questions about the changes. Microsoft says more than 2 million customers have used bCentral services.

July was a strong month for hosting companies in the Netherlands, four of whom experienced one-month growth of 23 percent or more, as measured by our Hosting Provider Switching Analysis. New sites accounted for nearly all the growth at NXS, Leaseweb and ProServe BV, while NETHolding/Garnier Projects gained 3k hostnames from yet another Dutch provider, BIT.

New.net, which offers domain names outside the ICANN top-level domain (TLD) system, had the largest one-month improvement, as measured by percent growth in hostnames. New.net domains (which include .shop, .xxx, .ltd and .mp3) aren't recognized by the centralized domain name system, but are accessible to customers of partner ISPs or those who have downloaded software enabling New.net domains. New.net claims that 174 million Internet users worldwide are able to access sites using its domains.

MySQL databases are often bundled with shared hosting accounts, but many hosting companies include them in second-tier plans, charging a slightly higher monthly rate. MySQL Hosting's entry-level plan offers 50 megabytes of web space and one MySQL database for $9.95 a month. That positions it competitively compared to many shared hosting providers offering a single-database MySQL bundle as a premium plan, but above discounters such as Go Daddy, which offer shared hosting with MySQL for as little as $3.95 a month.