I've been talking to tophosts about advertising on their site and out of interest started looking into where they are based. After a quick search on google I found they were owned by http://www.verticalscope.com/contact.html , who are based in Canada, the address on their site is shown as:

VerticalScope
111 Peter Street, Suite 700
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 2H1
Canada

I then looked up their zip code on google http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=M5V+2H1 and found that was the same address was the same as that being used by WebHosting.com. When I did a look up for their DNS records I got:

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing Contact:
Rasch, Jesse (JR11179) jr@WEBHOSTING.COM
WebHosting.Com Inc.
111 Peter Street, Suite 700
Toronto
ON
M5V 1H2

Did everyone else know that they are owned by webhosting.com??? I've never heard this mentioned anywhere before. I'm not sure about how ethical it is for a host to own a directory.

I found that out when I saw the left bar!!! HOLY ****!

KFC and Pizza Hut are both owned by Pepsi. Minute Maid Orange Juice and PowerAde are both owned by Coke. I'm not sure what the point of your post is. Who care who they are owned by?

And, not for nothing, but I get slightly different results:

Domain Name: WEBHOSTING.COM

Rasch, Jesse (JR11179) jr@WEBHOSTING.COM
WebHosting.Com Inc.
111 Peter Street, Suite 700
Toronto ON M5V 1H2
CA


Domain Name: TOPHOSTS.COM

Administrative Contact:
Rob Laidlaw rob@verticalscope.com
n/a
#1117 - 168 Simcoe St
Toronto, ON M5H-4C9
CA

Domain Name: VERTICALSCOPE.COM

Administrative Contact:
Rob Laidlaw rob@verticalscope.com
n/a
#1117 - 168 Simcoe St
Toronto, ON M5H-4C9
CA

That's interesting... The whois lookup does show that address, but on webhosting.com's website it shows:

WebHosting.com
150 York Street, Suite 1900
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5H 3S5

same city, different address.... :confused:

Thats a pretty well kept secret youve uncovered there Brian. Its worse than you think though.

Tophosts is run by http://www.aprilis.com/pages/ourteam.htm

Which is owned by Jesse Rasch, who in turn used to own www.webhosting.com AKA www.inquent.com. Both these guys also hold senior postions on the boards of:

www.verticalscope.com AKA www.Tophosts.com
www.aprilis.com
www.inquent.com

So to answer your origional question Yes we knew, but I'm not sure how many others did......

Ohh while we're on the subject of ethics I think theyre pushing the envelope on webhosting.com where is says under their press releases

"Top Hosts, an independently owned guide to international Web hosting services, has ranked WebHosting.Com as the Number #1 small business host in the world. Top Hosts recognized our quality, speed, and value in assessing our leadership position."

errrm "independant"?????

All I have to say on that one is sneaky.. Very very sneaky ...

James, isn't addahost ==> addr.com?
And also, I am pretty sure HostIndex was founded by a large host - I can't remember who. It was then moved to a separte company NuMedia, but the host still owns NuMedia? Do you know?

As far as I can remember, Addahost was owned by Web America . Numedia Internet owns HostIndex, and I believe they offer both hosting and dial up facilities, and just like Tophosts they have a nice open statement at the bottom of their home page which reads

"1998-2002, NuMedia Internet Inc.
HostIndex.com does not provide web hosting services."

Well theyre sort of telling the truth.....;)

Originally posted by uuallan
Who cares who they are owned by?


Well I would have thought handing over your maketing dollars to one of your competitors probably isnt the fastest way to making money in web hosting.

Originally posted by James Cross

Well I would have thought handing over your maketing dollars to one of your competitors probably isnt the fastest way to making money in web hosting.

That's a good point, and one that I was not thinking about. My assumption is that if you have done enough research on a company you would know if they slant toward one particular provider, and not advertise there.

So, if I saw webhosting.com plastered all over tophosts, I would most definitely avoid tophosts. But as long as that is not the case, and if I think tophosts is the best resource for driving traffic to my site, I would not hesitate to advertise there (of course we all know the best place to advertise a web host is http://www.webhostdir.com :D).

The way I see it honesty is one of the most important qualities of a good business. If they we're open about their ownership then at least people could make an informed decision.

It almost makes you wonder if Chicken is really the schoolteacher he says he is and if Matt really exists.

Maybe Chicken is the CEO of *****s and he made Matt up just to direct attention away from himself while posing as "just a moderator" :D

*note to self: watch less tv*

Shhhhhhh! *bans Pilgrim quick* You've figured out the whole thing! AHHHHHH! Since the cat is out of the bag, I might as well tell you that BC is actually my pet monkey. :D

hheheh :)

Well, it seems to me that top hosts has been providing an excellent service so far and I know that many companies are happy with the results, so although they are one of my competitors - I think that it doesn't really matter who owns them as long as you get a decent amount of clients and exposure for your $...

Originally posted by Pilgrim
It almost makes you wonder if Chicken is really the schoolteacher he says he is and if Matt really exists.

Maybe Chicken is the CEO of *****s and he made Matt up just to direct attention away from himself while posing as "just a moderator" :D

*note to self: watch less tv*

Originally posted by Lonny
I think that it doesn't really matter who owns them as long as you get a decent amount of clients and exposure for your $...


Well it might not bother you, but it sure as hell bothers me. I definately care where my money goes regardless of what i get in return. I dont like the idea of me funding a competitors own marketing budget. Even if they do send business my way, i know that every click I've paid for has gone towards marketing their own web hosting services. If I'm going to waste money on directories I'd rather the cash didnt end up funding one of my own competitors. There are enough "honest" alternatives out there to choose another advertising option.

Originally posted by uuallan


(of course we all know the best place to advertise a web host is http://www.webhostdir.com :D).

Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!:D

Originally posted by NexDog


Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!:D

Well all I can say is that we are privately owned, and have no outside shareholders that are related to the web hosting industry.

That's what I mean, James. We are advertising with you now and we are HAPPY! :)

Sorry Laurence, I couldnt see your profile. Glad to hear your happy with the service :-)

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
James, isn't addahost ==> addr.com?
And also, I am pretty sure HostIndex was founded by a large host - I can't remember who. It was then moved to a separte company NuMedia, but the host still owns NuMedia? Do you know?

Your righ James, Hostindex is owned by Numdia inc which has offices in the same building as www.developersnetwork.com !! Seems the Canadians like working in the shadows of secrecy ;)

Ohh sorry I also forgot to say they also offer hosting via http://www.canadawebdesigns.com/services.php

To clear it up:

RL owns VerticalScope.
TopHosts is a division of VerticalScope.
JR owns Inquent, which used to be Webhosting.com.
RL sold Webhosting.com to Jesse.
JR used to have this office.
JR moved.
RL now has this office.
They are friends, yes.
Does Webhosting or Inquent own TopHosts or VerticalScope? No.
Thus, TopHosts is it's own company, as a part of VerticalScope, and is independent.

Does that help everybody? Tracking down obscure and sometimes old information can cause people to connect dots that really have nothing to do with each other. I work here, at VerticalScope, so I would think I know ; )

Originally posted by lopix
To clear it up:

RL owns VerticalScope.
TopHosts is a division of VerticalScope.
JR owns Inquent, which used to be Webhosting.com.
RL sold Webhosting.com to Jesse.
JR used to have this office.
JR moved.
RL now has this office.
They are friends, yes.
Does Webhosting or Inquent own TopHosts or VerticalScope? No.
Thus, TopHosts is it's own company, as a part of VerticalScope, and is independent.


Anyone else dizzy? or is it just me? ;)

Well my head is spinning.

I wonder if anybody else remembers where these pictures used to appear:

http://www.aprilis.com/pages/ourteam.htm

It was the "staff" page of a hosting operation that shut down last year...

G

Originally posted by lopix
To clear it up:

RL owns VerticalScope.
TopHosts is a division of VerticalScope.
JR owns Inquent, which used to be Webhosting.com.
RL sold Webhosting.com to Jesse.
JR used to have this office.
JR moved.
RL now has this office.
They are friends, yes.
Does Webhosting or Inquent own TopHosts or VerticalScope? No.
Thus, TopHosts is it's own company, as a part of VerticalScope, and is independent.

Does that help everybody? Tracking down obscure and sometimes old information can cause people to connect dots that really have nothing to do with each other. I work here, at VerticalScope, so I would think I know ; )

Not really as it still doent explain why your all located in the same building? Plus what you've stated above doesnt stack up with either the canadian news wire service or most of your own company/s corporate info pages.

==============================================
Extract: http://www.aprilis.com/pages/ourteam_wb.htm

"B.Sc., MBA, LLB
Executive Vice-President

Wayne is an Executive Vice-President at Aprilis Ventures and serves as an officer or director in various companies where Aprilis has made an investment.

Wayne is currently CEO of VerticalScope Inc. As CEO of VerticalScope, Wayne is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the Company, as well as its bottom-line results. Wayne also manages all legal aspects of the Company's business relationships"

==============================================

Seems like you might not be working for who you think you are ;)

Originally posted by lopix
To clear it up:

JR owns Inquent, which used to be Webhosting.com.

Tracking down obscure and sometimes old information can cause people to connect dots that really have nothing to do with each other. I work here, at VerticalScope, so I would think I know ; )

Sorry I also forgot t add this link too:

==============================================
Extract: http://www.aprilis.com/pages/ourteam_jr.htm

Rasch also co-founded VerticalScope in 1999, a leader in delivering specialized content resources on-line for the SME market. Verticalscope builds industry specific sites capitalizing on proprietary tools and a team of expert industry writers. As Chairman of VerticalScope, the company's growth and revenue has skyrocketed with profitability in the millions.

==============================================

Do you even who your own boss's name???