News from around the web this morning:

OpenDNS Announcement   

OpenDNS announced today that it handles more that 5 billion DNS queries a day, with zero downtime. Launched 18 months ago, OpenDNS is the world's largest and fastest growing DNS service. Their site Phishtank.com lists over a quarter million phishing sites. Its new Domain Tagging service, launched last week, is billed as a "People-Powered Security System" has categorized more than 100,000 domains and is trying to be "the best- the most accurate, comprehensive and fastest-moving" Web content filtering system available. From the announcement:

"We're thrilled to be offering a rock-solid, reliable DNS and Web content filtering service to millions of people around the world," said OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch. "Our primary objective is and has always been to make the Internet better for our users and we'll continue to regularly deliver service enhancements with that goal in mind."

OpenDNS provides and outstanding, and free, service. I've used them happily. The numbers are impressive.

Microsoft Speculation

Nick Carr got rampant speculation started about Microsoft's rumoured massive data-center rollout plan. Commenting on the plan, his post states:

The first phase of the buildout, said the source, will include the construction of about two dozen data centers around the world, each covering about 500,000 square feet or more. The timing of the construction is unclear.

Speculation abounds about what the effect of a massive buildup is for. If the Yahoo! merger goes through and they combine hosting operations the industry could be facing what some have termed a "mega-provider". Microsoft isn't known for playing nice, so it will be interesting to see the implications of this if it goes through.

Hosting 2.0

WebHostingTalk has an interesting article titled "Hosting 2.0: Are You Ready for the Next Level?", asking if your hosting services are up to the task of hosting the Web 2.0 movement. The article looks at the increased storage and bandwidth demands Web 2.0 demands and calls for standards in RSS technology. The concept of "extreme trust", using Wikipedia as an example, is looked at with a warning about black hat hackers eventually turning it to their advantage. The author also takes a look at what clients will need and demand from a host. Overall a very interesting read.

Do you use OpenDNS? What do you think of the Microsoft speculation, will they enter and compete in web hosting? Is your host ready for Web 2.0? Leave a comment! Thank you.