This is not a paid advertisement! I don’t know the creators and have not invested in their start-up (though if it ever goes public, I’ll consider investing). I discovered this tool just a few days ago: the more people use it and contribute to it, the better it will become.

A group of French entrepreneurs, headed by Patrice Lamothe as CEO, launched Pearltrees this spring. It is still in alpha mode, but it rocks.  So what is Pearltrees? A new GUI that allows you to create mind-maps of your Web, any way you like, to guide your friends and colleagues through your Web, discover and share in others’ Web, and much more.

If you are like me, over the years you’ve amassed an impressive list of bookmarks that become cumbersome to search through when you are looking for *that* article you read a while back that you need *now*.

Or you subscribe to many blogs through a feed reader and you’d like to organize some posts for future use in an easy way.

Or your Delicious account and those of your friends are overflowing, making it hard to share interests and resources, no matter how well tagged each entry might be.

Or your well-designed blog is losing aesthetic appeal as lists of thematic links clutter your sidebar.

Pearltrees will do all that.

And  if you are working on an article, a blog post or a project – alone or in a team – and you need to find an effective way to pull together your information, share it and have others contribute their resources, all you need to do is create a pearltree.

Driving this thing takes some getting used to and there is still the occasional bug.  Shifting from folders, files and lists to a visual organization (that you can change at will) can be disconcerting for some at first, but the advantages are quickly obvious. The plug-in for Firefox makes it a breeze to “pearl” whatever Web page you’d like to keep. You can also include your pearls in your blog, website, emails, Twit them or send them over to a friend.

Here is one I created to introduce you to Pearltrees.

Enjoy! And if, like me, you think this invention is hot, spread the word!

A colleague recommended Mavenhosting, which I had never heard of. Their service plans seemed to offer everything I was looking for and more. I was dubious at first as their front-end website does not provide as much information as a programming newbie and network neophyte might need, but one of my hosting plans was coming up for renewal so I took the plunge.

I’m sold.

Aside from the 40% reduction in my overall web hosting budget once the transfers are done, what did I gain?
More web space
Cpanel management tools
Web software, including WordPress (no need to host your blog on WordPress.com and no design editing limitations!)
Multidomain hosting and management from one account
And much more.

The icing on the cake, which in the last few days has saved me from pulling my hair out, is superb, responsive, quick support by email, 24/7. None of this “closed on Sunday”, limited office hours, autoresponse “we got your email, we’ll respond eventually” nonsense professionals have no time for.

These folks in Quebec take client satisfaction seriously, they walk the talk.

Thanks, Mavenhosting!

A few days later

There’s been a severe heatwave here in Savoie. My garden is toast; there will be no rasberry jam or ratatouille to brighten up the long winter ahead. Quebec, though, has had a few rainy days lately; William over at Mavenhosting offered to share some.