A screenshot of the Web Desktop’s “app grid” navigation (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — With the explosion of cloud technologies moving the industry forward, and with companies increasingly developing applications in the cloud, hosting providers, and the services that deal with the hosting business, are looking for new ways to use the cloud in distributing or supporting their services. Messaging and collaboration provider Open-Xchange ( www.open-xchange.com ) is just one of the many companies embracing the cloud

An image of Chris Latterell, vice president of marketing at Open-Xchange (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) –- Open-source collaboration software provider Open-Xchange ( www.open-xchange.com ) announced on Monday it has named Chris Latterell the company’s vice president of marketing. He specializes in the areas of communication and marketing strategy, direct marketing, online platform/tools, interactive/new media, key account planning, marketing, operations and process optimization and key relationship development. Latterell joins Open-Xchange from Munich, Germany-based frog design where he served as a senior manager.

A screen shot of Amazon Cloud Drive interface (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) –- Amazon announced earlier this week it has launched its new Amazon Cloud Drive ( www.amazon.com/clouddrive ) service, which allows users to stream their music collection on any computer or mobile device via the Internet. The move confirms what many industry analysts have been predicting about the next-generation of music services, moving music into the cloud. It certainly makes it easier for consumers to acces music among multiple computers and devices, eliminating the timely and often complicated process of uploading music to a computer and manually transferring them between devices.

A screen shot of Amazon Cloud Drive interface (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) –- Amazon announced earlier this week it has launched its new Amazon Cloud Drive ( www.amazon.com/clouddrive ) service, which allows users to stream their music collection on any computer or mobile device via the Internet. The move confirms what many industry analysts have been predicting about the next-generation of music services, moving music into the cloud

Parallels CEO Birger Steen (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – The last keynote presentation before the lunch break came from Parallels ( www.parallels.com ), a company that needs no introduction for most attendees at WorldHostingDays. Titled “Road Ahead: More Customers, More Services, More Opportunity – and More Competition”, CEO Birger Steen gave a preview at what Parallels is doing in the upcoming months.

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The final Tuesday morning keynote at WorldHostingDays this week in Germany was delivered by Hyder Ali, the hosting industry director for the communications sector at Microsoft. He began by saying that Microsoft itself is in the midst of a critical transformation from a company that sold desktop software to a company whose services are hosted.

Screen shots of The Rackspace Cloud 2.0 on the iPhone (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosting and cloud solutions provider Rackspace ( www.rackspace.com ) formalized a new program called the Rackspace Startup Program, which provides cloud computing resources to startups participating in programs with 500 Startups, TechStars, Y Combinator and General Assembly.   Earlier this week, Rackspace made news by launching its new division, Cloud Builders , which will provide service and support to businesses deploying clouds on the OpenStack platform. Rackspace has partnered with startup accelerators and incubators such as 500 Startups, TechStars, Y Combinator and General Assembly, where it will provide cloud compute resources to participating startups. Through the program Rackspace will provide one-on-one guidance and cloud compute resources to help power these startups to success.  Rackspace says it is “committed to helping entrepreneurs succeed and drive the next generation of businesses and cloud innovation.” In addition to the new program, Rackspace also released Rackspace Cloud 2.0, which is now available for download on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch via iTunes .

Could the day be coming when companies want to ditch their own websites, and domain names, and rely on social marketing pages to promote their products or services? That is what Facebook is hoping. In a conference presentation in London this week, Stephen Haines, commercial director of Facebook’s U.K

Fake Twitter Notifications Lead to Spam Monday, February 28, 2011, 5:54:00 AM If you’ve received any notifications from Twitter in the last few days, chances are they”re well disguised fakes and will link you to one of many online ‘pharmacies’. The emails, titled ‘Twitter Notification’, come from the @postmaster.twitter.com address and have incorporated one of Twitter’s official email templates to look like the real deal.

Bill Staples of Microsoft delivers a Thursday keynote session (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Bill Staples of Microsoft closed out the first part of the Thursday morning keynote sessions at Parallels Summit this week.