ShopCity.com is announces the launch of ShopBuffalo.com by The Buffalo News and Buffalo.com. Says ShopCity.com CEO and founder Colin Pape, “The entire Buffalo News team is amazing to work with – from their visionary leaders and talented developers to their super passionate community reps who are spreading the word and helping local businesses succeed online

Web giant Google Inc. announced Tuesday it will be providing websites and hosting services free of charge to Canadian businesses. Google has partnered with Rogers Communications Inc., Royal Bank of Canada, the free website builder tool, Yola Inc., based in San Francisco, and the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) in the initiative called Get Your Business Online (gybo.ca or ecsel.ca in French)

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Domain registry and DNS service provider Afilias ( www.afilias.info ) announced on Thursday that domain registry PunktBayern ( www.punktbayern.de ), the company behind the upcoming top level geographic domain .bayern, has chosen Afilias as a partner for registry and DNS services. Afilias says it will work closely with PunktBayern on its upcoming top level domain application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( www.icann.org ).

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Domain registry and DNS service provider Afilias ( www.afilias.info ) announced on Thursday that domain registry PunktBayern ( www.punktbayern.de ), the company behind the upcoming top level geographic domain .bayern, has chosen Afilias as a partner for registry and DNS services. Afilias says it will work closely with PunktBayern on its upcoming top level domain application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( www.icann.org ).

An artist rendering of Digital Realty’s new data center in Singapore’s International Business Park (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – The Singapore government has commissioned a study to understand the energy consumption and environmental performance of data centers in the US, according to a report by ZDNet Asia. Commissioned by the National Environment Agency, the study will be conducted by HP and supported by local ICT regulator the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA). According to the report, the study will analyze energy usage patterns and operating conditions of data centers, evaluate current green data center metrics and identify areas of standardization

A registrar association for the .NL ccTLD is in the process of being established with SIDN, the registry, announcing that significant progress has been made. The intention is that the registrar association should take up the role of the now defunct Council of Registrars, thus satisfying the general wish for a formal channel of communication between SIDN and the registrar community.

A screen shot of The SharePoint Initiative’s SharePoint 2010 page (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — UK hosting provider The SharePoint Initiative ( www.sharepointinitiative.com ) announced on Monday it is currently offering SharePoint 2010 hosting, which allows customers to store their data in the UK under stringent UK data protection laws.