The site first began as part of Paul Hillbeck's personal web page in
1998, a simple listing of a number of ISP's offering pay as you go Internet
access.
1999
In 1999, Peter Harris, from Internet Consultancy QiQ, approached Paul
with a view to developing the site. Net4Nowt was officially born.
The word nowt is an English northern dialect word meaning "nothing."
Thus, the phrase Net4Nowt literally means "net for nothing." When Net4Nowt
was first launched there were many Internet businesses practically falling
over themselves to offer free Internet access and while this has changed
Net4Now still remains synonymous with helping consumers finding a good
value Internet access deal.
The Net4Nowt newsletter is launched and gains an increasing number of
subscribers.
26 May 2004 Net4Nowt introduces and ISP search wizard. Consumers can
simply enter details of their preferences for an ISP and the wizard
finds appropriate suppliers.
2 December 2004 - Net4Nowt launches its first Christmas Charity appeal
for 'Hopes & Dreams'.
The name change was made to reflect the continued evolution of the site.
The original remit for the site was to offer information on free Internet
Service Providers and whilst Net4Now continues to offer ISP listings
and information (few who offer services for nowt!), our name has now
been changed to reflect our broadening Internet news content.
Net4Now has
provided listing information to a number of publications. We are frequently
quoted in national newspapers and in news stories relating to the net
industry. The UK's office of telecommunications is familiar with Net4Now
and has used the site in its research, similarly the BBC quote our information
in technology related news stories.
Paragon Publishing's' Practical Internet Magazine recently tried to
figure out the best web sites of all time. They assembled a panel of
50 industry experts to decide on the top 100 sites. We appeared in the
listing at position 73.
The review of the site read "It seems that there are more ISP's in Britain
than there are people, and this site has become invaluable to anyone
trying to pick out the right service provider for them. You'll find
comprehensive lists of free, 0845, unmetered and broadband ISP's here."
The top ten included sites such the BBC, Amazon, Streetmap, Railtrack,
Yahoo, Yell, eBay and Lastminute with Google picking up the number one
position.
Peter heads the Net4Now team. Peter has been working in the Internet
related positions since 1995 including working as Internet Activity
Manager for Barclays Bank - a top-four UK bank. In 1998 Peter left Barclays
to form Internet consultancy QiQ Limited. QiQ have worked with royal
institutions, charities, credit card firms, aviation authorities, security
companies and many global businesses large and small. Peter is the holder
of a first class BA (Hons) in Multi Media.
Paul Hamlington
Paul is responsible for the technology used to drive Net4Now, not least
the Active Server Pages that now help us deliver content specific to
the visitors geographic location. Paul graduated from Leicester's De
Montfort University with honors in Multimedia Computing BSc.
Paul
Hillbeck
Paul is the founder of the Net4Now ISP listing concept. While Paul formally
ceased to be involved in the day to day running of the in August 2002,
Paul can often be found in the forums assisting with visitor's questions.
Sarah
Brown
Sarah is a Net4Now forum moderator. Sarah lists her main interests as
the ISP market, computers and software, IT and technology. Sarah has
also produced many Net4Now articles.
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