The folks over at DreamHost continue to impress me with the array of features that they offer in conjunction with their web hosting plans.

For a small monthly fee you can get copious amounts of storage and bandwidth. You get easy access to a variety of tools via ‘One-Click Installs’ (and upgrades) of applications like WordPress, MediaWiki and activeCollab to name a few. You can store, share and sell your DRM free media with their Files Forever service. Now DreamHost has added another nifty tool to complement their already compelling offer set.

DreamHost Media Tools allows you to convert images or video into Flash format for presentation on any web page as an embedded object. This is a helpful service for anyone who has images or video stores on their site but wants to share them easily via the browser. You can use other services like Slide or YouTube to convert and share your media. But you also need to re-upload to their servers and utilize their branding in the presentation of your media. That might be something you want to avoid, especially if you’re representing your business.

If you have an interest in video blogging or podcasting then this is a great feature to help with the uptake of your episodes. When I produce a video podcast I like to give people the opportunity to play the file in the browser. Visitors may prefer to view in the browser rather than download. Or they can sample your posts prior to subscribing. Either way, the visitor gets to make a choice. Studies have shown that Flash formats have more cross browser compatibility than QuickTime or Windows Media Video. This service provides you with a snippet of code (just like YouTube and Google Video) to allow you to embed your uploaded videos within each post.

It’s true that DreamHost has had some problems reliability in 2006. And they don’t have all the features (like dedicated servers) that some people require from a hosting provider. But I have to give them kudos for working through it while continuing to provide tools that are valuable for those who are eager to create, distribute and sell social media.

[tags]Social Media, Hosting, DreamHost, Media Tools, Video, Photos, Flash, Beta[/tags]