Computer Hope

Computerhope.com

Origin	Salt Lake City, Utah
Country	United States International
Years active	1998–present
Category	Computer/Technical Support
Founder(s)	Nathan E.
Website(s)	Main Site

Computer Hope is a free online computer help site. Its free services include a database of extensive computer-related information. The organisation offers free technical support for any computer-related question and includes computer product information, online help forums, computer product buying tips, third-party computer company contact information, driver listing, a dictionary with thousands of computer terms, news, tips, chat, and online tools to help troubleshoot computer issues.

History

Computer Hope came online November 2, 1998^[1] as a reference for basic computer information and help.

In March 2001 Computer Hope was included in PC World Sixth Annual Best Free Stuff on the Web. It’s growth continued to the point that in 2002 they received over two million unique visitors and over eighteen million hits and as of Jan 3, 2009 is the number one result when searching for the phrase "computer help" on the Google search engine.^[2]

On March 2009 Computer Hope was mentioned on the BBC Webscape show.^[3]

In August 2009, Computer Hope was included/mentioned in the Today show. Also during August 2009, ComputerHope was mentioned, and had an article in Reader's Digest's article about Reader's Digest Fix Computers, Cars and Appliances for Free article.^{[4] [5]}

Forums

In March 2004 Computer Hope introduced the Computer Hope forum as a place for visitors to talk about and find answers to their computer questions. The forum as of February 2, 2010 has over 40,000 members with over 650,000 posts and is an active community for people to find answers to their questions, talk about computer related topics and create their own frequently asked question pages.

Competitors

Computerhope UK

Computerhope UK was set up in 2003 and had the worlds largest collection of driver sofwtare, with free support provided by sister companies ehelp4u in the UK, Tech24 in the US, Australia and New Zealand. In addition the company also provided driver search software. In 2004 Computerhope merged with ehelp4u and drivermagic.com which later became part of driveragent.com However, Computerhope assetts wre not sold and remain the property of entrepreneur Glenn Bluff. The sites design was alsmot exactly the same as Computerhope US.

esupport.com

esupprot.com was born in 1997 and operated in the US and Canada, its UK operation was operated Computerhope UK (See above). esupport.com became part of Phoenix Technologies in 2007. The forum and help pages were very simialr to Computerhope with the exception that the color scheme was green.

Tools

In addition to technical information and support Computer Hope also offers a collection of online tools that can be used to help troubleshoot and make the computer easier to use.

• Computer Hope System Information tool - Used to quickly identify your system information including what plug-ins are installed on the computer to quickly identify if everything is up-to-date.

• Computer Hope log tool - Quickly identifies files listed in a log file and gives descriptions about each of the files in the log. Tool is also capable of displaying hijackthis,hijackpro, hijackfree, combofix, and other such tools in an easy-to-read format to quickly identify threats such as viruses, trojans, and other malware that may be on the computer. As of February 2010 this tool has over 10,000 file descriptions.

• Computer Hope IsItUp tool - Used to identify if an Internet Web page is up or down to quickly answer the "Is it my computer or the website that is having a problem?" question.

• Mr. Hope - Automated tool to help users diagnose their own computer problems by guiding them through a flowchart type set of questions. Helpful for times users don't know how to search for the problem they're encountering.

External links

• Computer Hope
• Computer Hope Forums

References

1. ^ "Computer Hope company information". computerhope.com. http://www.computerhope.com/more.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-16. 
2. ^ "Google Search". google.com. http://www.google.com/search?q=computer+help&ie=UTF-8. Retrieved 2007-04-16. 
3. ^ "BBC Webscape". bbc.co.uk. 2009-03-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7953590.stm. Retrieved 2010-02-02. 
4. ^ "Ways to save fix it free appliances, cars, and computers". rd.com (readers digest). http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/ways-to-save-fix-it-free-appliances-cars-and-computers/article154733.html. Retrieved 2009-09-14. 
5. ^ "Computer Hope company information". computerhope.com. http://www.computerhope.com/more.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-14.