In the past week, I have started my blog. I chose a company (BlueHost) to host my website, and also created and am hosting my domain on it. It is a company owned by EIG, a MASSIVE international web hosting company. Companies having a large amount of control over the market allows them to provide an all-in-one package that I have used. The problem with this is that they can have hidden fine print to prevent you from moving away from their services. For example, BlueHost offers FREE domain registration for the first year ($13 off!) only if you don’t cancel after the first year. Because I didn’t use another company to register my domain, I now am stuck with BlueHost which is worse for a variety of reasons, one being an extra fee for anonymity (Free with other providers). This is a showcase of how putting all your eggs in one basket by using one company for everything is a bad idea. In other industries, such as tech, solely relying on Apple for tech support and repairs will give you a large bill that can be avoided by turning to other companies for their services.
In my opinion, this is also reflected in research and information. You don’t want to rely on one source entirely, as they may be biased or trying to trick you into buying something. Instead, searching across multiple sites and getting multiple people’s opinions allows you to synthesize more information and to form a stronger and well informed opinion instead of having someone form it for you; having services across multiple companies allows you to easily switch not be taken advantage of. In both of these categories, spreading yourself between multiple areas leads to a benefit which is simply not accessible from a single source no matter how great it is.