Heres the coversation someone at another forum had with Hostagtor http://www.talkarcades.com/11541-post8.html
If you dont mind and you dont thnk I am a fool..Go for Lunarpages... Its good.. chck here....tftb(dot)net/2008/01/26/starting-a-blog/
Yeah LOL. BTW, I suggest AxisHost/MediaTemple if you need high-quality service and a good amount of resources.
While you have listed famous hosting companies, they are still very different. You will find a good plan with HostGator for sure. Don't choose bluehost if you fell like you are going to expand, as long as i know they only have a couple of plans, not suitable for growing websites. Ix is a good alternative too. Startlogic is a good and expensive and very stable server provider, choose them if you wanna go for dedicated server or vps.
totally not reliable regarding big sites, i had alot of downtimes, they are good registrars, and thats the way they choose to go along, a pity they don't wish to have a good hosting :/