February 14th, 2006 Happy Valentine's day and I hope you all are having a great start to 2006. With the exception of this past weekend, the weather in Boston has been wonderfully mild, though nothing can compare to India... Be sure to check out my India Blog--I had a great and, at times, hilarious trip--I think you will enjoy it. We have some great new CEOExpressSelect features to tell you about, and more coming soon... February New and Notable: Shorten long URLs to manageable lengths: You may have noticed in the Daily Polls that I and other members have been abbreviating URLs. Now, you can too, with our "Shorten URL" feature. How does it work? It's simple. It is a way to take absurdly long URLs and shorten them. For instance, you may find an article in the The Boston Globe that you'd like to recommend to a colleague. However, the URL looks something like this: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/02/12/bias_sabotage_haunt_wikipedias_free_world/?page=1 (this is an article regarding the website Wikipedia) These long URLs can get broken up in emails, become "non-clickable" or simply look unprofessional. You can use our "Shorten URL" feature to shorten the URL so that it looks more like this: http://ceourl.com/Wikipedia. Be sure to add the feature to your browser toolbar, so you can access Shorten URL on-the-fly from anywhere on the Internet. Once you start using it, I assure you that you will be using it every day (Make sure you install the "one click" feature--there is a link at the top of the instruction page). Click Here to find out how to install and use it. Give it a try, you'll love it. Coming Soon: CEOExpress Blogs: First things first - what is a Blog, anyway? Generally, a blog, or "weblog" is a web site that contains an online personal or business journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. What's a CEOExpress blog? It's a blog that you can actually use--simple, straight-forward, organized, and ready to go. A CEOExpress blog will allow you to create your own blog, a page where you can share your thoughts with others (the public at large or limited to invited guests) or just have your own personal diary. In addition to your personal posts, you can create an entire menu including links, pictures, polls and more. And, the page can be customized with your favorite colors and fonts. For a great example of all these features, check out my India Blog that outlines my travels through India with pictures and text. You will have the tools to set up a similar business or personal blog in minutes. We'll be launching member Blogs before the end of this quarter. But in the next few weeks, we want your help. Click here to volunteer as a Blog Beta Tester. As always, we value your thoughts and ideas, and we want your input so we can create the best possible tools for our audience. Tools and Software Tips: Photosite Online Photo Gallery: You will see in my blog that my photos look terrific. It is not just my uncanny photographic capability ;-), it is this fabulous service. Try it! It is completely free up to 115 photos and leaves Yahoo, Shutterfly and everyone else in the dust! Click here for a free Photosite account. As always, I look forward to working with you to make CEOExpress even more valuable and as usual, feel free to send me a note. I truly enjoy hearing from you. Best regards, Patricia Pomerleau CEO CEOExpress Company 617 482 1200 Great sponsors: I have used and personally endorse the following companies. CEOExpress has negotiated the lowest pricing in the industry with Genesys web and audio conferencing. These rates are a fraction of WebEx's pricing and it's a pay-as-you-go system. It's a no-brainer. H3 is a company that has received great press recently; it has developed a new way of hiring people that you simply must try.   Genesys Conference Services: I know I've mentioned them before, but I can't sing Genesys Web Conferencing's praises enough. Especially now that they are offering such astounding rates to CEOExpress members. At only 8.8¢/minute/connection, you'll pay less for web and audio conferencing combined than most people pay for audio alone. Desktop video is included at the same rate. Click here for more information.     H3: H3.com is a cash reward based referral hiring tool that unleashes the power in your trusted network to identify relevant candidates. Unlike current ad-hoc approaches to referrals, H3.com maximizes efficiencies and minimizes administration associated with engaging your network and tracking referral candidates. Click here for more information. Shorten URL | Patricia's India Blog | Genesys | H3 | Newsletter Archives