In times likes these, job security is on everyone’s minds.  Unfortunately, for many, so is the job search.  The unemployment figures are staggering and competition for job vacancies is stiff.  Simply Hired is a beacon of hope in these difficult days.  Its simple, yet feature-rich suite of tools just might make finding that dream job a whole lot easier and more manageable!

The creators of Simply Hired had a single goal in mind – creating a single site where job seekers could easily search all jobs available on the web.  What resulted is no small feat to say the least!  Simply Hired aggregates job listings from thousands of websites including the leading job boards, company career sites, newspaper classifieds, non-profit sites, government sites, and more.  It’s an amazing one-stop-shop for job hunters!

Do not be fooled, however.  Simply Hired is more than just a job search.  The site packs in some great and unique features that make it stand out above similar job search sites.  Yes, you can search company names and job titles and even locales.  That is standard.  However, after you run your search, Simply Hired lets you filter the results with additional keywords or using special filters that focus on things like the Fortune 500.  Specialty searches are even offered to cover company qualities such as  mom-friendly, dog-friendly, eco-friendly, and GLBT friendly companies.  How cool is that?!?!  One of our favorite features allows you to link Simply Hired to your LinkedIn account.  Doing so will let you see who you may know at companies that are hiring.  Talk about a neat way to get a virtual foot in the door!

Accounts on Simply Hired are free and recommended.  By signing up, you can save listings, make notes on the listings you have saved, and even rate the opportunity for follow-up.  You can save your searches and even turn them into an RSS feed.  Your Simply Hired account will also allow you to map the jobs that interest you and set up handy e-mail alerts for new job postings.  Aside from an actual job with the company, there is not much more for which you could ask them.

Simply Hired’s tag line is “job search made simple”.  It should also be “job search made powerful”, because that is really what Simply Hired is all about.  An impressive set of job hunting tools, this site is a real bright spot in a tough job market.  Check it out today!

With so much being reported on the major search engines these days, it is easy to overlook the little guys.  Yet even the Googles and Bings of the Web started out small . . . with a concept and a simple search site.  The oddly named DuckDuckGo is one of the little guys to watch.  It is serving up searches with an old-fashioned look backed by some state of the art power.

Remember when Google was just an uncluttered search interface that brought you great results?  Or when the early incarnation of Microsoft’s Bing brought you your hits without all of the advertizing and fluff?  It almost makes one nostaligic for the early days of web search!  Web searching has come a long way since then, with the additions of real-time results and semantic searching for example.  Search engine interfaces, however, have gotten cumbersome and cluttered as results compete with advertisers for your attention.  With DuckDuckGo though, you can have a clean search interface and eat the sematic web too!

Based in Valley Forge, PA, DuckDuckGo is a new search engine start up that aims to simplify the search experience without compromising the quality of the results.  The interface is one of the cleanest and most uncluttered we have seen in years.  Search the web classically, search info summaries, or  search shopping sites.  It almost seems too simple.  The simplicity, however, is only on its face.  DuckDuckGo has a lot going on in the background.  Take for instance its disambiguation feature.  Enter a search that has multiple meanings and it will first give you the chance to choose which one you want.  There is also the built in ability to search other sites (even Google!) using its “!bang” words functionality.  Add to the mix a whole host of shortcuts, power customizations, and “Zero-click info” which aims to provide you with basic info on your search topic before you even get into the results and you can see while it may look old-fashioned, DuckDuckGo’s search capabilities are anything but!

The iBraryGuy team took DuckDuckGo for a spin and had a blast.  For a start-up, they have made a strong and impressive debut with a feature-rich offering that offers a welcome reprieve from the world of search engine overload.  Clean, fast,  and fun are three ways we’d describe DuckDuckGo.  Powerful is another.  The first three aspects grabbed our interest.  As info pros, however, it was the fourth that really won us over.

Give DuckDuckGo a try today and let us know what you think!

Google unveiled a brand new look for its industry-dominating search engine yesterday.  The new 3-Column format is designed to make filtering searches and drilling down results easier than ever.  Some folks are praising the new interface.  Others, if you are following the comments on the various news feeds and blogs, are outraged and want their old Google back.  While no one can make everyone happy, when a giant like Google makes even the smallest change, you are certain to hear a great deal from both sides.  Suffice it to say that the new changes are worth a good, hard look.

Google’s new user interface is clean and uncluttered.  It is also very logical and user-friendly.  No longer do you have to hunt for search options.  They are all in the left column.  Filtering by content type (news, blogs, video, etc.) or timeliness (latest, past month, etc) is as easy as clicking.  check out the “related searches” and “wonder wheel” links for some truly interesting functionality.  The “Something Different” section on the left gives you even more to think about while conducting your searches.  What you see in the left column is just the surface.  As you begin to drill into the search options, even more functionality reveals itself (filtering by date ranges, choosing just pages with photos, etc.).  It is really powerful stuff!

Search results now appear in the middle column of the page and look like they always have.  Of course, selecting any of the search options on the left will change the list you see.  Drilling down is thus interactive, easy, and immediate.  As it should be!  The right column is for ads, of course.  After all, someone has to pay for innovation (and to keep it free for the rest of us!).  Other changes worth noting are the new look of the Google logo (not so 3D-y anymore) and page footer (much cleaner).

So what is there to complain about with so much search optimization and customization so readily and obviously available?  Well, if you read the comments on the various news and search engine blogs, it appears that Google stalwarts fear two things.  First, they miss the minimalist look of the Google search page – a look that many say set Google apart from the rest.  Second, they fear that Google is trying too hard to compete with the “rest”.  Many are pointing out that Google looks and feels a lot like Microsoft’s Bing search engine. 

Though Google still dominates the market, Bing has steadily grown to a 10% share in search engine preference.   Is the new look of Google a reaction to Bing’s challenge?  Maybe.  Will it drive enough people away to hurt Google’s own marketshare?  We think not.  The iBraryGuy team is impressed by Google’s new interface.  It is the epitome of searching elegance, bolstered by the power that only Google can deliver.

There are many good sites out there to help you find people. From specialty search sites to major search engines to social networks, information on individuals is plentiful on the internet.  What sets Spokeo apart from most of the standard people search sites is that it brings all of this scattered, public information together in one place.  To quote its homepage, Spokeo is “not your grandma’s phonebook”!

Spokeo’s user interface is deceptively simple.  You just need to enter either a name, an e-mail address, or phone number to start your search.  What happens after you enter the search is complex and powerful.  Spokeo doesn’t simply search the web.  It actually aggregates data from hundreds of online and offline sources, including: phone directories, social networks, marketing surveys, mailing lists, government census, real estate listings, and even business websites.  It’s hard to find a people search that is more thorough and still publicly available.

What Spokeo returns in response to a search query is fascinating – almost frightening, actually.  Profile information, photos, blog postings, social network memberships, interests, lifestyle indicators, education, household information, wealth and credit estimates, and even neighborhood demographics. It really is an impressive overview of the person for whom you are searching.  Of course, it also begs the question of what people can find out about you.  For those who are concerned about the reach of Spokeo, you can actually opt out of having your information aggregated by the site.

Basic use of Spokeo is free.  There is a premium pricing plan that delivers even more robust information and more detailed reports.  Given the amount of information the free search returned, we were almost curious enough to get the paid membership a try!

The iBraryGuy team knows how much our audience loves being on top of the latest developments in the world of libraries and information technology.  So we are always hard at work trying to find new and enjoyable ways of bringing the latest and greatest to you.  One of our side projects designed to help you keep your finger on the puls of our profession is a blog and news aggregator that we have lovingly dubbed “LibraryVibes“.

Created on the powerful NetVibes platform, LibraryVibes brings you some of the best library, technology, and news feeds in a format that is as easy on the eyes as it is to navigate.  The tabbed interface lets you choose between library blogs, tech feeds, and news with a quick click of the mouse.  LibraryVibes currently features 27 popular blogs by and for librarians, 17 tech sources, and 12 newsfeeds.  That’s more than 50 top sources to keep you informed throughout the day!

As with all iBraryGuy offerings, LibraryVibes is free.  You do not need to be a member of Netvibes to use the site or enjoy its content.  Of course, we could not have created it without the hardwork and dedication of so many excellent bloggers out there.  To them go the real thanks!  We are just the eager middlemen in this great information economy.

We hope you enjoy LibraryVibes and will share it with your colleagues!

During its third annual f8 Conference for developers and entrepreneurs, Facebook announced a new platform full of features designed to up the ante in the race to dominate the social web.  As if the social web itself could get any more “social”, the folks at Facebook are revamping their own offerings and partnering with other sites on methods of personalization designed to put the user at “the center of the web”.  They call these new tools “social plugins” and they promise to transform the way we interact on the web.

A few of these new “social plugins” are ready to roll in the days ahead and are featured on the official Facebook blog.  It is beyond apropos that the developers should call them “social” as they require Facebook itself interact with other sites on the web.  Currently,  only three sites have been chosen to pilot the new platform (Yelp, Microsoft Docs, and Pandora), but over 70 others have signed on to be added soon.  As we wait eagerly to take them for a spin, the iBraryGuy team thought we’d summarize two of our favorites:  the soon to be ubiquitous “Like” button and the interactive “Activity Feed”.

Like –  One of the most popular features on Facebook is the little thumbs-up icon that lets users designate the things they really like.  Imagine being able to go to other sites and using that same functionality.  Facebook’s new partnerships will let you “like” everything from news stories to items for sale on commercial sites.  The items that you “like” on these sites will show up in your Facebook feed where you can share them and others can actually comment.  Additionally, sites that you “like” can even send you updates as they change or add new content.

Activity Feed –  This is an interesting feature to say the least.  The idea here is that users logged into Facebook and visiting one of the partner sites will actually be able to see how their friends are interacting with that site.  You will be able to see articles or items that they recommend or on which they have commented.  Other sites and tools have permitted social web browsing in the past, with varying degrees of success.  The fact that Faceboook is building this functionality into its already uber-popular and robust social networking platform gives it an instant leg up in this arena.

Whether you love Facebook or hate it, over 400 million users and a media omnipresence make it impossible to ignore.  There is no doubt that it has altered the way people interact online and its popularity continues to surge.  The changes coming with the new Facebook platform promise to innovate the social web even further.  From new community pages to increased partnerships with other popular web destinations, Facebook’s developers have a lot in store for us all.  What can we say?  These are exciting times indeed!

Do you ever wonder who is reading those tweets you are sending?  How about whether those tweets have any real impact on the folks who are following you?  After all, a person’s influence cannot be measured by the number of followers alone.  Nope, you need to get a more robust sense of who is actually listening to you or acting upon your messages.  That is where Klout comes in!

Klout assigns scores to Twitter users by actually measuring the spheres of influence.  The higher the score, the more influential the person.  Klout also categorizes users into one of four categories, based on their scores.  Casual Users, for instance, may be new or have a small social circle online.  Climbers are on their way up, of course. Connectors are conduits of information to other users.  Finally, Personas  are folks that have really managed to build a brand around themselves in the Twitterverse.  Pretty cool, right?  If it sounds like a tricky and dificult process, it is.  And that is why it is so great to have Klout out there doing it for you.

So how does the Klout Score work?  Well, they actually use an interesting formula that takes into account 25 different variables! Stated most simply, Klout looks at the number of folks with whom you actually interact (True Reach), the likelihood that your tweets will cause interaction (Amplification Ability), and how influential the people with whom you interact are (Network Score).    They then normalize, analyze, and weight this data to derive your Score.  Talk about intense!

According to its website, “The final Klout Score is a representation of how successful a person is at engaging their audience and how big of an impact their messages have on people. ”  The iBraryGuy team tested it out and, though not thrilled with our score, we really learned a great deal about how we interact with others on Twitter.  If you are serious about building your social brand, as we are, then it might be time that you checked your Klout as well!

Just when we were beginning to really enjoy and get the hang of Google Docs, the company went ahead and got all collaborative on us!  That’s right, the cloud-based wordprocesser is boldly going where no free document editing tool has gone before.  With the the new features available in Google Docs, the cloud is now more open for sharing than ever before.

More than just some new tweaks, bells and whistles, Google actually claims to have rebuilt Google Docs from the ground up (or is that the cloud up?). Addressing what they saw as a need for better communication and collaboration in the document creation and editing process, the company may very well have revolutionized the way we work.  Actually working together on a document just got a whole lot easier!

With the new Google Docs, up to 50 people can collaborate on a single document.  Not only can you see who is viewing it, but you can see their edits as they type them (a trick the company first unveiled in Google Wave).  Collaborators can even chat right on the screen as they work.  VERY cool!

Cooler still, and perhaps more intriguing, is the new drawing abilities that have been added to Google Docs.  Yes, those same 50 people who are editing a document together can actually collaborate on a drawing and embed it right into the document.  Now that’s power!

Finally, Google has also added some of the “wordprocessor-esque” functionality and feel that Docs has been lacking since its debut.  Things like rulers and tab stops now give it a more conventional and comforting appearance akin to what we see in most commercial programs.

To access these new features, users simply need to go into their Google Docs settings and click to enable the new version on the “Editing” tab.  With the new Google Docs, the company is getting much more serious about its cloud offerings.  Look out Microsoft Word, the silver lining of this cloud is really starting to shine!

Happy National Library Week, America!

The iBraryGuy team wanted to start the week off right by extending NLW greetings to all of our readers.  Whether you are even in the USA, any day is a GREAT day to celebrate libraries.  We are just fortunate in this country to have a whole week to sing their praises and to share the joys of what it means to be a librarian.  We are honored to be part of this noble and exciting profession and to be surrounded by so many amazing colleagues.  Librarians, this is your week!  We here at iBraryGuy are proud to stand among you!

A National Library Week Primer:

  • Observed:  Second full week of April annually.
  • First Celebrated:  1958
  • Sponsor:  American Library Association
  • 2010 Theme:  “Communities Thrive @ Your Library”
  • 2010 Honorary Chair: Author, Neil Gaiman
  • Promotonal Tips: HERE

Did you also know:

With so much going on, what are you waiting for?  Get out there and celebrate libraries!

Google Labs has announced the testing of a sweet new feature for GMail users – Nested Labels.  Designed to give users more control over how they organize their inboxes, users must currently opt in to enjoy this new functionality.

Heavy GMail users have long known that for all of the cool features available, one of the downsides to Google’s mail offering is the difficulty in organizing your inbox.  GMail already offers both folders and labels.  Deciding which to use and when, however, has left many a user scratching his or her head.  In fact, most folks we know have simply chosen to let their inboxes fill up and just use a search to find what they need.  A packed GMail inbox is a daunting sight! 

Google has sort of acknowledged some of the short comings of its original organizational scheme in the blog posting announcing the new Nested Labels.   Under the current system, messages can have multiple labels but can only be placed in one folder.  The labels, however, could not be hierarchical like traditional folders.  So, you could label your e-bill from your electric company as “home” and “utility bills” . . . but they would always be standalone labels.  You could not make “utility bills” a subset of the “home” label.  At least, you could not until now.

What Google has done with it’s Nested Labels system is essentially marry the searchability of labels with the functionality of folders.  Though there is a slight learning curve when it comes to creating subsets of labels, once you get the hang of it, it is a powerful new feature.  Not only does it help you tame the beast that is e-mail glut, but it looks great graphically too.  For now, users wishing to check out GMail’s Nested Labels have to opt to activate this functionality via Google Labs.

Full instructions on how to turn on Nested Labels and manage them is available on the official GMail Blog. Google also announced the testing of another neat feature called “Sneek Peak”.  You can read about that there as well.  Sneak Peak is pretty cool, but it was the Nested Labels that wowed us most!