Ok so it is official, google has released their own browser to compete with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.  Just like the rest of the world, we were caught off guard and only know what we know based on the tech blogs, and a quick overview.  We will let you know if it is a good idea to make a leap of faith or not…more info here.

Ok - so after the gratuitous self promotion in the previous post below…maybe something a little more helpful…

We want to make sure that our “comp” is up-to-date…and we can start by ensuring we have “Flash 9″.  This can be “gotten” at www.flash.com then “downloads” then “get flash player” then “Agree and Install Now”.

We have addressed this in other posts from an application perspective but I want to throw this out there….

So we are seeing a trend of more and more teams using an internal staff member i.e. student….to develop/design/create, their own email templates.  At most universities, there are students with design, coding, computer backgrounds.  They are paying very large amounts of money to learn how to do design work so things like email templates, custom web forms, newsletters…are perfectly inligned with their newly aquired skill set.

I highly recommend reaching out to these students because they will be able to build you an arsenal of marketing materials and would be willing to do so for a very minimal cost because at the end of the day, we all need resume builders.

Ok so just to quickly report.  I was in fact out of the office last week (in India) with a friend of mine (Michael Simmons).  Michael was ranked by Business Week (circa ‘06) as one of the Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25  Because of Michael’s world wide acclaim, we had the opportunity to speak to a group of 200 high school/college students in Jaipur, India about entrepreneurship.  Here is a picture of me trying to pull that off.

So just as you use Front Rush to manage your recruit process, you can also use it to manage your Alum’s.  Specifically, using the alumni submission form.  This is a form that you can post to your website, direct your alumni to, and have them fill out their own information to get them into your Front Rush.  You can access your alumni submission form directly from the login screen by clicking the alumni link at the bottom.

Ok so I have been out of town for the past week (I will have some cool pictures posted soon) but want to jump back on the horse and let you know that many yahoo email users are having issues receiving emails…meaning, if you have sent emails from any email account (not just Front Rush but ANY account) - they may have not received them.  So it may be worth following up with a phone call.  

Keep a close eye on your inbox…we will have an announcement with a number of releases in the ensuing days.  There may be a table of contents because the list is so long.

ok so we have seen a number of recruits who fill out online submission forms but end up leaving a number of fields blank…for whatever reason(s).  This can be frustrating (or frusturating depending on how you feel it should be spelled) - so we have an easy solution.  We can make any field required…so you can force them to enter the information that you need e.g. email address, phone number, high school, etc.  This actually has more than one advantage:

1) you get the information that you need
2) you will decrease the probability of duplicate entries
3) you force them to enter data in a consistent format with the other recruits

To make fields required, all that you have to do is call us and we will do it on the fly

ok so Front Rush sent representatives on Friday (Thursday night) to sleep in line, on the concrete, at the AT&T/Apple Store for the release of the new iphone…With that said, we decided to just do a quick overview of mobile browsers:

1) blackberry: if you are using a blackberry then we recommend using Opera Mini - just turn on your blackberry and go to www.operamini.com from your blackberry browser.  This browser is definitely an improvement over the current blackberry browser as it has the feel of a desktop browser as well as some nice functionalities.

2) Smart Phones: Well right now you are stuck.  If you can, try to get Skyfire  (www.skyfire.com) - Skyfire is supposedly going to revolutionize the mobile browser market because of its speed, its user experience, and flash support.  It’s still in beta (which means that it is being tested) and it’s not definite when it will be released.  However, you can sign up for it now and we recommend that you do.

3) Iphone:  You already know what your doing 

So one of the great advantages of Front Rush is the ability to have access to your stuff anywhere and for the purpose of this posting - from home…  We recently have been doing some testing with a service called “skype“.  This is basically a way to make an unlimited number of phone calls, receive phone calls, voicemail, caller id etc. for around 50 bones a year ($50.00).  Basically, you sign up for skype by downloading it to your computer, paying an upfront cost to make unlimited calls and your set to jet.  One cool thing is that you get your own personal number but when you are making calls to…let’s say recruits…you can have the caller id display your cell number (if you want it to).  The only hidden charge is that you need to buy a headset that will plug right into your laptop, desktop, etc.  These can be anywhere from $30 - $60 and let’s face it…it’s convenient being able to type while you are talking to someone on the phone and updating their records.  Anyway, we are still learning the in’s/out’s etc. but let us know if you have any questions on it.