Microsoft is full of surprises these days, and they really threw out a big one earlier this week.  They announced the full release of their own free anti-virus and anti-spyware product for home AND HOME business users, Microsoft Security Essentials.  That’s a pretty big change, previously there have been several free for home use products available, including my personal favorite – Avast – but none of them are free if you are using them on a “business” computer.  For you, that means if you use your computer in your real estate business – but ONLY if that computer is located at home.  If the computer is located at one of our offices, you’ll need to buy a license as it’s no longer a “home” business.  This product, however, is free.  Which, to put it mildly, surprised me.

Is it good?  Yes, it’s good, it’s not excellent – but it’s right on the “average” mark for detection and cleanup of problems.  At the price point, well, it’s great – it will protect you from most of the nasty stuff out there without any cash outlay on your part.  If you have a product you paid for, however, I wouldn’t remove it in favor of MSE.  For me, I replaced Avast on my personal laptop (which has the free version) with MSE and noted that it uses less system resources (Avast is already one of the lightest, I noticed a big difference going from McAfee to Avast last year), and overall basically left me alone.  It updates itself via Windows Update, and you can see from above it has a very simple and usable interface.  I have about 95GB of data on my hard drive, and it took MSE about 18 minutes to do a quick scan. While running behind the scenes I’ve not noticed it using any resources at all, it’s nearly invisible to me.

Summary: it does pretty good, and I would recommend it for most out there, specifically those with older systems or those closely watching system performance.  If you don’t have a anti-virus product already, and don’t want to pay for one – it’s hard to go wrong with Microsoft’s new product.  If you need any assistance installing MSE on your computer, give the IT department a ring and I know they’d be happy to assist you.

Quick Tip of The Day: Did you know compared to 2008, mobile web browsing increased 34% according to this blog post?   That’s a very interesting revelation, and I’m sure we’ll continue to see more as devices and data plans become more affordable for everyone.  The most notable part of that post, in my opinion, is the stat that seniors rose 67% over the prior year which doesn’t necessarily surprise me, browsing on a iPhone or a Blackberry is admittedly much less intimidating than having a full-blown PC to keep up with.

We’re certainly ready for this traffic, visit HomeRealEstate.com or WoodsBros.com today from your mobile phone and you’ll see our full-featured mobile website (which we continue to improve upon).  If you don’t want to visit from your phone, you can see them on your computer here: HOME and Woods.  You also have a mobile agent website, you can go to your agent site from your mobile phone or simply type m.agentsitename.homerealestate/woodsbros.com on your computer (example: m.bendinger.homerealestate/woodsbros.com).

Last Wednesday we released another set of updates to the HOME and Woods Bros websites with some great new stuff in them.  Here’s a quick Roundup of the update:

1.) Open Houses on the Mobile website:

We’ve had a mobile open house search (which you can see on your desktop here:http://m.homerealestate.com/mobile/Listing/OpenHouseSearch.aspx? ) for some time, but it previously did not list detail of the open houses in the search results for technical reasons – you had to click for more open house info, which was cumbersome to the end-user.  We’ve gotten around that, and now enhanced the mobile site to essentially operate the same as our full-blown website, without some of the bells and whistles.  This is on purpose, so we can ensure a consistent and fast experience from those visiting on slow and small screened phones.

2.) Enhanced Listing Report:

We beefed up the listing report and added some nice looking graphs to it, in order to get a much more professional feel to it.  In addition to that, you can select the info that you would, or would not like displayed on the report – it’s pretty nice!  You can view listing reports for your listings by going in to Fnistools, going to “My Listings”, then clicking “Listing Report” off to the right of the listing.  Excellent marketing tools for your sellers!

3.) Minor design enhancements/functionality enhancements: We had some that needed to be addressed, and in this release the minor updates are:

-IE 8 Compatibility: We had numerous issues (as did most sites) with IE 8’s compatibility, or lack thereof, so in this release some time was spent clearing up those issues.

-Rounded tabs on listing detail:

Very minor update, done to clean up the look/design a bit and enhance consistency – most other buttons were rounded while these remained “block”-like

-Ability to save a search via quick search: Again, consistency update – previously a consumer who did a quick search did not have the ability to save that search, we added this ability to bring some consistency with the rest of our search methods.

-Behind the scenes performance enhancements: .NET 3.5 framework, improved photo processing/syncing with MLS

That’s what we have for this release, but many things are coming VERY soon.  I have an update to the Map Search that I’ve been working on for some time, and will be pushing out this week.  Omaha and Lincoln listing search integration is working and is in testing right now – can’t wait to get that out!  Finally, rDesk is almost nearing completion, we should be on track to start training in the next month or two.  Stay tuned!  It’s going to get fun!

Quick Tip of the Day: Did you miss a lunch and learn?  Never fear!  We’ve been taking recordings of recent Lunch and Learn sessions to put online for you, like we did last week with social networking:

You can view archived Lunch and Learns on the training sites here: training.homerealestate.com or training.woodsbros.com.

With Earth Day being this week, I thought I’d spend a little time speaking about one of the biggest offenders in the energy use category – your computer.  Recently I read an article that stated U.S. businesses spend over $1 trillion dollars a year paying to power idle computing equipment.  Household costs probably equal, or double that, which amounts to a massive amount of money – and natural resources – being wasted on inefficent or idle computers.  Think about it, your average PC uses around 150 watts of power, many double or triple that, if you have ten computers in your office that’s 1500 watts – per hour.  That’s 15 100 watt lightbubs being left on for no reason – would you let that happen in your house?   It is, however, very easy to save money – and the planet – by following some simple steps:

1.) Power off! Even when idle, and with the monitor “asleep” a average PC will draw that 150 watts of power.  Why?  The components are all still being powered, and the monitor keeps it’s capacitors charged for a quick “wake up”.  The easiest way to save money is to actually shut the computer completely down, then power the monitor completely off.  10 watts is 10 watts, any little bit adds up!  Power that computer off when you leave for the day, or leave home in the morning, and help save money and natural resources.

2.) Upgrade! New computers are more power efficient than ever, while also being faster than ever.  At home I upgraded the “family PC” to a ridiculously fast machine with a quad-core processor and stunning graphics, while also saving nearly 200 watts of energy over the 5 year old PC we previously used.  Look for machines with lots of memory (more on this in a second), and either AMD Athlon X2/Phenom processors or Intel “Core” series processors (Core, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Core i7).

3.) Get more memory and give your disk a break! One of the most power-hungry components in your computer is the hard disk, it’s also one that’s most often used for no reason.  When your computer runs out of RAM it uses “virtual memory”, which is basically files on your hard disk, to compensate.  However, RAM sticks use very, very little memory while your hard disk – which is a moving component with a motor – uses a lot of energy and also generates heat.  Consider a memory upgrade for your computer if you see your hard disk light on constantly, not only will it make your computer considerably faster, but it will also save energy costs.  This is also the best “bang for the buck” you can do, I recently doubled the RAM on my company machine for under $40!

4.) Consider a laptop – My company computer is a laptop, which even being a very powerful one, consumes a measly 73 watts when running all-out.  Idle, it uses around 25 or 30, which is a fifth of what a comprable desktop would use.  Adding a docking station, I can use a regular keyboard, mouse, and monitor – and still come in total under 80 watts idle, and under 150 under load.   Some new “netbooks”, the tiny laptops you are seeing pop up, use as little as 15 watts under load! You’ll gain mobility, and save money at the same time.

5.) Ditch the old tube monitor – One of the worst power offenders, and biggest sources of heat are the old tube-based monitor.  A flat panel monitor will use around 10% of the power that a tube will, while also generating nearly 90% less heat! You don’t see many tube-based monitors for sale anymore, for good reasons, most manufacturers have stopped production of them due to the high environmental cost and low price of flat panels.

6.) Enable power-saving profiles in Windows – In the Control Panel there is a “Power Options” icon.  Try switching the Power scheme to “Portable/Laptop”.  Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows 7 do an even better job with power management, try selecting “Power Saver” on Vista.

7.) Turn down the brightness on your monitor – With LCD monitors this can do an even better job of conserving energy, with mine I generally run the bightness at 40%, as most LCD monitors are quite bright to begin with.  In addition, this helps your eyes as many LCD’s use a fluorescent bulb to light the screen, which can at times cause eye fatigue.

All are very simple steps you can do to conserve energy, the first one being the most signigicat.  If you’d like more tips on conservation, or would like some help upgrading your PC, remember that is what I and your IT department are here for.  We’ll be happy to give you ideas, recommend upgrades, and the IT guys will even install those upgrades for you – at no cost, aside from the parts!

Remember, every little bit helps.  If all of our 600+ agents and employees were to turn off their idle computers at work and at home for an hour we could save 60,000 WATTS of electricity!  That’s enough to light 1000 average household lightbulbs (60 watts) for an hour.

Quick Tip Of The Day – I’m moving more and more towards going “paperless”, and not only am I helping future generations, but I’m also finding it’s heloping me become more and more organized.  I’ve requested that most vendors now email me invoices instead of paper invoices, which I in turn email to our accounting department.  Instead of writing my meeting notes to take with me, or presentations, I save them as a PDF and upload them to my smartphone.  At home I use Wells Fargo Bill Pay and request all electronic bills, saving postage, time, and ordering of checks.  Finally, when I do need to print notes or something of non-critical importance, I use a stack of paper previously used on one side to do so both at home and here at HomeServices.

Slowly but surely, I’m finding my “clutter” diminishing, and my organization greatly increasing.   Don’t take my word for it – try it yourself!

Twitter is a social networking phenomenon that’s, almost literally, exploding.  Notable users of twitter include Lance Armstrong (http://www.twitter.com/lancearmstrong/), Britney Spears (Who has an assistant handle twitter for her – http://www.twitter.com/britneyspears/), Barack Obama (Rumored to do some of his own updates – http://www.twitter.com/barackobama/) and Ashton Kutcher, recently featured on CNN talking about his Tweeting (http://www.twitter.com/aplusk/).  With all these celebrities, and some very notable companies, on twitter, you may wonder what the buzz is about?

Simply put – it’s all about news.  The other day the folks at CBS/HOME in Omaha sent me a link to their twitter page, and it took a bit for me to “get it”, then it hit me pretty quick, and I finally knew what to do with the account I setup about a month or two ago for HSNE – http://www.twitter.com/hsne/.  That account is now going to be shared by everyone at Orwell, with the idea that we’ll “tweet” quick updates out to you, our agents, on what we have in the works here.  Check out what’s up there already, it will give you an idea of the goal.  I know for me there’s quite a few times I want to make a techblog post but the information just doesn’t warrant a full blog post, or I don’t have the time for a full blog post – see yesterday and today’s updates from me – so I don’t get a chance to.  The key is, quick relevant information that creates a buzz – that’s really the goal of twitter.  Want a great example of someone who uses personal, relevant information and pics on his twitter account?  Check out Lance Armstrong, he does an excellent job of having fun with it and making it relative to his audience.

So that brings us to the goal of twitter for you the agent, which is very similar to status updates on your business Facebook account.  Keep your infomration short, sweet, to the point and relevant to your consumer.  Don’t be afraid to repost a “tweet” made by someone else, it’s quite common, the generally accepted way to handle it is by typting “RT @hsne” (if you were going to quote me) then the tweet the other person made.  Re-tweeting is hugely popular, many times you’ll even see news items posted that way that make their rounds on twitter.

To grow your “following”, make sure to – again – post interesting, relevant information.  Don’t be afraid to link to your new listings once they are posted online, but with the 160 character limitation, become farmiliar with http://www.tinyurl.com – which takes a big link (like http://bendinger.homerealestate.com/MLS#) and makes it simaller (see one of my tweets from yesterday).  Also don’t be afraid to use twitpic (part of twitter) to post pics from your cameraphone when you are out on the go.  Have some great traffic at an event?  Take a pic of the crowd and post it.

The take away message for twitter is to create a buzz.  Reply to those who you follow – use @username, example would be in your update window to type @hsne You folks are great! – which shows on your status and on theirs, great way to build your network.  Beyond creating a buzz, though, have fun with it!  This is another way for you to have fun with your business on the Internet, so remember, have fun with it and use it as a tool to grow your reach.

Quick Tip Of The Day: Thinking about a new computer or smartphone?  I’d wait on both, unless you have no choice.  Computer hardware suppliers – those who supply components to PC builders – are slashing prices heavily to attempt to bring costs down and build business, by the early holiday season I predict you’ll see hardware priced more aggressively than we’eve ever seen.  Add to that the fact that the new version of Windows, named Windows 7, should be out around the same time and you have a great combo to really give you an upgrade (I’ve been using the Windows 7 beta as my primary desktop for about three weeks, and I can’t say enough good about it).  If you need to extend the life of your PC, I’ll get into that in my next post.

Smartphones, well, there is some REALLY cool stuff on the horizon for Q3 and Q4 of 2009.  The new Palm Pre, new Blackberries, updated iPhones, Windows Mobile devices and some new Android handsets are all set to land at the various carriers during those times, some of which are downright revolutionary.  If you can, I’d definitely wait until the holiday season to start considering a new device – it will be worth the wait.  Again, I’ll get into that more in an upcoming blog post.

Want to add a picture of yourself to your signature in webmail?  This is a great way to personalize your signature, without adding too much verbage.  First, go to your agent website – today I’ll use Connie’s as an example – http://conniehain.homerealestate.com/.  Once there, you should see your picture in the top left hand side of the screen.  Right click on that picture and select “Copy Image Location”.  Then, do the following:

Open Outlook on the agent server (click the hsne-agent icon on the desktop of any office computer) and click on New to compose a new message, now make sure that you are writing an HTML message by clicking on the dropdown menu on the left most part of the toolbar right bellow the menu bar in a box that can say HTML, Rich text, or Plain text, make sure to select HTML.

The next step would be to insert the picture. Click on the message body, and then go to the Insert menu, and click on Insert > Picture > From File… and where it says “File name:” type the the URL for your image – in Connie’s example it would be http://homeimages.fnistools.com/images/uploads/teams/121688/121688.jpg. Finally edit the “To” field to send the message to yourself (your email address)

Next, open webmail (webmail.homeservices.com) and in your account open the message you just sent, and highlight the image. Then go to Edit > Copy.

Now to insert it into the Signature, go to Options on the lower left corner of the screen, and find the button that says “Edit Signature…” and click it, paste your picture in the area that appears by right clicking on the box. Now you that you have your picture in there, you can add other text to it, and Save and Close it.

Quick Tip Of The Day: I’ll keep echoing this like a broken record, but did you know that Monday and Tuesday are our highest web traffic days?  They are – by a huge margin, as folks who visited homes on the weekend are checking back on those homes, and planning their search for the next weekend.  Take advantage of this traffic by adding your open house as soon as possible – ideally Sunday night or Monday morning – the consumer will appreciate it!