Yahoo! is trying to make a come back! We’ve seen video’s appearing in our search results, but what about music? Yahoo! has enabled its search results to deliver full length songs when you search for an artist thanks to Yahoo!’s partnership with Rhapsody. The first result will include a photo of the artist with a short list of songs as well as links to lyrics, music video, and other related content. The music videos play in a window on top your current page so you are not directed to another web page. I appreciate the simplicity and thank you for not bombarding me with “Buy This Song” ads. The full length music tracks plays at the bottom of the screen after you click the play button of the song you would like to hear. This functionality allows you to continue to scroll through the search results, although the track will stop if you click through to another web page. I have to admit, I might be searching on Yahoo! a little more often now, especially when I need a music fix.

Picture: http://twitpic.com/c98h

Source: InformationWeek.com

]]> http://www.reddoor.biz/music-at-your-finger-tips%e2%80%a6thanks-to-yahoo/feed 1 http://www.reddoor.biz/efficiency-in-the-workplace http://www.reddoor.biz/efficiency-in-the-workplace#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:09:10 +0000 jlove http://lippman.reddoor.biz/rpark/reddoorbuzz_com/?p=1199 Tweet

I would like to share some insight and ideas I came across regarding productivity and efficiency in the workplace. Forbes.com has reported on the seasonality of work and the pattern of upward motion after Labor Day. Something about the summer ending gets people in gear. People also begin to think about their personal career goals, which is something all employees should be visiting from time to time. Whether this personal analysis leads to a new career adventure or catapults that employee to a new level success in their current profession, this analysis is needed for growth. So where do we start? Analyzing ourselves may be the hardest task. We seem to analyze everything around us frequently, but when we have to look inward we hit a speed bump. Forbes gave some suggestions for how to get over this hurdle.

The first suggest is to look at your performance review. This seems to be right on since we just went through 360 reviews. The next step suggested is to “Define your own mission”. This is crucial for obtaining the personal satisfaction we all desire and consider important in our careers. After defining this we can look for opportunities for it to align with company goals. Maybe your new personal mission is to be more efficient in your personal life or maybe it’s to gain more in depth social relationship, how can you achieve this in your business community? Make sure your mission creates a challenge for yourself. Making a mission that is easy is just boring, keep pushing the envelop!

This is my favorite suggestion from Forbes. They say to “compile a list of work assignments that you love and those that you avoid because you don’t do them well”. Com’on we all have some tasks we don’t LOVE doing, but that’s okay. A colleague recently suggested that we identify our hours of optimum productivity and this is right on. Find those hours and here’s the catch, do your least favorite tasks. Therefore, you will have a better attitude and more energy to complete these things. What a concept!

The last idea that Forbes recommended is to look to yourself for motivation instead of others. It’s so easy to get sucked into negativity, to whine, and talk negatively. Resist these tendencies and find what that motivate you as a person and you will be naturally motivated at work. Maybe that motivation is as simple as a good lunch break. According to an online news source “almost 70 per cent of workers eat at their desks on a daily basis”. Lunch breaks are going extinct! People seem to think that more working equals more productivity. Even a 20 minute break can jumpstart the employees and lead to great productivity, more energy, and a better attitude at the end of the day. Don’t rob yourself of your personal time. Enjoy 20 minutes of sun and who knows maybe you’ll be amazed at how efficient you are when you return to your desk refreshed.

Let’s dedicate ourselves to finding personal missions, motivating factors, and quality time. Efficiency may be easy to achieve than we think. J

Source: Forbes, News.com

Original Article: Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit

I came across this interview with the CEO of Zappos.com I felt inclined to share.

Yes, the title of the post is what drew me to the subject, but it’s actually not the most interesting part. Later in the interview the CEO shares a prime example of treating customers like they are at “The Ritz” and how it spread into a social media success story. His story is about a woman who ordered shoes for her terminally ill mother and needed to return some, but considering the situation was unable to bring the shoes to UPS. After Zappos got wind of this woman’s circumstances they not only sent the UPS truck to her to fetch the shoes, but sent her flowers for her mother the next day. Apparently, this women wrote a blog about how thrilled she was and the blog went viral. Zappos motivation for this kind gesture was not to gain media coverage or a great review, they were simply demonstrating actions based on their core values. Simple stories like this are a reminder that business is about people caring about people. This is what creates successful business relationships and meaning in the work place.

~Jessica Love