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The kids are off to take a nap and I’m catching up on some links I have saved to check out at later dates.  As I come across info that piques my interest I save it in Evernote for future browsing. This afternoon happens to be catch up day.

One such link I just checked out was: http://blindsearch.fejus.com/

Basically just what it says. A blind search. Type in your search query, and then choose which results you like best. It compares, Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Going in I thought Google was going to smoke it. I realize i didn’t do a broad sampling, but for my little test, Yahoo tied Google.

My favorite search results originated from: Bing – 1, Google – 2, Yahoo – 2.

What were your results. Do you actually like Google Results Best?

***Discalimer, the presentation uses offensive language. It is also very good.***

I am a huge fan of Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc.  If it’s socialmedia related I probably love it.  However I was even dumbfounded how popular it really is.  Actually perhaps better said, how influential it is and how devasting it can be to a company, non-profit, church, etc if not used properly.

I know this isn’t new, but perhaps new to you. I think this slideshow explains it better than anything else I have seen on social media.

***DISCLAIMER #2***

Excuse the title, and the “**” out language. This isn’t my slideshow but yet it is probably the best explanation of the reach and influence of social media currently online. So please don’t miss the message.

So, does your church have a social media policy yet?  If yes, please share, because ours doesn’t yet, but I’m working on it.

I am always on the search for new ideas, information, innovation, creativity, etc. I have a couple problems.

1. I very often forget my “great idea.”

2. I very often forget important things I have read, seen or heard.

3. When I do remember to write my ideas down they are often on random pieces of paper, my smart phone, emails, napkins and even toilet paper.  All of which leaves a very unorganized mess. the reality was that I rarely re-visited my ideas, or discoveries because either I couldn’t find my notes, or couldn’t understand what I wrote, or had too many notes that took too long to search through.

Welcome EVERNOTE!

Evernote.com has become the most important tool that I use. It has become integral to my work and personal life. That is high praise, because I love technology and use a lot of different apps and services. But none have come close to helping me organize and save my thoughts as good as Evernote does. For me this means increased productivity, greater innovation (I now remember everything I think is important to remember) and its extremely efficient. (I run evernote at home, work,on my Mac, PC, and blackberry & they all sync together).

This new video from Evernote explains it better than I could.

I can’t recommend Evernote enough. I love it!

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Feeling a little lazy? Some things that I absolutely love are technology, researching/learning from others and being efficient. Twitter comes pretty close, but I still need to do all the manual searching, checking hash tags, trending topics, etc, etc. While I love finding out new information about many things it can be very time consuming and, frankly, I don’t have a ton of time to do that.

What I have never quite yet found is an application or software that does all that for me so that I can be efficient. Until now that is

Introducing LAZY FEED. So far I love it. (Time will tell how relevant the searches are but so far so good) In a nutshell, you enter in your search terms and it will work 24/7 for you cataloguing any articles, blogs, tweets, video and pictures that relate to your topic. I can now login at night (when I write most of this blog) and review the daily highlights of my chosen topics of interest and feel “caught up.” Literally I can do this all in under 10 minutes. I have about 10 topics that I consistently keep tabs on. Anything useful I save to Evernote for future reference and I’m good to go.

You currently need an invitation code to sign up which you can get from @lazyfeed on Twitter.

Any tools, apps, services that are crucial to how you research, etc?

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I love researching and finding tools and resources that add value to my life. That means, for me at least they, they make life easier, more efficient, add value to some area, or just plain old more enjoyable.

So my first post in the “Things I Use” section is about Quicken Online. While not a super new tool it is one that is often overlooked.  I am always on the lookout for good financial software that makes budgeting and tracking of finances easy.  Finding “easy” in personal finance is tough. As smart and intuitive they say software is suppose to be it really isn’t.  In the US they have a great online tool in Mint.com.  However as many US tools go, this doesn’t work for us Canadians.  However Quicken Online does work.

Here are some quick highlights on why I use it:        Oh it’s also FREE!

#1 Canadians can use it. (just put in a fake ZIP code when signing up. I used “12345″

#2 It integrates extremely easy.

#3 It’s online. I know this makes some nervous. I am completely comfortable and at ease with their security measures and love that I can access this wherever I go.

#4 They even have an iphone app to track things via your mobile phone.

#5 It is very intuitive. Personally, behind being compatible for Canadians, this is the biggest reason I like this service.

#6 Simply tracks trends so that you can very easily see where you are spending, or over spending as is often the case.

#7 Quicken has done a great job at making the whole experience easy with very minimal setup. (To open an account takes approx. 5 minutes. To initially go through your downloaded transactions may take an hour. After that it more or less runs on automatic as it learns very quickly where you spend your money)

Tracking your finances is, in my opinion, very important. Not only does it help identify where we overspend, but on a deeper life issue it can very quickly identify priorities and values we hold. These of course can be great and not so great. Since I’m all about personal growth I think you will find this tool helpful in more was than one.

If you use other tools, please share. The more resources people can have on this the better.

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