Tiny URLs are HUGE

First impressions are as important on the Web as in life. If the way to your site is through a long or complicated URL, you may lose visitors even before they get to the "skip this intro" screen.

Solution: TinyURL.com. Just plug in your uber-URL, and the result is something short, sweet, and to the point. Your tiny URL won't break in email postings and never expires. Best of all, it's free.

A recent example:

• From this: https://event-manager.compete-at.com/Manager/event/home.do?clubcntxt=delcorrc&eventcntxt=Tyler10KTrailRun
• To this: http://tinyurl.com/tyler09

Pretty sweet, huh?

Monkey around

What is it about monkeys that lend themselves to becoming fun Web tools? Is it the "it's so easy even a monkey could do it" rationale, or are monkeys so tied to the concept of play that anything they're linked with will be considered fun? I don't know why major companies are using monkeys to attract people to their sites, but I'm having a great time playing around with them.

• Send some Monk-e-mail courtesy of CareerBuilder.com. You can choose your own chimp (and its wardrobe), use the text-to-speech function, or record your own voice. It's hard to get tired of this one.
• On a more serious note is SurveyMonkey, which gives you a powerful tool for gathering feedback and creates professional-looking surveys.
• And then there's SurveyMonkey's cousin, MailChimp, for email marketing.

It might look kind of silly using monkey tools when you're part of a large, established business. For the rest of us, we're having a blast.

Searching for search engines?

Someone sent me a link to AllMyFaves.com. At first, I thought it was a joke. But the joke was on me for not having this compendium at my fingertips before now. If there's a link that's not on this site, either you don't need it...or you can definitely get by without it.

I solemnly swear

Finding stillness in a tumultuous world is nearly impossible. It’s hard enough to live in the moment during normal times. With economic meltdowns and presidential politics of historic proportions, the mind races from possibility to scenario to other possibilities and more scenarios. Until the jury summons arrives.

For three days this week, I’ve had to detach from normal life and fulfill my civil duty by sitting on a jury of my peers. The world could have come to an end outside the courtroom, and I’d have been none the wiser.

Yes, jury duty can be inconvenient, and the wheels of justice grind ever so slowly. But for the first time in a long while I was able to focus on one thing, in one place, for hours on end. No multitasking. No emails or texts or Web surfing. Just sitting. Listening. Deliberating. It was wonderfully freeing. Like a mini-holiday in my head.

With this blog, I try to share Web sites of interest, but not this time. The sites I found either focused on ways to get out of jury duty or the minutiae of juror rules. So the best I can do is offer some advice: Answer your summons. Stay focused. Enjoy the experience.