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Web Worker Daily

Rebooting the workforce

On the Browser Front, Competition is Heating UpYesterday

There were several important updates on the browser front this week, from Mozilla, Microsoft and Google. From where I sit, there is very healthy competition going on in the browser market right now, and if you’re a web worker who favors only one browser, there may soon be some prompts for you to switch or mix up your usage.

Die-hard Internet Explorer users will have to wait until 2009 for a final version of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft confirmed. There won’t even be another release candidate until the first quarter. It offers malware protection and other improvements, but is taking a relatively long time in development.

Meanwhile, Google has confirmed that it will deliver Mac and Linux versions of the open source Chrome browser in the first half of next year. The company has also confirmed plans to strike deals with OEMs to put Chrome on new computers as the default browser. We discussed both pieces of news on OStatic today. The move to make Chrome the default browser on new computers is particularly significant. That’s how Internet Explorer gained its dominance.

Mozilla’s Mitchell Baker

The Reluctant Social Media ClientYesterday

I’ve been hearing a lot from fellow Web workers about their long-term clients who are resistant to change.

“They don’t want to start a blog,” one says.

“They are afraid of RSS feeds,” says another.

“They don’t even know about MySpace or Facebook,” declares yet another.

Are we all just too “into it” to remember that our clients are often way far away from it?

I’ve been lucky in the last year or so to have some clients who trust me implicitly to lead them down the right path toward enhancing and augmenting their online communications with social media tools. Others, however, dismiss it because it is just so far out of their realm that they would rather put off the discussion than try to understand the implications of a blog or a Twitter account to communicate their message. In some cases, I’ve been able to sneak in a few social media tools with positive results, however, I admit this isn’t very strategic.

Here are some things I’ve thought about or observed in terms of handling the reluctant social media client.

Factor in the education and handholding

If you have a great client you’ve been working with who is resistant to social media but willing to trust you, make sure you factor in the educational process you will have to go through to bring them to a more comfortable place. I’ve had to create special PowerPoint presentations and hold one-on-one sessions to help empower some of my

Thumbstrips and Intuit Innovation Labs: A Recipe for SuccessYesterday

A couple days ago I posted an entry about Mozilla’s new Fashion Your Firefox add-on promotional campaign. Among the apps listed was one that I nearly overlooked, but that now strikes me as indispensable. It’s called Thumbstrips, and it’s a product of Intuit Labs, an innovative new venture by the makers of Quickbooks, popular tax software for Windows and Mac.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with two Intuit staff members to talk about Thumbstrips, Fashion Your Firefox, developing for Mozilla, and Intuit Labs.

Tara Tarapata, Group Manager for the Intuit Innovation Lab, and Scott Williamson, Software Engineer and an early developer of Thumbstrips, both gave me the impression that Intuit is an organization staffed by passionate people who are trying to shake things up in software development.

While I did not mention Thumbstrips by name in my initial overview of Fashion Your Firefox, I’ve since come to regret the omission. Since downloading the add-on, it’s become an integral part of my Firefox browsing experience.

Put simply, it allows you to view your

Open Thread: Web Worker ThanksgivingYesterday

The annual Thanksgiving holiday in the US is coming up next week - and a lot of web workers are preparing to take some downtime away from their computers as a result. Before you go, though, why not take a few minutes to participate in our annual thread of thanks?

There’s been a lot of doom and gloom recently in the news, but for at least some of us, web working remains a bright spot in the landscape. I’m certainly thankful that my own work allows me to skip the daily commute (and not even venture outside on days when the weather is below freezing), and that I have the chance to work with interesting people worldwide on a daily basis.

What about you? What makes you thankful about web work? Share your highlights in the comments!

Is Web Working Better For Your Health?Yesterday

When our grandparents said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, they were referring to the fruit, not the computer.  But it’s not far-fetched that the same thing could be said about teleworking.  By opting to telework, employees and freelancers have a better chance of keeping themselves physically healthy.

How does this happen and to what extent is it valid?

Less stress - in an ideal situation, at least. Too much stress is something that should be avoided, whether you’re a teleworker or not.  It reduces the efficency of your immune system and also makes you prone to allergies.

Without the stress that comes with commuting and rushing to the office, there’s a general consensus among surveys that for most people, web working is less stressful.  Still, it’s important to remember that some telewor