Tag Archives: management resources

Chaggle.com is the Next Big Thing – Don’t Haggle with The Manager

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Chaggle is Cool

Chaggle is the Next (Fill in the Blank)

Last month a colleague told me about this little technology startup that had carved out a pretty cool niche for themselves – and within ten minutes of hearing his description of Chaggle.com, I was happily using what should prove to be the next big thing on the World Wide Web. We’re talking the next billion-dollar company (that’s billion with a b), and that’s not hyperbole; it’s a promise.

Before you think I’ve enjoyed too much Cabernet today, rest assured that I see about 100 new Internet ventures a year, and this is the first one I’ve blogged about – and now I’m giving you a chance to get in on the ground floor.

Ground Floor Opportunity

Unfortunately, Chaggle doesn’t need cash, or I’d mortgage everything just to get a small piece. (If they do look for financing in the future, I’ll have my checkbook ready.) The ground floor I’m posting about is the chance to become one of the first thousand or so to download a service that will soon be used by millions. (Imagine if you were the 125th person on MySpace… you’d have a great vanity domain and a nice story to tell your friends.)

I’m proud to brag that I was one of the first hundred to join Chaggle, and I easily secured the Chaggle handle “Steve.” I had my pick of vanity handles and could have been TheManager, Stud_Muffin, or Roger; but chose Steve because my name is not Roger and I don’t want to use the Chaggle plug-in under those other names. (Though I’ve always considered myself a bit of stud muffin – okay, I may have had too much Cab today.)

What the Heck is Chaggle?

By now, you’re hopefully wondering “what in the world is this Chaggle anyway?”


Chaggle is an Internet Explorer plug-in that allows you to chat with fellow Chagglers (I think I made that up, so I want the credit later) who happen to be surfing the same site you’re visiting. (While we’re making up words, let’s call it Chaggling instead of chatting and Chag instead of chat.)

After a quick download of the Chaggle software you can open a separate Chaggle window that rides alongside your main browser window. As you move from site-to-site, you take Chaggle with you and you have the opportunity to Chag with fellow Chagglers about what you see on the site.

Rather than try to provide an example in detail of what you can do with Chaggle, I’ll let Chaggle.com co-founder Clayton Smith enlighten you:

The aspect of Chaggle that we feel is so special is that it allows you to bring an integrated, interactive chat capability along with you to every site you browse. So if you’re at CNBC’s website and you’re looking at an article on Chrysler’s bankruptcy, on Chaggle you can either chat about it on the CNBC.com main webpage with everyone viewing the site, or you can post comments (or web “crumbs”) that will be tagged to that specific news article’s URL. There is no other service out there that provides this level of interactivity across the web. Our goal is to make Chaggle the perpetual conversation of the Internet. – Clayton Smith

Well put, Clayton. (If you’re still a little in the dark about how to use Chaggle, check out the homepage video at Chaggle.com.)

To give you a sense of how I plan to use Chaggle, imagine I post about a cool new Web service called Chaggle and you happen to be reading the article and you are a fellow Chaggler. If we both have Chaggle turned on, you can tell me what a great writer I am via a Chag and I can respond with a warm thank you. Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?

What’s the Catch?

Chaggle is cool. Chaggle is useful. Chaggle is free. Chaggle is new… and that’s the downside right now. Since its Beta-version rollout on May 1, Chaggle.com only has about 100 Chagglers. (Of course, I look at this as a bonus: you can swoop in and grab that vanity handle you always wanted. Can anyone say “LonelyGirl15?”)

As a brand new service, Chaggle built their platform for the most popular browser (IE) first. To date, Chagglers can only Chag using Internet Explorer, though Chaggle is working on a Firefox version right now, and they expect it to be released in a couple of months. The Firefox version of Chaggle will work on any operating system using Mozilla’s Firefox as its Web browser (Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, etc).

Chag Me, I’m Chagilicious

Once you download the free plug-in, find me surfing online and let’s Chag about whatever site I’m visiting. (Of course, you can just tell me what a great writer I am, and I’ll respond with a warm thank you.)

Catch Your Limit: Management Consultancy, Leadership Blog and Fish Cleaning Service

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Great Leadership Blog Worthy of Special Mention – CatchYourLimit.com

As our regular readers know, we produce four semi-regular Blogwatch series covering Time Management, Sales Management, Management Training and Leadership Development. In these series we attempt to help you cut through the clutter and discover great writing and great advice.

While we think we do a pretty good job of culling the crud, we sometimes overlook great blogs. When we do, we’re excited when readers bring these wonderful sites to our attention.

One of our readers turned us on to a great Leadership Development website that had not been a part of our Blogwatch series, called CatchYourLimit.com. This site and its accompanying blog are the brainchild of an innovative leadership consulting company known as Catch Your Limit.

What makes Catch Your Limit so innovative is their approach to management and leadership consulting that moves away from the starched shirts and toward what really matters: coaching; accountability; consistency and cleaning fish. (Long story, you have to read their About Us page to understand.)




Based on what we learned about this innovative consultancy and their great blog, we hereby amend yesterday’s Leadership Development Blogwatch and add the following post:

Transparency is to Employee Engagement as Failure is to Innovation

Leaders will never gain the trust of their employees, especially in uncertain times without a significant level of transparency. As innovation needs experimentation and failure, employees need transparency from leadership for engagement to take place.

One of the difficulties many organizations are facing is transitioning from a “corporate memo” top down communication culture to having honest and candid conversations with their employees. The former creates an environment of rumors, gossip and anxiety while the latter allows employees to feel a certain level of security remaining engaged and productive.

Like improving the economy it’s easier said than done. It isn’t easy to tell people they may lose their job. It isn’t easy to discuss a negative financial outlook…

(To read the rest of this article and other great posts on CatchYourLimit.com, please follow this link.)

 

CriminalSearches.com – Great Free Site Offering Instant Criminal Background Checks and Much, Much More

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Great Recruiting and Hiring Tool – and it’s Free!

It’s not often we are swayed by someone’s idea of the latest, coolest website on the Internet, but we discovered a website recently that absolutely could cut time and dollars off the way managers and companies recruit and hire new employees today.

Typically, companies must spend between $25 and $500 to have third parties run criminal background checks on their potential new hires. The process is time consuming and doesn’t always fit with many managers’ go-go-go style of hiring. Because of the cost and the delay, most small companies forgo this important step.

A website still in beta, CriminalSearches.com, solves this issue and many, many more. Best of all, the site is free (at least for now). On CriminalSearches.com you can enter anyone’s name (even just a last name) and retrieve their criminal records – including arrests and (in some states) traffic violations. The results appear in milliseconds, and can save you and your staff hours of work and hundreds or even thousands of dollars annually in third party fees.

Besides being a great tool for hiring managers and the HR types, the site is actually a lot fun. We spent the afternoon entering the names of our high school and college classmates only to discover four felons, ten DUIs and one indecent exposure of a demure cheerleader (I guess you never really know about people).

To visit the CriminalSearches.com homepage and make a quick search, follow this link.

Beware of Geeks Baring Gifts?




While goofing around with this great website, I couldn’t help but hear my father’s words “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“Dad,” I thought, “in this case, you’re wrong.” Don’t be afraid of using CriminalSearches.com just because it’s free; there really are no strings attached (yet), and it is a truly useful tool for managers and businesses of all sizes in the US.

From a personal perspective, the site is not only fun when you grab your yearbook and seek out the criminals from your graduating class, it’s also helpful for identifying criminals who might reside in your neighborhood.

Using the site’s “Neighborhood Watch” section you will quickly discover all of your neighbors’ level of past criminal activity. Unlike many government sites that merely list sex offenders in your area, this site will show, by address, who has been accused of what crime down to some very petty offenses.

Especially important, we thought, for parents who don’t like their kids playing at homes where the father has four drug convictions (not really the role model we’re looking for, if you know what we mean).