We’ve gotten a couple emails about trouble resolving .org domains today. There’s nothing wrong on our end but it looks like .org has been having a rough day.

Here’s a picture for you network nerds out there…

(key: more red == more bad)

As a reminder, you can always use CacheCheck to try it again. And seriously, what other DNS provider gives you this kind of control?

I know it’s only Wednesday, but this has already been a great week. Sure, we’re all a little tired after putting in long hours in the days leading up to the shortcuts launch. But the feedback is pouring in, and we’re lovin’ it. Shortcuts in the news ain’t so shabby either…

On Monday and Tuesday, we were overjoyed about shortcuts articles and blog posts in Techcrunch, Crunchgear, Wired, US News and World Report, ArsTechnica, CNET News.com, Lifehacker, New York Times, PC World, Computerworld and Techworld. And it should be mentioned that Paul Stamatiou gets the award for being the first to blog it.

Then, middday today Forbes posted its weekly video show “The Download” where writer Dan Frommer cites OpenDNS shortcuts as his favorite thing this week. (Dan is fun to watch on video, and a very cool guy. David and I met him in person recently in New York.)

Throughout all of this, I had my fingers crossed that Anick Jesdanun at the Associated Press might write something, but you can never be sure. (Admittedly, I’ve been monitoring Google news every five minutes since Monday morning.) Not only did Anick write an article, his article is a great example of quality tech journalism. He has a way of explaining things in very understandable terms. It’s already in 32 newspapers across the United States. I bet it’s even in your local paper!

And of course there are a ton of awesome bloggers who’ve mentioned shortcuts – you can see a roundup of all of them here.

A big, sincere thanks to everyone who uses OpenDNS. Let us know how we can make OpenDNS even better. Every idea gets legitimate consideration.

It’s been about 36 hours since we launched shortcuts to the world and we’ve already had thousands created. One of the features that hasn’t been talked about much is how you can create advanced shortcuts. I’m going to show you some of my favorites below. Feel free to share some of your personal favorites in the comments.

Taming tickets

We have a ticketing system here in the office which we use to keep track of bugs and feature requests. It’s not uncommon to hear someone in the office say: “What do you think about ticket 509?” or “Did you see my update to ticket 1294?” Being able to type “t 509″ or “t 1294″ and land directly on the ticket page saves me a ton of time.

Here’s how I set up our trac shortcut:
t http://tickets.internal.opendns.com/ticket/%s

I use it like this: t 509

Phoning my friends

I use Skype from time to time to talk to friends in foreign countries to save on the long-distance charges. I like being able to launch a phone call by just using my address bar (since I’m always using a web browser).

Here’s how it works:
call skype:%s

I use it like this: call opendns

Or, if I just want to leave a voicemail:
voicemail skype:%s?voicemail

I use it like this: voicemail opendns

Know where you’re going

Sometimes I’ll be running out of the office to visit one of our datacenters and I’ll need directions. I’ve got a shortcut called office that quickly gives me directions to any location starting from my office. This one was a bit trickier to create, and I made it using the OpenDNS shortcut bookmarklet. You can find the bookmarklet on the bottom of your shortcuts page in your account.

Here is the shortcut:
office http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=50+Fremont,+SF,+CA&daddr=%s

And here is how I use it in my browser: office 529 Bryant, Palo Alto, CA

The future of navigation is in your fingers

Shortcuts are cool. Advanced shortcuts can be powerful. What can you make them do? What do you want them to do?

Can I have a drumroll please (or maybe a dancing banana)…

Today we give you shortcuts, marking the first time you’ve ever had control over how your address bar behaves. Shortcuts are a cool way to use a short word for a long address.

Shortcuts will change the way you navigate the Internet. Unlike keyword-based systems in the past, shortcuts are yours. You create them and you decide where they go.

Without getting technical, here are some examples of what you can do with shortcuts. You can make a shortcut for “mail” go to gmail.com, mail.yahoo.com, your webmail or anywhere else you’d like. You can make a shortcut go to a website, start an IM conversation, initiate a phone call, and more. Our goal is to help you navigate the Internet in the easiest and fastest way possible.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Make sure you are using OpenDNS.
2. Create or sign in to your account.
3. Set up your first shortcut for a common website you visit.

There are a few different ways to create shortcuts. You can create them in your account, you can create them on the OpenDNS Guide pages, and you can create them on any other Website using a bookmarklet.

We will continue adding new ways to improve your Internet experience and give your more control over your network.

Thanks for choosing OpenDNS. As always, let me know what you think!

ps, here’s the dancing banana:

This week, www.opendns.com got a makeover. It’s not drastic. Maybe you didn’t notice. But we’re doing three things differently now.

1. The site changes subtly if you’re using OpenDNS already.
2. The accounts system got a thorough review and upgrade.
3. We streamlined navigation, words and choices throughout.

Reacting differently

In key places, you’ll get a different choice based on whether you are using OpenDNS or not.

Homepage before setting up OpenDNS

Homepage after setting up OpenDNS

Improving accounts usability

There were some things which just didn’t work perfectly, so we fixed them. We also asked several of you for feedback, and got some helpful ideas. Thanks! In the end, we re-created the entire section. Sign in and look around.

Here’s a list of the changes in Accounts:

• New navigation throughout My Account and easier labeling for your networks.
• Custom images and Public announcements (aka, branding) are now enabled for all networks, all accounts. Fun!
• Upload a custom image in multiple formats and crop it in a nifty tool to the required size.
• Upload a custom image once; choose it for multiple networks.
• Upload up to 14 custom images per account; pick and choose per network.
• Accounts now support global preferences.

We’ll do individual posts exploring many of these new capabilities. They deserve it.

When less is more

We re-thought our tabs. At Home and At Work are now simply Get Started, since everyone enjoys the core benefits of OpenDNS. We still recognize that network managers have extra considerations when thinking about DNS.

Separately, our users now tell you, in their own words, why OpenDNS works for them. You can join them!

Please let us know what you think of the changes, either commenting here, posting in our forums, or via email.

As promised, account-less preferences were removed just now. I trust the three previous reminders did the trick, but if you have any concerns, please let us know. A free, secure account fully replaces the old preferences and opens up a lot more control and information to you. Get one now.

Told you once. Told you twice. This is the last time.

Once again, if you’ve been using account-less prefs, time to get a free account… now. This only affects a small group of people, since OpenDNS delivers a safer, faster, smarter, and more reliable Internet experience with or without an account.

But trust me that an account is going to give you even more control over your Internet experience very soon.

We love getting to know our customers. Think you’d make a good interviewee for a Five Questions post? Let us know!

Judi Sohn
MomatHome

OpenDNS: Tell us about yourself. What do you do for a living?

JS: I am Director of Operations and Communications for C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition. C3 is a grassroots patient advocacy organization committed to defeating colorectal cancer through research, policy & awareness. I lost my father to colon cancer in 1999, and that’s what started me in advocacy. I was furious that he died of a disease that could have been prevented, had he known how. And that the disease was fatal because it was caught too late and research couldn’t save him. The organization was started in March 2005 by a group of us who have been working against colon cancer for a while, but we saw that there wasn’t enough attention on being the “squeaky wheels” against the disease the way the breast cancer and HIV/AIDS communities had. Our website is the top resource on the Internet for colorectal cancer-specific advocacy and research information that is patient-centered and continually updated.

I’ve also been blogging on my personal website since January 2003. Before taking a fulltime position with C3, I was a freelance graphic designer working under the name “Mom at Home Design” so that’s why I’ve had that great domain since 1998. Now it’s just a blog rather than a blog & portfolio site. I’m also a writer for Om Malik’s GigaOm site, Web Worker Daily.

OpenDNS: That’s a lot. What do you not do?

JS: Work in an office outside my home from 9-5! I do everything for C3 from my home office a few hundred miles away from everyone else. It’s challenging to stay connected, especially as the organzation grows, but I think I pull it off.

OpenDNS: How did you first get into blogging?

JS: It was late 2002 and I was bored and curious. I started reading blogs first, and I was very interested when they talked about how they did it. Most people hate those “how I blog” process posts, but I loved them. I saw that they were talking about something called Movable Type, and I liked the way those sites looked and worked. I read the instructions for installing and configuring Movable Type and it didn’t seem so hard, so on a whim one afternoon I tried it. I started by talking about what was going in my life, which at that time was major construction on my house. It took a couple of months to get my first comment, and then it just grew from there. My blog is not huge by any stretch. Not even close. But I know I have a little bit of a following, which is nice.

OpenDNS: Does OpenDNS improve the blogging experience?

JS: Yes. Anything that helps my computer react as fast as I’m thinking, which is pretty fast these days, helps my blogging experience. It also helps me when I type too fast and make a mistake in the URL. OpenDNS is smarter than I am.

OpenDNS: What’s your advice to other moms at home?

JS: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Everything I do for my kids, I ask myself, “Is this something that the 2017 version of Judi will want to come back and kick my butt for?” If the answer is no, I let it go.

It’s easy for people to think that you’re a stay-at-home Mom with lots of flexible hours, when you’re really not. I have more flexibility than most, but if anything I have less free time than people with traditional office jobs. Any hours I take away from the day have to be made up somewhere. With such a small organization, it’s not like I have a large staff to delegate to. It’s really hard to draw hard and fast lines between work and home life, so I would advise moms to be prepared for serious blending (and to be your own tech support) or don’t even try working this way.