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.