On Thursday of last week, The New York Times consumer tech columnist David Pogue began his weekly piece with the words, “I’m about to make your life better. No need to thank me.” He went on to write a glowing review of OpenDNS, recommending that all his readers use it to improve their online experience.

This story — along with customers helping to get the word out about OpenDNS through tell-a-friend emails, Twitter and Facebook — helped fuel the biggest growth week in OpenDNS’ four-year history. Account creations were up nearly seven times their average and OpenDNS Deluxe has its best sales day ever. Not to mention the sales team absolutely killing it, adding Fortune 100 companies, household-brand retail chains and large K-12 school districts to the roster of happy OpenDNS Enterprise customers.

Some other interesting stats from last week:

• Pageviews on OpenDNS.com sykrocketed by several multiples.
• DNS queries hit the highest consistent levels ever; just shy of 27 billion per day.
• More than 1,000 individual tweets and retweets about OpenDNS in the two days after the article was published

The growth we’ve seen in the past week is tremendously gratifying. That said, there’s no resting in sight — we’re looking forward to welcoming more new customers, implementing more of your ideas, advancing the state-of-the-art in the DNS and security fields, and working to make OpenDNS an even better service than it is today. Thanks again for your support!

A glowing review for OpenDNS by one of the most noted tech journalists out there, in the most prestigious and well-known newspaper in the country? Check, check and check! We couldn’t be more excited to be the sole focus of this week’s New York Times “State of the Art” column by David Pogue, entitled “Simplifying Your Life As A Web User.”

“I’m about to make your life better,” he promises readers at the beginning of his column, via — what else? — an introduction to OpenDNS.

Calling OpenDNS a “magic wand” for the Web, Pogue does a fantastic job describing what DNS is and how OpenDNS works to make the Internet better. He then details the myriad features and benefits we offer users. If you use OpenDNS, then you already know what they are, since they make your day-to-day Web existence better: No DNS outages, super speedy load time (his were 15 percent faster than his ISP’s), typo correction, phishing protection, shortcuts and Web content filtering. He was especially impressed with our community-based approach to domain tagging and categorization and found it “bulletproof” in his testing.

After detailing the the hows and whys of OpenDNS, Pogue closes with a ringing endorsement for OpenDNS. At the end of the column, he writes: “OpenDNS is one of the last great freebies of the Web… Even if you use only one or two of its features, you’ll find that OpenDNS makes your Web life better.” We tend to agree!

This is a big week for OpenDNS, if press coverage is any measure. (It is. ) Yesterday we saw excellent features on OpenDNS publish in both Forbes and the newspaper of Silicon Valley, the San Jose Mercury News.

The Forbes feature first. The article looks at OpenDNS in the wake of Dan Kaminsky’s 2008 discovery of a major flaw in the global Domain Name System. (We saw many of you start using OpenDNS initially to protect your networks from it, only to fall in love with all of the things OpenDNS does.) The writer, Andy Greenberg, paints a colorful picture of Dan and OpenDNS founder David Ulevitch first meeting at BlackHat in 2001, and even then collaborating to make the Internet better. Fast forward to 2008 and Dan recommends everyone use OpenDNS as it’s one of the only DNS services insusceptible to the major flaw he found. Oh, and this story will be in the upcoming print issue, so keep your eyes peeled.

Next the San Jose Mercury News feature. This one ran on the front page of the paper’s technology section. It’s written for a consumer audience, explaining how OpenDNS works fundamentally, and how it makes the Internet safer, faster, smarter and more reliable. The writer, Elise Ackerman, definitely did her homework. She cites several school districts in her jurisdiction using the service – Menlo Park City School District, Mountain View-Whisman School District and Fremont Unified School District to name a few. She even interviewed the network administrator from La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District.

As always, we post media mentions of OpenDNS on our Web site here, so if you like to read up on what people have to say about us, check back often.

Congratulations are in order today to CEO David Ulevitch.

It comes as no surprise to us, and probably you too, that David was named one of BusinessWeek magazine’s “Most Promising Entrepreneurs Under the Age of 30.” (Yes, he’s only 26.) You can read the entire feature here, but the gist is this: The BusinessWeek editorial staff gets together once a year and selects a handful of high-tech entrepreneurs that are clear standouts among their peers. These are people that are expected to do great things over the course of their careers – this year eleven people were awarded the honor.

Given where David has taken OpenDNS thus far and all the significant “firsts” OpenDNS is responsible for, I know BusinessWeek made the right decision including him.

I’ll keep this one short.

David will be on the radio tonight. Gene Steinberg, the original Tech Night Owl himself, asked David to talk about the first PhishTank annual report.

Who: OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch

What: Tech Night Owl LIVE with Gene Steinberg

When: 6 p.m. PST to 8 p.m. PST, Thursday, October 18, 2007

Where: www.techbroadcasting.com

How to listen: go to the Web site and turn up your volume.

If you miss the original broadcast, you can listen later.

David did such a great job last time, they’ve invited him back!

Our very own CEO David Ulevitch will be a guest on tonight’s episode of Computer America with Craig Crossman. Be sure to tune in at 8 p.m. PST/ 11 p.m. EST to listen to David talk about the Domain Name System, the state of the Internet and whatever else you want – call toll free and speak to him live: (866) 606-8255.

Check here to find your local station airing the show.

In the world of publicity, a profile in a publication like the New York Times is the holy grail. Everyone aspires to have one, but few actually realize their goal.

Today the New York Times published a lengthy profile on our CEO, David Ulevitch, and we see this as further proof that OpenDNS is not only a fantastic idea, but the future of how people control their network and navigate the Internet. It’s a good day for OpenDNS.

The profile, written by iconic journalist and book author John Markoff, is spot on: It tracks David’s beginnings at MP3.com. It follows him to Washington University, where he earned an anthropology degree and used his newfound knowledge to approach the Domain Name System from a different perspective. It highlights his first DNS company, EveryDNS, and the beginnings of OpenDNS.

Most importantly, however, it captures David’s aim so well – to make a service people want to use, that doesn’t do anything invasive and makes the overall Internet experience better for everyone.

Be sure to check out the article, and please let us know what you think. Huge thanks to Alicia Abramson at Berkeley, CA, Public Library (an OpenDNS customer) for letting the NYT photographer shoot David on site.

Congrats David.

He’d be mad if he knew I was actually encouraging people to listen to his live, one-hour interview tonight. Which is why I’m speed blogging while he’s stepped out of the office to run an errand.

I’ve heard David speak before and let me tell you – he’s great. Tonight’s interview by Craig Crossman of Computer America should be more of the same. Expect all of your DNS questions to be answered tonight at 7 p.m. Pacific – that’s an hour and fifteen minutes from now. I think you can even call in and ask them yourself.

Lots of radio stations play Craig’s show live, and if your local station doesn’t you can listen on the Interwebs.

If you snooze, you don’t lose. If you’re reading this after the broadcast, download the podcast here.