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The website for those who have a life... and want to get on with it! |
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The website for those who have a life... and want to get on with it! |
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We wish all our visitors and subscribers a "Happy Holiday", whether you choose to celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza or Festivus. We wish everyone a safe holiday and a prosperous 2007!
Over the holidays, we will be updating our Ski Reports daily at ../Sports/Rec-SkiReport.htm. Our Movie Listings are always up-to-date with the current holiday releases at ../Entertainment/EntMovieTimes.htm, as are our Video / DVD Releases at ../Personal/GoodsVideoReview.htm for those who want to buy or rent their entertainment.
As well, over the last while we have updated our entire Business section of the site, with updated information on computers & software, as well as consumer electronics at ../Computers/index.htm and at ../Personal/index.htm, with lots of shoppers guides, how-to tips, and technical info for no-technical people. This should help with your last-minute holiday shopping, or with help you wisely use those very popular Gift Cards at lot of people are giving and receiving this year, and make the most of the electronic gift you have received.
Our Media section now includes all updated information about local radio stations (including addresses and phone numbers) so you can request your favourite songs to be played over the holiday-New Years break. We even have links to the latest TV program listings online (handy when you need to check from school or office). See ../Communications/Media.htm
Cheers!
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
FoundLocally has begun its weekly ski reports & snow conditions for resorts and ski hills across Canada. Since early November, hills in the Rockies have been open and ski hills across BC and some prairie communities are opening shortly.
FoundLocally's ski reports now cover 3457 slopes at 132 resorts in all provinces, and are updated each Thursday noon. This allows plenty of time for those planning long weekends or road trips, and they're updated daily over holidays.
See ../Sports/Rec-SkiReport.htm
To access the ski reports, click on the FoundLocally community on the home page's map of Canada and click on the Ski Report link. The ski reports are linked with information about the ski hills themselves, as well as online reservations for linked lodging providers.
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
FoundLocally has begun its weekly ski reports & snow conditions for resorts and ski hills across Canada. Since early November hills in the Rocky Mountains have been open, and ski hills across the Maritimes are opening this weekend or later this month. We'll be ready once your local hill is open!
FoundLocally's ski reports now cover 3457 slopes at 132 resorts in all provinces, and are updated each Thursday noon. This allows plenty of time for those planning long weekends or road trips, and they're updated daily over holidays.
See ../Sports/Rec-SkiReport.htm
To access the ski reports, click on the FoundLocally community on the home page's map of Canada and click on the Ski Report link. The ski reports are linked with information about the ski hills themselves, as well as online reservations for linked lodging providers.
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our site visitors and newsletter subscribers a Happy Thanksgiving weekend!
The Fall marks the start of the Canadian hockey season (and the winding up of the Football season). We have the schedules for the major local teams, linked both on te right side of our local Winnipeg Blue Bombers CFL football schedule
If you do not want to receive these emails, we include an UNSUBSCRIBE link at the bottom of all our e-mails. Click it, enter your e-mail address, and you are removed.
We are cleaning up our lists, and removing all emails that have the following:
It's September, and almost Fall.
For many of you, you're going back to school, or your children are. We have the local school 2006-2007 calendars with all the holidays, and professional development days on our site, so you can plan vacations, field trips and /or day care for the coming months. See ../Education/LearnSchoolSchedule.htm
For those going back to school, keep in mind that FoundLocally is a first-rate educational resource, with well-researched and up-to-date local information, as well as photos and maps about communities across Canada. Educational use of text and images for assignments is permitted, as long as credit and/or link is given. See http://www.FoundLocally.com/ for all the communities. For those who haven't looked in a while, you'll notice we've added a few in Southern Ontario.
We have also updated our listings of Members of Parliament, with their office numbers (in Ottawa) and their local constituency office(s), so you can send them 'raves' or 'jeers' (we don't play any favourites!) by phone, fax or e-mail. See ../Local/Gov-FederalMPs.htm We have all elected officials in out Government & Politics section, at the municipal, school board, provincial and federal levels. See ../Local/Government.htm Let them know how you feel…we believe that our representatives make better decisions when they are informed about how the people who elected them (and would hopefully re-elect them) know how they feel. FoundLocally makes it easy!
Mark Ruthenberg
Gereral Manager
We have updated the site design, making it faster to load, especially on those using Mozilla browsers (about 15% of all users, now). This is our first major redesign in almost 2 years. Our new site makes many features easier to access, with similar features grouped closer together. Significantly, we made the business searches more accessible, placed it closer to our content, and made both the site search (content) and business search accessible on every page of the FoundLocally site. See http://Halifax.FoundLocally.com
For you the consumer, we moved the Shopping section above the Business section, and expanded the Consumer categories, which were grouped under one button on the left. Now Clothing & Fashion, Food & Groceries, Beauty & Grooming, Education & Learning, Consumer Goods & Services, and Pets & Animals each have their own left-hand menu button, and their own specific business search. We are continuing to add consumer information content for each of these areas.
We also made Autos the first option under Shopping, recognizing its importance to both consumers and advertisers. We have added significant consumer resources to this section, with over 250 pages of information per community. This new content covers
Thank you again, for all your feedback and your continued support & patronage.
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
The Liberal minority government has fallen, and that means its time for a[nother] federal election. Keep a eye on FoundLocally for information about local candidates and their news & events. We'll also have links to all the major media outlets' election coverage too, so everything will be here in one spot:
../Local/Gov-FederalElection.htm (and for each community)
This age has current links and information about Canada's Parties, several of whom you may decide are either obscure or too regional in nature. We have links to their platforms, and their leaders, and in most cases to the candidates.
Needless to say it the nomination deadline is 21 days prior to the election date, so there's plenty of time to run -or this time of year, snowshoe! Our Elections information has links to Elections Canada, with the nomination forms and requirements.
Question of the Day: Wouldn't it be real interesting if the Bloc Quebecois would run in all ridings? Then people could once and for all if Quebec should leave, and the country no longer held up to Liberals (and the Bloc) spending money on our behalf to "keep Quebec"
We have added mapping to the listings information, using the address to pop to the appropriate MapQuest map for that business. It should be noted that since some businesses have posted two addresses, for example:
You can check up the latest and most complete golf course listings online at ../Sports/Rec-GolfCourses.htm.
If you are thinking about taking a golf vacation anywhere in Canada, we have links to FoundLocally golf listings across Canada. You can also use the links at the top of the page to book your accommodation for your golf vacation.
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
We are getting lots of feedback from our visitors, making lots of suggestions for improving our site. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed like Santa must be this time of year, and it is certainly challenging trying to reply to everyone, not to mention work on the enhancements themselves.
We have now integrated the hotels listings on our site with the same global reservations engine and competitive pricing the airlines and travel agencies use. You can now not only search our listings in the travel section, but also check room rates and reserve your room right from our website! We have also integrated this feature with our http://www.TransCanadaHighway.com sister site for all hotels in each of the provinces and territories, and with our ski reports, ski hill listings & golf course listings for those planning a sporting vacation. See our hotels search at ../Travel/FindHotel.asp
The ski season is now upon us, and if your favourite ski hill is not yet open, we are pretty sure it won't be long before it is! We have all the latest weather and ski reports posted each Friday morning (for those of you who want to start their weekend early!) at h../Sports/Rec-SkiReport.htm
We continue to improve our dining search and have added the major chains across Canada, including casual dining, fast food, food courts, and the popular coffee & donut chains. We continue to invite all other restaurants to add themselves to our Free Listings, and for consumers to nominate their favourite establishments for a themed Top Five List using our online form at ../Dining/RestaurantFeedback.asp
We have evolved in the past few years from being just a "community information site" to also having a great business directory, with many businesses and community groups not found in the phone company's directory. The other directories require a business phone line (typically $40 per month) to be listed, whereas FoundLocally welcome everybody. In recognition of the ever-improving depth of our Business Directory, we changed the link at the very top of our home page to "Business Searches" which links to a listing of all of our Search forms at ../Searches.htm
We have developed User Guides (brochures?) for specific audiences of our web site, including Teachers & Students,
Government & Politicians, and for Brand Managers and Chains. They provide tips for getting the most out of FoundLocally's web site. These are linked in PDF form from each city's home page, but are also viewed from our About FoundLocally page at ../General/index.htm We encourage you to pass these on to those you know could benefit.
Please use the Feedback Formon any page of the web site to contact us with your suggestions Thank you again for your support over the years.
Mark Ruthenberg,
General Manager
We are celebrating a doubling of traffic since the New Year, and are now able to accelerate the pace of content and feature development on our site based on user feedback:
1. Today is Voting Day!
It is the right & duty of every Canadian citizen to vote today, so if you want a say in how this country will be run, head down to your local polling place. If you are eligible to vote but not registered (and have not yet received a voter's card) head down with your photo ID, along with proof of citizenship and residence. For information about what the parties and candidates positions are, see our Elections coverage at ../Local/Gov-FederalElection.htm
Following the election, we will post election results to our site. We will update our listing of Members of Parliament at ../Local/Gov-FederalMPs.htm in FoundLocally's Local - Government section as soon as contact information & office assignments are made in the House of Commons (typically, this takes them 3-4 weeks). You can contact the newly elected (or re-elected) MPs in your area, and e-mail them with a single mouse-click!
2. Re-launch of TransCanadaHighway.com
We have had a lot of feedback on our sister web site about the Trans-Canada Highway, based on the 30,000 people a month who currently visit it.
Due to the level of spam we receive, we have removed our email address from our site, linking to our Site Feedback form instead. This form tells us what page on the site you are emailing us from, so we can react quicker to your suggested changes. We get 30-50 such messages a day and invite your feedback for continuing to improve our web site. See ../General/Feedback.asp
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
June 28th is the next Federal Election, and we have provided all-round information about the parties, the candidates and the leaders. We have also linked to each party's platform on their web sites, and the major news organizations. This information is linked from the Home page for each FoundLocally community.
../Local/Gov-FederalElection.htm
We have also done a major improvement to our MovingInCanada.com sister site, adding a lot of content about neighbourhoods across Canada, as well as "Quick Lists" of all the phone numbers and web sites you'll need when moving to (or in) a city. Also, if you, a friend, or colleague are in the relocation industry (home builder, realtor, mover, mortgage lender, property manager, etc), you should add yourselves to FoundLocally's free listings. You will be found on the MovingInCanada.com site as well as on FoundLocally.com. http://www.MovingInCanada.com
Last but not least, the much anticipated Harry Potter Film, "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" is out. Check out our weekly Movie Show times at ../Entertainment/EntMovieTimes.htm .
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
At 500 years old, St John's Newfoundland is Canada's oldest city and now FoundLocally.com's newest community information web site. This brings to four the number of Maritimes communities covered by 5 year old FoundLocally.com, which now attracts 6 million visitors a year with its coast-to-coast coverage.
Whenever movies are released in the middle of the week, as with week wit the much heralded Mel Gibson production "Passion of the Christ", we update the movie listings, as we have today. FoundLocally is your best source for movie information!
We have also updated our design for FoundLocally.com, which is mostly cosmetic (but wow!), but has built in a number of features enabling us to post updates to our site more efficiently.
We remind everybody involved with a community group, school, non-profit, club, association, or church, that you can have your organization added to our site's free listings and can then post your various events & fund-raisers as well as your ongoing volunteer opportunities. Another community service from FoundLocally.com. Just click on "Free Listings" to begin.
Thank you all for your support.
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
We have had a lot of feedback over the past two months on the new functionality added in mid-July, and many of, quite frankly, found it overwhelming. We went back to the drawing board and looked at ways to simplify how people use our site, and made a couple of major changes.
REGISTERED USER LOGIN
Until now, there was no clear path for organizations updating their listing. For them, we have added a Login button, which also works for those who have posted resumes. We have also removed the "commercial" for Logos & Link advertising for those logging in. Businesses and community groups can use the Login button to post their events and jobs/volunteer opportunities, and even have their password emailed back to them.
CONVERTING EMAIL LINKS TO FEEDBACK FORMS
We have been inundated with spam and virus e-mails (which recently spiked at 5200 messages in a single day). Given how well we are spidered and registered with major search engines, we're not really surprised, but enough is enough! We have transferred out contact us email links to our existing feedback forms, which are directed to the right FoundLocally staff, and answered on a daily basis.
JOBS & RESUMES
Since people tend to post their resume once but come back for jobs listings more often, we mingled these two functions into one button.
NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE
As a courtesy to our faithful subscribers, we have made the Unsubscribe function more explicit in our Subscribe process, and will add a link to it in our emails. We are also able to send formatted emails, with fonts and colours, as opposed to the plain text ones until now. We promise we won't get too fancy, to keep the emails quick to download and to read.
LASTLY, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
We have lots of great seasonal content in our Recreation-Festivals section, with Halloween information & tips for costumes and parties at http://Calgary.FoundLocally.com/Entertainment/Halloween.htm
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
We have just re-launched our http://www.TransCanadaHighway.com web site, with not only a new look & feel, but also with a new focus.
When we launched this domain four years ago, the idea was to develop a Canada-wide travel-focused site. It would also create awareness of FoundLocally by cross-promoting the two sites as FoundLocally expands to new cities, primarily along Canada’s major east-west highway. TransCanadaHighway.com now gets significant traffic because of its excellent general information about the country, including the recent addition of route itineraries.
We have re-designed our site to be more visual and to focus on the Trans-Canada Highway itself. We get lots of feedback from visitors and will continue to make significant additions over coming months, focusing on trip planning.
We’ve had a lot of e-mails from cyclists, and want to add cycling-specific information to this site. Things like hills, roadside camping, cycling prohibitions and detours. If you have anything you’d like to suggest, we’d love to hear from you!
On another note, local travel & hospitality businesses and groups that are listed in FoundLocally are automatically included in travel listings on TransCanadaHighway, so if you are not yet listed, please do so. Or let someone who should, know about it. Click on “Add Free Listings” in http://Charlottetown.FoundLocally.com to begin.
Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
Public Service & Non-Profits | 4 |
Accommodation | 14 |
Business | 54 |
Food & Beverage | 7 |
Health | 11 |
Home | 35 |
Shopping | 65 |
Travel | 3 |
Vehicle | 3 |
We are undergoing significant changes to improve the site dramatically for all users. Our site receives 10,000 visitors each day, which has changed the way that we -- and our visitors -- perceive our web site. Please let us know what you think of the changes, using the Feedback Form linked at the top of any page
NEW "MAGAZINE" LOOK
We realize that only a small proportion of our digital photographs get displayed on our site, and that few visitors grasp the range of editorial content (almost a thousand pages per city). We're showcasing these two elements into a magazine-like look on key pages of the site (Home, Local, Business, Shopping, Entertainment and Travel). We'll keep all the familiar quick links to key content on those pages, but move them the right.
SITE SEARCH MADE FASTER
The site search (at the top of each page) is getting over 4000 keyword searches a day, and is now split into two to speed it up. The first search scans local businesses (using the Name, Description and Products fields), and a second "tab" repeats the search on web site content. This halves search times, and showcases local businesses and community groups that have provided us their information.
Businesses may want to update their Description and Products/Brands to improve your search visibility. Click on "Add Free Listings" to add or edit your listing.
MAKE YOUR TOP FIVE LISTS SUGGESTIONS
Please help us update our various Top Five lists for restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. Which do you think are worthy of a "Top Five" ranking. A couple of guidelines: a) use a common "theme" b)provide a one-line reason for each business in the list and c) tell us how you want your name to be published (or not) as the author of the list. Use the Feedback Form.
MAKING RESUMES VISIBLE TO MORE EMPLOYERS
The Resumes will now be made accessible to ALL registered businesses and community groups, not just the Logo & Link advertisers. Job seekers will get noticed by a broader audience and this helps businesses and community groups find the best people faster. You can post or update your resume for both paid or volunteer positions using the "Post Your Resume" button at the top of any page.
THIRD PARTY EMAIL OPTION HELPS FOUNDLOCALLY
Advertisers have requested we add the ability to send third party advertiser emails to our newsletter subscribers. While this will provide a significant revenues for FoundLocally to support our mostly-free service, we want to make it an OPTION for our subscribers, who will receive no more than 2- 4 emails a month from third parties. We will also ensure the list is carefully monitored for potential abuse. PLEASE re-subscribe as your "donation" to FoundLocally!
Mark Ruthenberg
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