We're doing something similar for Irene Janney, a U.S. citizen consulting in Russia: using e-mail to prepare Irene's letters in a matter of hours—not days or weeks. It's no coincidence that trend expert Faith Popcorn calls her new book CLICKING. Clicking—using a mouse to make choices on a computer—is definitely "in," especially in our business.
Imagine Searching 225,000 Libraries
The Internet expands our research capabilities dramatically; we're completing consulting projects in record time. If you've surfed the net, you know what I mean. If you haven't, I'll attempt to explain. One Internet search engine, an index called Alta Vista, searches 30,000,000 pages on 225,000 servers (host computers) and also 3,000,000 articles from 14,000 Usenet groups, worldwide, and gives a printout of its findings in about 10 seconds! Alta Vista is only one of about 50 search engines.
Why Is This Helpful?
Because the worldwide web really is a web. Everything is connected. If you think of the Internet as new, as I did, you're only partly correct. In spite of what the press reports—namely, that the "Information Superhighway is just a dirt road," the Internet is very far advanced. In the career, outplacement, and human resources arena, which is our business, the resources are truly astounding. For example: on whitepages.com you can look up lost contacts, get their addresses, and even a street map of their location. You can find the top 25 recruiting sites at www.careerlab.com/kennedy.htm. Amazing, isn't it?
No more trips to the library—unless, of course, you want to hug the leather chairs.