As we further develop the toolbar and create tutorials and promotional materials, we want to know why you have or have not downloaded, installed or used the Inspection Radio Toolbar?

The toolbar technology is amazing and everything on it can be changed or customized within less than one minute. But we want to make sure that we're effectively communicating what Inspection Radio can do for inspectors and why the toolbar will be the best free Internet resource for anyone involved with the home inspection profession. In a nutshell, Inspection Radio is not in the business of building a new website or a service with 100% exclusive content. In fact, we're just the opposite. We're in the business of showing you everything that's on the Internet related to the home inspection world. The good, the bad, the ugly, the funny, the pitiful, the gossip, the whatever.

Anything on the Internet is fair game and with the exponential growth of social media (podcasts, blogs, vidoes, etc.) people will discover what's out there faster than you can imagine. That includes your posts or pictures here on Inspection News, other people's posts on Inspectors Journal, the NACHI boards, pictures on FLICKR, videos on YouTube, you name it.

Since we're independent from any home inspector organization, we can show you everything. For example, check out this great education seminar or this new training program. Look at this inspector's stupid video on YouTube. Check out this consumer's home inspection pictures on Flickr and how he just rips his home inspector into shreds. Read this cool case study on this site about EIFS, etc.

So let us know what your initial impressions have been. How should we promote the service and what are the first things about the toolbar that we need to educate people about? Do we need to mail out postcards, do web presentations of how the toolbar works...the sky's the limit or at least until Megan asks us for advance payment again.

As always, your thoughts and input are welcome.

Carlos

__________________
Carlos Tabora
Executive Director
Association of Expert Building Consultants
http://www.TheAEBC.com

when i downloaded your program it wanted to become a default program. I would not accept the terms.

I tried a number of times without success, and gave up. I use FireFox. Maybe this has been fixed? I haven't tried lately.

__________________
Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. -Robert Orben, magician and author (b. 1927) / www.ArnoldHomeInspections.com

The press release says:

"Anyone with Internet access can easily click, play, listen and watch the audio and video options incorporated into the toolbar without having to learn or switch between any computer programs."

But the download page says that you have to be using Microsoft Windows 2000/XP. I don't use MS Windows. MS Windows and Internet access are a bad combination.

- BOB

I've tried several times, but I just can't get past that music jingle before tossing my computer in the floor.

Anger management maybe is an alternative first.

__________________
This space is now available for sale or for lease. Contact your broker if interested. Serious inquiries only.

It's just asking if you want to use the toolbar search function as your default search engine for your web browser. You do not have to select it as your default. I don't for my browser. I'll paste a screen shot here to help explain what I mean.

__________________
Carlos Tabora
Executive Director
Association of Expert Building Consultants
http://www.TheAEBC.com

Sounds like an aural or oral problem to me. I guess it depends on the context. Maybe that's why home inspectors only do a visual inspection? The music jingle is only on the InspectionRadio.com web site to help people understand the radio concept. If you have the toolbar installed and your browser open, there is no jingle that will automatically play.

__________________
Carlos Tabora
Executive Director
Association of Expert Building Consultants
http://www.TheAEBC.com

Are you on a Mac? People have successfully installed the toolbar on their Mac Firefox browser. I was able to do it on my Mac mini. Open your Firefox browser and try downloading the file directly at Firefox Download. It should allow you to install the toolbar. If you can't download the file, send a blank email to iradio-firefox[at]aweber.com. Replace the [at] with the @ symbol. The file will be sent to you automatically once it has confirmed your email address.

If you're not using MS Windows or Mac OSX then you're a brave man.

__________________
Carlos Tabora
Executive Director
Association of Expert Building Consultants
http://www.TheAEBC.com

Open your Firefox browser and try downloading the file directly at Firefox Download. It should allow you to install the toolbar. If you can't download the file, send a blank email to iradio-firefox[at]aweber.com. Replace the [at] with the @ symbol. The file will be sent to you automatically once it has confirmed your email address.

__________________
Carlos Tabora
Executive Director
Association of Expert Building Consultants
http://www.TheAEBC.com

No, I have been on Linux at home for seven years. Before that, since 1977, I could use VMS or Unix at school or at work. No viruses, no worms, no trojans, no BSOD, no commercial "security" nagware. If you run MS Windows on the Internet then I think that you are the brave man.

- BOB

I run MMM

MMmsS Windowsssssssss

//3245r3^%$^

and have not

__________________
Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )
www.AskCodeMan.com

I keep getting this for my settings...

Attached Images

MSOffice05_4.gif (8.8 KB, 27 views)

What does this screen mean?

Attached Images

blue-screen-of-death_1152.jpg (17.5 KB, 38 views)

__________________
This space is now available for sale or for lease. Contact your broker if interested. Serious inquiries only.

your screwed

I have to say that if the Inspection Radio system requires a download (Toolbar) than many people won't ever hear it. I won't install this toolbar on my PC just to use this service.

Why not just make the system available without downloaded software? Can't we just go to the site, find a topic, and listen or view it?

Dom.

You are running MS Windows.

- BOB

As with any new technology, it will take some time for people to understand it and learn how to use it in their personal or professional lives. I think I must have talked to Brian about 8-10 times before he finally downloaded the toolbar and installed it. But when he did and I gave him a personal tour of what the toolbar can do, it didn't take long for us to get this project started.

As for putting information on the InspectionRadio.com website, we will do that, but it will not be immediate. In fact, it may take days or even weeks for information you find on the toolbar to be placed on the website. Why? Because we may not have the rights to re-publish the content or don't have the time or resources to create completely exclusive content to cover the same subject matter. In addition, the longer you wait, you run a greater risk of putting information up there that will be outdated or no longer useful. The toolbar has much more value in providing instant access to information that is already out there on the Internet. Search engines are great, but few people will go beyond the first 3, 5 or 10 pages of results. Some of the best information will never be found because no one knows that they exist. That will all change because of social media.

The time it takes for someone to post an interesting link or topic on a discussion board and wait for other people to respond to it is just enough time for someone else to post it on a blog, have it digged, tagged and clipped by other blogs and news aggregation services and distributed to hundreds if not thousands of people. That is the difference between waiting for information to be posted on a website and watching the information go viral within a matter of hours.

With the older demographic of most home inspectors and the stubborn and independent mentality that drove most of them to work for themselves, I understand that it may take some time for home inspectors to adopt this service. But the ones that do will be the first to know about anything positive or negative that can affect their business.

When I left ASHI 3 1/2 years ago, I knew that I wanted to learn more about the Internet and emerging technologies. I've gone to the top Internet marketing conferences and met some of the most influential marketers handling brands like Microsoft XBOX, AOL AIM Pages and so forth. The things that are coming down the pipeline within the next 6-12 months are simply amazing. If you have any teenagers or college kids that use social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, teach them an early lesson about recognizing trends and simple opportunities that may already exist, but remain unnoticed around them. The kids that learn how to make money from, not simply use, social media will be more valuable in the marketplace than someone with a college degree.

__________________
Carlos Tabora
Executive Director
Association of Expert Building Consultants
http://www.TheAEBC.com

That sounds slighly pretentious, Carlos. So by your estimation, all inspectors who choose not to load this toolbar will be left behind?

I understand the technology; it requires the user to load software to function. Everyone wants end-users to download toolbars: Yahoo, Excite, MSN, Google, AOL, AltaVista, Microsoft, etc. They have become ubiquitous. But just like when Google automatically updated everyone's toolbar without asking first, it comes down to controlling your computing enviornment. How many toolbars do I need on my computer?

Again, I see no reason that a Toolbar needs to be installed to access information.

Dom.

No. I don't believe that inspectors who choose not to use the toolbar will be left behind. But I do believe that they may be the last to know about things that can affect them. It's never good to be the last to know about anything especially when it comes to business matters. Because of the immediate availability of information on the Internet, ignorance is becoming more of a danger than people may think. This can include not knowing about developments in your state regarding changes in licensing requirements or not knowing that the Consumer Products Safety Commission has announced a recall of a product that is commonly used by home builders in your area.

Regarding toolbars, most if not all of the toolbars you mentioned are meant for doing general things on the Internet. This includes pop up blockers, weather checkers, etc. The new toolbars, like Inspection Radio, are industry or niche-specific. It's the same old scenario of macro vs. micro and what's small is now big and vice versa. MySpace may be big, but what's hot will soon be the MySpace for home inspectors or whatever niche you want to serve. I really don't want or have the resources to build something like that and I don't think that the home inspection profession is big enough to financially support that business model. But the Inspection Radio Toolbar is a good start in that direction.

__________________
Carlos Tabora
Executive Director
Association of Expert Building Consultants
http://www.TheAEBC.com

Works fine for me. Running it on Windows 7 RC and Firefox 3.0.1
Dana

__________________
"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an mainstream media,which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Windows 7 RC is pretty sweet so far. Only thing is some network issues in sharing a printer on my docked laptop. I now have XP, Win 7 and Ubuntu Linux in a triple boot set up on my trial system. I test software and write reviews twice a month so I use this machine for the work so as to not endanger my working business system.
Four systems on the network, running XP, Vista, Win 7 & linux

__________________
"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an mainstream media,which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

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