On-line job fair scheduled for later this month

Hope-nwa.com, is holding a free online job fair to assist those in the community seeking employment. Set to launch Thursday, April 16th, the job fair will run through Thursday, April 23.
The service is also free to businesses, which can begin posting their job openings today by logging onto hopenwa.com; businesses will be able to post openings until 3 p.m. April 15. "We really encourage businesses to take advantage of this event," said Jessica Eldred Hope-NWA Strategist. "Their participation will not only help fill a need for their company, but will also meet a need that is very real for many Northwest Arkansas families right now."
The on-line job fair provides many benefits for businesses including: 1) Participation is free saving employers hundred of dollars in booth rent. 2) Job openings are still seen by a large audience, yet a company employee does not have to commit a day away from the office as in traditional job fairs. 3) On-line postings allow companies to stream line candidates and select only those that best fit the company.
The on-line fair is also beneficial to applicants allowing them to look through a catalog of company's openings ranging from clerical to specialized fields. Eldred further stated, "We have worked to make sure the site is easy to use. Applicants can select the job postings that pertain to their interest and skills and easily send resumes to the potential employer."
Any business that has a question about participating in the job fair can go on-line to Hope-NWA.com or contact Jessica Eldred at 640-6564.
"A community of hope giving our community hope" is the foundational thought fueling the new Hope-NWA.com initiative. The Hope-NWA website officially launched on Friday, Feb. 20. Designed to address the ever emerging needs of NWA, the site is a common ground for the people of NWA to come together and offer others hope and help. The site and all of its resources and seminars are completely free and hosted by Grace Point Church of Bentonville, Ark. No faith affiliation is expected just the opportunity to lend others a hand

Microsoft Faces Branding Problem In Effort to Top Google

A stark sign of the challenge Yusuf Mehdi faces as a point man for Microsoft in the company’s battle with Google comes from the company’s own research into the habits of consumers online.
During regular “blind taste tests,” in which Microsoft asks randomly-selected consumers to score the quality of results from various Internet search engines, the quality of Microsoft’s search results have so improved that people can’t tell the difference between Microsoft and Google search results, says Mr. Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft’s online audience business group. But when Microsoft slaps the Google brand name on the results from Microsoft’s own search engine during another portion of its tests, users invariably score them highest.
“Just by putting the name up, people think it’s more relevant,” he says.
Mr. Mehdi discussed the Google “brand pop” and other hurdles for Microsoft on Tuesday in an interview in his office in a verdant patch of Microsoft’s campus in the Seattle suburbs. The interview was part of a plan to begin talking more publicly about its Internet search business prior to a re-launch of its search engine in the coming months–a project that bears the code-name Kiev. People familiar with the matter say Microsoft has hired ad agency JWT, a unit of London-based WPP Plc, to develop a major advertising campaign for its new search engine, though Mr. Mehdi declined to comment on that topic.
Microsoft has been relatively quiet in recent months about its Internet search business as it regrouped following a string of setbacks. Last year, the company abandoned an effort to acquire Yahoo Inc. for nearly $50 billion and the head of its online business, Kevin Johnson, left to become CEO of Juniper Networks in July. More recently, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said he’s interested in acquiring Yahoo’s search business, a deal that could create a stronger rival to Google, though Yahoo‘s new CEO Carol Bartz has shown little interest in taking him up on the offer anytime soon.
Microsoft’s search group has stabilized since the company hired a former Yahoo search executive, Qi Lu, late last year to lead its online services business and recruited several other managers from Yahoo. Microsoft continues to invest heavily in its search business even as it makes cutbacks elsewhere in the company because of the weak economy. Even though Microsoft still finds itself in a distant third-place position in its share of the online search market behind Google and Yahoo, with just over 8% of searches by U.S. users, Mr. Mehdi says the mood in the search group is upbeat.
“It’s a very visceral feeling in the hallways,” he says.
Mr. Mehdi was cagey about discussing Kiev in depth ahead of its launch, but he offered a quick demonstration of one concept the company is testing as part of the project–a search engine it dubs Kumo.com that is currently only available to Microsoft employees. If a user conducts a search, say, on the name of a popular musician, Kumo groups together results in helpful categories like “songs,” “lyrics,” “videos” and “images.” Moves like that are part of a Microsoft focus on shaving the time it takes users to complete Internet searches.
Although improving its search technology has been a top priority, Mr. Mehdi concedes that another big problem for Microsoft has been a confusing jumble of brand names for its search efforts. The company’s search engine, available at Live.com, is called Live Search, though the brand is muddied by the plethora of other Microsoft Internet services such as Xbox Live and Windows Live. Mr. Mehdi says the company is looking for ways to “clarify” the brand for its search engine.
Even if it does that, Microsoft still faces the problem of the strong association in consumers’ minds between Google and Internet search. In theory, it’s far easier for a consumer to switch Internet search engines than it is for them to switch other forms of software. But Mr. Mehdi–a veteran of the Web browser wars of the late 90s in which Microsoft managed to overtake the pioneer in the category, Netscape Communications–says in reality it’s very hard to convince consumers to change their search behavior.
“Consumers are creatures of habit,” he says. “Habits are hard to break."