Brian's Buzz is renamed the Windows Secrets Newsletter
Brian's Buzz on Windows, my twice-monthly e-mail newsletter on the
tricks you need to run Microsoft Windows, has changed its name to the
Windows Secrets Newsletter. The old Brian's Buzz logo, shown at
right in a smaller-than-usual size, will soon disappear entirely.
Many improvements, some of which I've been
developing for more than 12 months, led me to feel a different name would
better reflect the new services you're going to receive. Here's why:
A gaggle of Windows authors
Some of the biggest names in Windows writing have agreed to work
together with me to bring you a better and stronger newsletter.
First, I'll be joined in writing and editing the Windows Secrets newsletter by
Paul Thurrott (on the right in the photo at left). Paul runs the
SuperSite for Windows
and is the editor of the weekly
Windows & .NET Magazine Update,
one of the world's largest independent e-mail newsletters on Windows
with more than 250,000 subscribers.
Paul's new title with the Windows Secrets Newsletter will be Associate
Editor. I remain as Editor, and he and I will each write material in
both the free and paid versions of every issue.
Woody's Windows Watch is merging with the Windows
Secrets Newsletter
Woody Leonhard (photo, left) is the author of
Windows XP Timesaving Techniques for Dummies and many other
books. He and publisher Peter Deegan have agreed to merge their Windows e-mail
newsletter, Woody's Windows Watch, with our efforts. Readers of both
newsletters will automatically receive a single publication entitled the
Windows Secrets Newsletter.
Woody, Peter, and other Windows Watch writers will periodically
contribute articles and tips to the merged publication. The first
combined issue, which will more than double the circulation of the existing
Windows Secrets Newsletter, will appear soon on my regular "alternating
Thursdays" publication schedule.
If you currently get both newsletters at different e-mail addresses,
use the following link to
unsubscribe your address from Woody's Windows Watch.
If you do so by July 21, you won't receive duplicate newsletters. (The link
will only unsubscribe you from Windows Watch, it won't unsubscribe you from the
Windows Secrets Newsletter.) If you get both newsletters at the same address,
I'll make sure you aren't sent Windows Secrets twice.
"Windows 2006 Secrets" is coming, thanks to Wiley
Many of the above changes were inspired by the author relationships we each have
with Wiley Publishing Inc.
Wiley is the current publisher of the Windows Secrets and
For Dummies series of books — assets it gained when it acquired
IDG Books Worldwide.
Paul Thurrott and I recently signed a contract with Wiley to co-author a
completely new 1,000-page book: Windows 2006 Secrets. This opus, my
first book-length work in six years, will come out when Microsoft's new beta
operating system, code-named Longhorn, is released. (The book will be
renamed to match whatever the Microsoft software product is called when
it ships.) I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
WindowsSecrets.com is our new home on the Web
To bring together all of these publishing efforts, I've acquired the domain
name WindowsSecrets.com
from its previous owner (an ad-supported search engine that was operated by
Ultimate Search). All of our new content, as well as all past issues of
Brian's Buzz and Woody's Windows Watch, will be hosted on the new domain name,
which is now live.
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WinFind is my specialized search engine that brings you Windows tips from 15 high-tech authorities that I've found to be accurate, reliable, and safe (unlike many "tips" you see on the Internet).
My original search engine — what I call WinFind 1.0 — was good enough to win BriansBuzz.com recognition as one of the 101 sites with the "Best Free Stuff on the Web" and one of "132 Search Secrets" in recent PC World cover stories.
The new search engine — WinFind 2.0 — now shows you hyperlinks to the most relevant article from each of the 15 textbases it indexes. You can easily expand your search results to show additional, related links from any of the sources with a single click. The new index is powered by Atomz.com, an award-winning provider of customized search technologies. Most of the programming of WinFind was done by my research director, Vickie Stevens.
WinFind 1.0 sometimes displayed a results page on which several of the links pointed to articles on the same site. This was due to the difficulties of mechanically ranking the variously formatted contents of the 15 expert sites. WinFind 2.0 will never exhibit this quirk.
Try out the advanced (but easy-to-use) version of WinFind 2.0 at WindowsSecrets.com/WinFind. The simple-search version (with just an input box) sits atop the WindowsSecrets.com home page.
Your support made all this happen
There's more, but I'll stop here. These improvements have been made possible by the generous contributions from the 7,290 readers who are currently our paid subscribers. (They comprise over 14% of all subscribers.) I give you my thanks, and I promise you that my co-authors and I won't rest until we've created for you the undisputed best resource for Windows information and advice.
Please give us feedback using our Contact Page if you find any problems that we might have missed in the new site or the redesigned newsletter. Send me a personal e-mail message, and attach a screen shot of the problem (if possible). I apologize for any inconvenience you may experience, and I invite you to check back in a few days to see if any difficulty you found has been corrected. All new software has bugs, but they'll be fixed as soon as we hear about them. Cheers!
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