Tired of getting those $1-$2 charges on your phone bill every time you call information? Google has just launched a free 411 telephone directory service. Call 1-800-GOOG-411 or, 1-800-4664-411, to check it out. Absolutely brilliant. It really works!

I love the way that Google is using a YouTube video to blast the message out that this new service is available. Talk about doing a product launch in the new Web 2.0 world. Google puts a link to a fun, non-stuffy, non-overworked video on its site. It instantly gets thousands of viewers, and people like me with blogs to repost their video. Contrast this to everything Apple does - exceedingly polished, but very closed. Not so easy to repost an Apple ad, or a Steve Jobs keynote.

Last week I was in NYC participating in the first BlogHer Business Conference. Since its inaugural conference in the summer of 2005, BlogHer has been a focal point for women's voices in the blogosphere, both in its conferences and on the BlogHer website, an effort which I am proud to be part of.

As a business woman and a woman with a blog that has evolved into a business, what better place to meet peers and share ideas than at a women's conference devoted to the more professional aspects of blogging. Diva Marketing's Toby Bloomberg and I have been to all the conferences so far, and we shared a moment or two of awe at how far things have come, since July 05.

Well, a week has passed since BlogHer06, and I have finally recovered my voice, worn hoarse by two days and 3 nights of almost non-stop interaction with the hundreds of intelligent, interesting, expressive, and opinionated people, mostly women, who made up the conference. Why do I love the BlogHer conference? The reason is similar to the epiphany I had the first time I attended a women-in-business conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where I received my MBA. Having worked in the technology field for twenty years, and having attended countless professional conferences, my world, at least in work, has been almost entirely made up of men, and with it men's interests and attitudes about the world. Sitting in the classrooms which are usually occupied mostly by men, it was almost magical to look around the room and see bright, open, intelligent faces of women, women more concerned with contributing to the discussion and connecting with others than sounding smarter than everyone else.

I have four younger brothers, I have worked in technology, and I have trained in martial arts (mostly with men), for most of my adult life. I enjoy the company of men. But sometimes, it's just more fun to hang out with women. We tend to be more supportive of each other, and therefore more willing to take risks, e.g. display more vulnerability, in front of each other.

So this is the appeal of BlogHer for me - relaxing, engaging, and talking about subjects that interest me profoundly, with women. Every other conference geared toward the web, blogging, internet technology, etc. is top-heavy with men. And often the same men too, doing the speaking rounds at all the conferences.

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Here is the link to the video of Tina's presentation, starts about 5 minutes into the presentation.

Tina Seelig is the Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and one of the most truly brilliant and creative people I have ever met. In addition to a PHD from Stanford Medical School in Neurology, she's written many books, educational cards for kids, and is a serial entrepreneur. I recently listened to this talk she gave at Stanford, and then played it again just to take notes. She has great advice for those legions of young women and men starting out their careers, including (my notes in italics):