What's New

Improved Site-wide Navigation

Posted Dec 19, 2008 by Michael

You’ve probably noticed that our navigation bar has changed! What’s different?

• Fewer clicks — We’ve promoted the major tabs from underneath My oDesk to the top level. This, along with convenient dropdown menus, makes it easier to get where you’re going with fewer clicks.
• More intuitive — Our tab names and categorization is more obvious. For example, Timelogs is no longer under Hire/Get Hired, but under a new “Reports” tab.
• Less is more — We’ve gotten rid of the left navigation bar in most places, and standardized pages to 1024px for a more consistent look and feel
• Life is in the details — There are a host of minor usability improvements throughout the site which add up to a better overall experience.
• A glimpse forward — Our new “Assignments” page gives you a sense for where the UI is heading.

We think you’ll get the idea after spending only a few moments clicking around. Please let us know what works (and what doesn’t) by visiting this thread in our forums.

oConomy Featured Country Pages

Posted Dec 12, 2008 by oDesk Marketing

We have featured our top provider countries (by hours worked) in the oConomy: 
Each page contains:

• An interactive map, showcasing statistics from the country’s top provider cities
• Charts comparing the country’s hourly rates and average feedback versus the oDesk average
• Charts showing the country’s growth on oDesk and breakdown of the types of work being done in that country
• A listing of the most active providers (by hours in the last 30 days)
• Other useful statistics and facts relevant to doing work with the country

Click here to visit the oConomy or one of the new country pages:

• Canada
• India
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Russia
• Ukraine
• United States

We hope that the pages will be a valuable resource to both buyers (in making oDesk hiring decisions), and providers (in comparing their statistics to their country averages).  We encourage a healthy discussion around these statistics, and feedback on what other stats may be interesting & useful down the road.

Noticeably Faster Site Performance

Posted Dec 11, 2008 by Michael

We have drastically improved performance of the web site. You will see this most noticeably in Provider and Job Search.
Try it out — We will be continuing to invest in performance in the coming months!

More Detailed Candidates Queue

Posted Oct 23, 2008 by Michael

We are introducing a new, more detailed version of the buyer candidates queue. We’ve made it easier for buyers to manage the candidates in each active opening. Specifically, the more interactive view will allow buyers to:

• Scan candidates’ key qualifications and cover letters
• Filter out candidates that do not meet the preferred qualifications for the opening
• Quickly grant interviews to quality candidates without navigating away from the queue
• Quickly reject (or mark as spam) obvious misfit candidates without navigating away from the queue

Note that this view is still in beta and we would very much like to solicit your feedback on the new functionalities as well as suggestions for improvements. Please post your comments here.
(For now, you can click on the “standard view” to access the original candidacy queue UI.)

New Payment Method: Pay by Check

Posted Oct 23, 2008 by Michael

oDesk has been receiving requests from larger businesses to be invoiced and to pay by check. Today we are pleased to announce that check payment is now an option!

Who is this feature targeted at?

Larger US businesses whose financial systems forbid putting oDesk charges on a personal or corporate credit cards.

How does check payment work?

1. You talk with a oDesk representative, who will determine your eligibility for this payment method.
2. If you are approved, we will work with you to determine what security deposit would be appropriate given the amount you spend on oDesk and the period of time it takes your finance department to pay invoices.
3. You send oDesk a check for the amount of your security deposit.
4. When your security deposit check clears your payment method is marked “verified” and you can hire providers on oDesk.
5. You receive an invoice each week, and pay as per your terms.

Click here to read the full help article.

Sounds great! How do I sign up?

You go to the Payment Methods page and click on the link in the “Check” payment method. This will initiated a request and an oDesk representative will contact you.

What are the restrictions?

You must:
(a) have a US bank account
(b) participate in an account screening interview and be approved
(c) pay a minimum security deposit of $2000

Will the security deposit be refunded?

Yes, when you choose to no longer pay by check, your security deposit will be applied to your remaining liabilities and you will be able to withdraw any remaining funds.

I’m an international business and I would like to participate in this.

We are currently only allowing US buyers to participate in this program. We anticipate expanding this program to international buyers using wire very soon.

Message Center Preferences

Posted Oct 15, 2008 by Michael

Now you can opt to have most notifications sent exclusively to your oDesk Message Center!
For example, if you’re checking your candidates queue regularly and would rather not receive an email every time someone applies to one of your jobs, you can opt out of emailed Job Application Notifications. All messages will still go to your Message Center, so you won’t miss anything. You asked, and we’re listening — watch for even more new Message Center features in the coming months.
Customize your Message Center Preferences now!

iPhone and osCommerce Tests Available

Posted Oct 10, 2008 by duncan

We’re happy to announce that we’ve just launched certification tests for both iPhone development and osCommerce. These are 2 of the most sought-after skills on oDesk as evidenced by recent trends. Be the first ones to obtain these free certifications and show buyers that you have what it takes to complete their iPhone or osCommerce projects!

Team Room Improvements (Beta)

Posted Aug 21, 2008 by Michael

We’ve redesigned the Team Room to be easier to use than ever!

See your whole team

Team members are now arranged in a tile pattern instead of a long list. With four tiles across on most screens, you can probably see your entire team without scrolling down Better presence indicator.
It’s even easier than before to see who is online right now, and who has worked in the last 24 hours.

At long last, time zone conversion!

One of the top requests we’ve heard, especially from Buyers, is to show the local time zone of your team members. We heard you! So whether your teammates are across the country or across the globe, you’ll always know what time it is wherever they are, all in the team room.

Filtering and sorting for bigger teams

For larger teams, it can be difficult to sort through all of your members, so we have added new sorting and filtering based on name, role, and when they have last worked, as well as a “quick search” option to find a specific team member quickly.
We hope you find these improvements useful. Please let us know your thoughts in this thread.

Hide unwanted teams

Posted Aug 20, 2008 by Michael

Yes, you can hide a team

Owners can now hide teams. Hiding a team makes it disappear from your team room and all pages with a team selector bar — no more scrolling through a list of inactive teams! A hidden team is not deleted from the system. We find hide to be more useful than delete because you can toggle the show/hide setting whenever you need to on the new My Teams page.
Please note that you cannot hide a team if it has an active assignment, or any team members (besides yourself). You may remove additional team members such as managers and ACs in your Roster.

360-degree Feedback

Posted Aug 14, 2008 by Michael

For all completed assignments, we will be displaying both provider and buyer feedbacks, side-by-side, in the provider profiles and buyer facts. This will give the feedback scores and comments more context.