Last time, we blogged about whether or not social media and personal Internet use was a bottleneck for employee productivity. Let's not look at the Internet as a fundamental time-waster or a necessary evil. After all, the Internet has changed the way companies do business. This time we're going to investigate if your Internet is keeping up with your company.

The words Productivity and Internet have been fit together in many different sentences, and usually in the sense that the Internet is a Productivity-killer. Take Facebook, for example; there are many arguments stating that Facebook is costing companies billions of dollars because employees are spending too much time on the social network while at work. Of course, Facebook (and the other social networks) are practically mandatory for businesses who want to market themselves. Other companies are clamoring that personal social media use greatly improves productivity and employee moral.

Want to look like a PC Pro and get more done faster? With these simple tips, you'll have the skills to impress your co-workers with a few keystrokes. The Windows 7 Taskbar is the menu bar that stretches along (typically) the bottom of your screen. These are some lesser-known productivity tips to streamline your Windows 7 experience.

Multitasking has become one of the buzzwords of the twenty-first century. Did you know that your browser lets you multitask, too? Most modern browsers (IE8, Firefox, and Safari) provide the user with a rich interface that allows for multiple windows to be open in the same browser at once. “How is this miracle performed?” you may ask. If you look at the tab shown in the image above, you will see on its right side is a smaller tab. If you place your mouse over it, you will see the option to open a new tab. Click on this tab and a new window will open within the current browser. By clicking on the tabs or pressing the TAB key while depressing the CTRL key, you may cycle through the existing opened windows in your browser. Do you want even more tricks? Once you have multiple windows opened in the browser, you may then notice a new icon to the left of the tabs with a down arrow. This button’s down arrow allows you to open any one window that you want without using the “cycle-thru” method. Click on the button itself and you will see your tabbed windows displayed all together on one screen. In that screen, you may close or activate any of the windows using your mouse. If you prefer to see your tabs in a particular order, you may drag them in order to rearrange them. Having multiple tabs may enhance your day. You can do the same with multiple Home Pages, but that may slow down the initial response of your browser.

Remember the vignette performed by Monty Python’s Flying Circus in which two diners float down into a dive filled with Vikings for a breakfast that doesn’t have much SPAM® in it? Back in the 1970’s, the word “spam” had a much different meaning than it does today

Your computer has been terrific—it opens files fast, connects to the Internet quickly, and gets onto the network lickety-split. But now, your machine will not connect to the Internet when you tell it to, it opens up porno websites and gives you pop-ups telling you that your machine has been infected. You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to see that something has infected your system. Now, what?

The time to implement a social media policy is now.

Your social media policy outlines for employees your companies guidelines or principles for communicating in the online world.  Your company should have a communications policy in place that spell out your expectations for phone and email, it’s important that you add social media and online site usage to this policy.

Despite the increasingly vast trust we put into the Internet to keep our personal and business information safe and secure, many users take their passwords very lightly. In an analysis studying over 32 million passwords from RockYou, a company that develops software for social networks, it's been discovered just how little effort is put in to keep things secure. The results are shocking.