Clogged toilet? Book a plumber from your digital calendar with HomeAdvisor

By Lulu Chang September 22, 2016

homeadvisor book services 10294985 10153543767289050 6958086563838073085 o — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Booking that plumbing appointment is about to get a lot easier. On Thursday, the online home services marketplace HomeAdvisor announced a new expansion of its Instant Booking marketplace, which now allows users to book appointments directly on a business’s calendar. Whether you’re an Apple iCloud or Microsoft Outlook user, or a fan of ServiceTitan or MarketSharp, you’ll be able to sync your own calendar with that of a service provider, and skip the back and forth of finding a time that works for both of you.

“This announcement demonstrates our continued commitment to providing the best experience for homeowners to book home services,” said Brandon Ridenour, chief technical officer of HomeAdvisor. “Our Instant Booking Marketplace — a marketplace that will drive 1 million transactions since [its] launch last year — is unparalleled in the home services category, and the momentum we are building is remarkable.”

HomeAdvisor’s latest update allows homeowners to click a “Book Now” button to schedule appointments as needed for more than 500 different kinds of home projects. Whether you’re in need of new cabinetry for your kitchen or new rose bushes for your garden, HomeAdvisor will not only be able to connect you to the right people, but help you set up an appointment with ease.

“Our philosophy when we built this technology was to make it easy for service professionals to participate in our Instant Booking marketplace,” continued Ridenour. “One approach we see competitors taking is to build their own platform and force participation in their ecosystem. We believe the smarter approach is to let businesses keep their current digital calendaring functions and allow for seamless integration into our marketplace.”

And don’t worry — you won’t be letting just anyone into your house. All service providers on HomeAdvisor undergo a “rigorous criminal and financial background screening prior to being accepted into the exclusive network.” In the last year alone, the online platform has seen more than 11 million project requests from users looking to complete a home project, and now that booking is easier than ever, that number is only likely to rise.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Smart Home

How to remove a device from Google Home regardless of Wi-Fi network

nest-audio-lowes-listing

Once you’ve started building a smart home setup with Google Home, you might reach the point where you need to remove one of your devices from your Google account. It may be because you’ve replaced that device with a newer model and decided to sell the older one, or you might have set up the device and then decided to give it to a friend or family member. Whatever the reason, we’ve got you covered. Here are some tips on removing a Google Home speaker or device from your Google account -- even if you're not on the same Wi-Fi network.
How do I remove a device from Google?

To remove any devices from your Google Home account, you’ll need to open Google Home and tap on the device you want to remove. This will bring you to the screen for that device. Near the top of the screen, you’ll see a Settings cog icon. Tap the cog icon to see a menu of options for that device. At the bottom of the list, tap Remove Device. Your device will be removed from Google Home. If you don’t see Remove Device, it may have been linked through a third-party app. Read on to see how to remove those types of devices.
Why can't I remove a device from my Google account?
If your device has been linked through a third-party app (SmartHome, Philips Hue, robot vacuums, Kasa, etc.), you’ll need to unlink it before you can delete it from Google Home. Open the Google Home app, scroll down to the device you wish to remove, and tap it. Near the top of the screen, you’ll see a Settings cog icon. Tap that icon, and you’ll enter a menu of options for that device. Near the bottom of the list, you should see Un-link and the name of third party app link. Tap that entry and a dialog box asking you to confirm will appear. You may also be able to access these settings by going into your vacuum's app (for example), seeking out Google settings, and unlinking from there.

Computing

HP’s Work from Home service brings the office printer into your home

hp office in a box work learn from home solutions

With more employees working from home, Hewlett-Packard is reinventing its business and technology services to serve their needs while also seeking to keep IT managers happy.

The company announced a new set of curated services called HP Work From Home that are designed to minimize downtime, provide support for PCs and printers, and help IT managers secure devices if they’re lost.

Smart Home

How to protect your home security camera from hackers

Google Nest Indoor Security Camera

You've probably seen the stories in the news about trouble with do-it-yourself Wi-Fi home security cameras. There are home camera “invasions,” where user video is stolen from private cameras and posted to the internet, or straight-up hacking where an unknown person can access your camera and the microphone attached to it, and speak to you, threaten your children, or otherwise harass you from afar.

While these instances are rare, they do exploit certain vulnerabilities in wireless home surveillance cameras, so it's important to know how it happens, how you can tell if your camera's been hacked already, and how to secure your home network and evaluate whether your cameras are at risk and fix them.
How do hackers get into your cameras?
Why hackers hack security cameras is a whole separate question, but there are two common ways hackers can access wireless network information.
Local Wi-Fi network hacking
The first involves the hacker being within the range of your Wi-Fi. The hacker either guesses your Wi-Fi password or creates a duplicate or spoof network that looks like your Wi-Fi network. Next, they suppress the real network so that you sign in to their network instead. Once they have your password, they log in to your actual Wi-Fi network, and that's where the trouble begins.
Remote hack attack
While these local attacks are possible, they’re much less likely than a remote attack. Remote attacks occur when hackers gain your actual password info. How do they get your password? Sometimes if people use weak passwords like 11111, password, or 123456, hackers can simply try a bunch of the most common and default passwords until they hit on the right one.