Google’s Pulling the Plug on Directory Assistance Service, GOOG-411

3 years ago Google launched a directory assistance service that helped to connect users with business in the U.S. and Canada. This voice-powered tool was the first of Google's many speech recognition services and was followed by Voice Input, Voice Search and Voice Actions, all of which were built from the foundations of GOOG-411. Google announced on their blog today that come November 12, 2010 they would be shutting down the service. The team behind 1-800-GOOG-411 had this to say: "Our success encouraged us to aim for more innovation. Thus, we're putting all of our resources into speech-enabling the next generation of Google products and services across a multitude of languages." Users can still access the service until that date and also, text messages can be sent to "GOOGLE" (466453) and the information will be sent to you.

Google Doodle Celebrates the Life of the Legendary John Lennon This Saturday would have marked the 70th birthday of legendary icon and member of The Beatles, John Lennon. To honor his memory Google has created an extra special Doodle for its logo, which is on the homepage today. Replacing the brightly colored letters that we are use to, is an ink drawing with the famous shaggy haired and be-speckled image Lennon created of himself as a self-portrait, peeking out from behind to form the double "O"s . However, unlike other Google Doodles, this one has what appears to be (and is) a red "Play" button. Clicking on the button plays a 32 second video that contains a combination of moving ink drawings set to "Imagine" that come together to form today's logo. The logo also marks the first ever Doodle Video.

Firefox 4 Beta for Mobile Now Available for Download Mozilla posted on their blog yesterday that the new Firefox 4 for mobile beta was available for download and testing.  It is built to be a seamless transition from the desktop experience to users mobile devices. Aiding in this is the inclusion of Firefox Sync. This feature allows you to bring passwords, form-fill data, bookmarks, tabs, and web browsing history with you so that you no longer have to re-enter all of your passwords or favorite sites again. Also included in the Firefox 4 beta for mobile are Electrolysis (which was available i the alpha version), Layers, pinch-to-zoom, and the Awesome screen which is accessible through the Awesome Bar and allows users to view bookmarks and recent browser history. All of your personal data on Firefox is encrypted on both ends, so that you are the only one that has access to your data. With Mozilla's main focus being to "increase performance and responsiveness" do you think the new features will cater to that goal?

Yahoo Creates Video Calling App for iPhone and Android; Could Rivel Apple Yahoo is bringing its instant messenger service to iPhone and Android devices with a major bonus: built-in video calling. Although the iPhone already has the FaceTime video calling feature, with the Yahoo app users will be able to not only be able to utilize this technology over Wi-Fi, but also over their carrier's network. When the new 4G myTouch phone was announced by T-Mobile this week, they said that the video calling feature would come built-in their device, however this standalone application will definitely reach a much wider audience. Reuters says that while there are other third-party applications that allow for such video calling features already, none of them has the reputation of Yahoo will most likely be overshadowed should this feature be approved by Apple. The app will allow users to make calls to either other smartphone users or to PCs and would be free.

How to Optimize, Enhance and Supercharge Reloading Web Pages in FireFox I reload web pages in FireFox constantly: usually when adding some tweaks to the page code and checking how it looks, also when a page won't load or loads improperly (with broken design or images). I am sure you reload a lot as well: so here's my detailed guide on how to optimize, enhance and supercharge reload action in FireFox: Keyboard Shortcuts: Reload page Reload page and override cache* Windows F5 Ctrl+F5 Ctrl+R Ctrl+Shift+R Mac F5 Cmd + R Linux F5 Ctrl+F5 Ctrl+R Ctrl+Shift+R * Your browser stores the pages you visit to retrieve them quicker for you next time you go there. This may prevent you from seeing the updated version of the page (new design, new elements, etc). "Hard" reload over-rides browser cache. Get More Shortcuts with Reload Plus Reload Plus adds the following keyboard hot keys to your FireFox: Same Tab New Tab Reload page Left-Click (or F5) Middle-Click Reload page and override cache Ctrl+Left-Click (or Ctrl+F5) Ctrl+Middle-Click* Load Missing Images Alt+Left-Click (or Alt+F5) Google Cache Shift+Left-Click (or Shift+F5) Shift+Middle-Click Reload All Tabs Alt+Middle-Click * You can thus perform "hard reload" and open it in a new tab to compare the two variants – which may turn quite handy. Reload the Current Tab on Double Click Reload Tab On Double-Click does exactly what you would expect it to do: it reloads the current tab when you double-click on it (and it does "full" / no-cache / hard reload if you hold SHIFT when double-clicking): SHIFT + double click = reload the page skipping the browser cache Reload ALL the Selected Tabs Reload All allows to reload all the tabs in the window at one go. It has a selection tool in case you want to reload a few tabs while leaving out the rest of them. It remembers the tabs you last reloaded so that you could reload them without having to select them again. It adds the option to stop all tabs that currently loading. The tool has customizable shortcut keys that can speed up reloading (but sadly, it doesn't look like there's a "hard" reload option): Reload a Tab Periodically and Check for Updates Have you ever found yourself pressing the reload button frantically, waiting for something in the web page to change? Then you definitely need this addon. Check4Change is a simple addon that allows you to periodically check a web-page for updates. Here's how it works: Select the text you want monitored for updates; Right-Click and on the Check4Change context menu, select the time interval. The tab icon will indicate this page is being monitored by changing to C4C. Once the page is changed you will be notified (the notification type can be set from the addon options): Little dancing C4C letters in the tab icon. Clicking the tab indicates you've seen it, and the icon changes back to the original. Pop-up alert notification. Sound notification. Besides setting the alert type(s), there was another option I had to turn on: to let the tool continue monitoring the page after the first change: Note: C4C currently only works with open tabs. It does not continue to monitor tabs that have been closed, nor does it remember running jobs between FireFox restarts. However in combination with "Faviconize Tabs" addon, it is still fun to use for open (yet minimized) tabs: Any other FireFox reloading tips?