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Hello, Goodbye

By: BEVERLY BUTULA//October 11, 2010//

Hello, Goodbye

By: BEVERLY BUTULA//October 11, 2010//

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I often speak to groups about Google and all its features. According to the Google Blog, a feature I have discussed since 2007 will be discontinued. GOOG-411, a “voice-powered directory assistance service” will be shut down on November 12, 2010. The announcement indicates GOOG-411 was the foundation for their Android smartphone services “Voice Search,” “Voice Input,” and “Voice Actions.”

This is not the first feature Google introduced and later stopped supporting or offering. Google Wave, a communication and collaboration tool, was a neat tool but not widely used and, as a result, will no longer be developed. Per the blog post, the website will be available until the end of the year. Another example is Google Notebook. I used this feature quite a bit, however development stopped in 2009. I direct users to either Google Docs or Google Bookmarks as alternatives.

So, we have said goodbye to some of Google’s ideas. But, we also can say hello to new features. The latest is that Google has developed technology for cars to drive themselves. Yes, you read that correctly. For more details, see Google’s blog post of October 9, 2010. Then there is Google TV. Obviously, Google researchers reach far beyond just improving their search engine. Interested in what’s new with Google, check out “Google New.

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