feature

Twitter announced that it intends to add a retweet option to its service as well as the API. Retweeting has basically become a huge part of the Twitter culture, but it is not a function that is readily available on Twitter itself. Users have to actually take the time and to enter the information themselves. Co-founder Biz Stone acknowledges that this can be "cumbersome". Twitter is calling the initiative "project retweet." Stone explains on the Twitter Blog:

Last week, Facebook announced an update to the Open Stream API, which allows integration of Page streams with applications. Now, Facebook has opened up the new Mailbox and Notification APIs, which allow developers to provide users with more ways to interact with core Facebook features within their apps.

Google has added a new feature to Google Maps, which allows you to perform multiple searches, while keeping them around for future reference. It's hard to explain without an example. On the Google Lat Long Blog, to illustrate the feature, they give the example of a search for the Road to Hana on Maui. They search for this, but also search separately for supermarkets, gas stations, and driving directions to Hana, HI.

Suppose, for Father's Day, you got dear old Dad some new power tools, and he then had trouble adjusting to them.  One way of speeding up the acclimation process could involve trashing the old ones, right?  Now, Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook seems to have created a similar situation. 

Here are a few simple facts: some people talk more than others.  Also, some people are more interesting than others.  And a new Google Reader feature called "Friends trends" may help you determine how the folks you interact with online score in both of these categories.

Statistics junkies may soon have to guard themselves against Google addiction.  The search giant announced a new search feature this afternoon, and said feature looks set to find and present public data with rather remarkable ease.

Hulu announced some improvements to its search functionality today. For one, they have added some shortcuts to the autocomplete feature. Previously, the autocomplete suggestions would just take a user to the regular search results, but now, the shortcuts offer other options like going straight to the latest episode (for current shows), or the show page (for all shows).

Here in the United States, we've been enjoying the local news section in Google News for a while now. Last year, Google launched this feature allowing people all over the country to see news pertaining to their local city aggregated in its own section on Google News just like the World, National, Business, Entertainment, etc. categories. On Friday Google launched the feature for Google News users in the UK, India, and Canada. To use it, find the local section on the front page and enter your city, state, or postal code in the local search bar: