Goog-411 isn't the most glamorous of Google's services, but the ability to call and get Google's directory service for free is indispensable if you don't have a phone with a browser. The service seems to be getting better all the time, and the latest feature will tell you the cross streets of the business you're looking for. That's a useful service in areas where building numbers are scarce, or all the roads have names instead of numbers.

To use this new feature, do a Goog-411 search like normal, giving your city or ZIP and saying your search terms. When the list of business comes up, and you choose one, say "details." It's not exactly a revolution, but it's the kind of basic, useful feature you'd assume Goog-411 would have had since the beginning.

[via TechCrunch]

Deleting empty subdirectories seems like something Windows ought to do automatically, but for some reason that function just isn't included as part of the OS. Luckily, you don't need to download a utility to do it; instead, you can create a single line batch file that will do exactly what you're looking for:

for /f "usebackq" %%d in ("dir /ad/b/s | sort /R") do rd "%%d"

Raymond Chen, the venerable Microsoft coder, explains how this works. Basically, it uses a trick to enumerate the directories in reverse order. Since you can't delete a directory that contains data (including other directories) the only way to automate deleting directories is to start at the very bottom of the tree and work your way up.

Twing is a new search engine that indexes almost 5,000 online forums, on subjects ranging from the very general (arts and entertainment) to the extremely specific (Scottish Snooker). On top of its search features, it also has a 1990's-Yahoo!-style directory organized by topic, and a collection of trends and toplists called the Community Buzz Directory. Does Twing actually have a finger on the pulse of online trends? We noticed that the video most linked from forums is Rick Astley's infamous "Rickroll," which is good enough for us.

If you follow any forum regularly, Twing could be useful to you. You can narrow your search down to one message board, which might make a good substitute if the built-in search is faulty in your community of choice. Another promising feature is the ability to sign up for an account to keep tabs on the threads you're following.

Even if you're not active on a forum, Twing has some interesting tools for tracking the hottest links and conversations. Most popular links, threads, and forums are all ranked, and RSS feeds are available for each. Twing says that the most popular thread on the Internet right now is called "longest ever thread." While we don't doubt this is accurate, we'll leave it up to you to decide how practical you find it.

Yahoo! is closing down Yahoo! Podcasts on October 31. And the 2-year old site never even got to shed its beta tag. So tragic.

The site is actually one of the better podcast directories on the web. Yahoo! has indexed a large number of podcasts, and the site is easy to navigate. There's even a handy player for streaming podcasts without downloading them.

But while podcasting was all the rage a few years ago, it seems like internet video gets all the attention these days. And we're guessing it's not just because people like to watch video more than they like to listen to people talk. Video is also easier to monetize with pre-roll or embedded advertising. It's incredibly easy to skip past an audio advertisement on your MP3 player, and while you could try to include video ads with every download, they won't be too effective if you keep your iPod in your pocket.

If you're looking for a new place to find your podcasts, you might want to check out PodcastAlley, Podcast Pickle or Odeo. NPR also maintains a great list of public radio shows available as podcasts.

[via Read/WriteWeb]

Have you ever wondered how you can get your content wiped out of the Google directory, as some newspapers have been vying to do recently? Google has a plan for webmasters.

The Google Webmaster Blog outlines a few methods that site owners can use in order to ensure their content is not indexed by the search engine. This can include a simple robots.txt file that either blocks Google completely or blocks certain directories on a server. The best way to go about removal however, is to verify the ownership of your site through Google's webmaster tools by inserting a small line of code in a webpage. There is a diagnostic tab there called URL Removals. From there you can submit a New Removal Request and choose to remove Individual URLs, a directory, your entire site, or cached copies.

Of course if you end up changing your mind, Google also has a way to reinclude content. Keep in mind, either way could take a few months or more to refresh on all of Google's servers.

Google has announced a new labs project, a free 411 service. The Google Voice Local Search is an experiment, but it aims to get users fully automated access to local business information.

The GOOG 411 service holds the same information that would typically be found on Google.com, but for times when you just cant get to an internet connection and all you have access to is a cell phone or home phone, this is your next best bet.

The service is free to use, and Google does not charge businesses for connecting customers to them. It is still in an experimental form, and only available in English in the US, for US business listings. To try out the service, dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.

Update: Download Squad's Brad Linder put GOOG 411 to the test, and here's the result:

goog 411.mp3

Is it difficult to find the best websites with search engines or directories? Dfinitive thinks it can help.

As it currently stands, Dfinitive looks as if it is recreating the famous DMOZ open directory project by trying to take the best elements of a directory site, search engine and a bookmarking site and teaming it up with a mix of experts in the areas they feel are lacking.

Dfinitive plans to create a list of definitive sites for each category, in hopes that they will create a unique user experience that helps users find the optimal sites for the topic area they are searching for.
Only time will tell how it fares, but as it sits now their categories need a little growth as they only have SEO, Affiliate Marketing, and Blogging listed.

One of the appeals of just about any blogging service, especially one you can install in your own hosting space, is the ability to really make it your own. Whether you have to hack and slash through PHP by hand or you can enjoy the luxury of a vast plugin community, it just feels a little more like a (digital) home when you can put your spin on your own blog. WordPress has just such a booming plugin community, but until now, they've never had their own true resource for posting and downloading plugins. Thanks to the new, official WordPress Plugin directory, the days of aimlessly googling for a plugin to do this or that are a thing of the past. Granted it has a ways to go before it can be called 'comprehensive,' but this is exactly what WordPress has needed for quite some time now. Three columns on the main directory site tell visitors which plugins are popular, fresh out of the oven or recently updated, with a Featured Plugin area front and center to host the flavor of the day. Plugin authors can easily add their plugins to the database via this form, and all the WordPress crew ask is that plugins be GPL Compatible. The only gripe we have so far is that there's no RSS feed for the plugin directory itself. Kind of ironic for a blogging engine, no?

[via digg]

Having trouble keeping track of all the companies that are building the current crop of web-based office apps? The Office 2.0 Database is a handy directory of all of 'em, broken down into categories. Need a web-based word processor? You've got eight to choose from. PowerPoint replacement? Five of 'em, and so on. There's even quite a few on the list that I hadn't heard of, like Calcoolate, a simple web-based calculator that stays out of your way but has some nice features like keeping track of all of your previous solutions and letting you give them names for easy access later on. The Office 2.0 Database has lots of columns of metadata and even links to TechCrunch's reviews of almost every single one.