Mozilla Labs announced the launch of Ubiquity, a Mozilla Labs
experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find
new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do
common Web tasks more quickly and easily.

According to Mozilla Labs,the overall goals of Ubiquity are to explore how best to:

• Empower users to control the
  web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type
  what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)
• Enable on-demand,
  user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words,
  allowing everyone–not just Web developers–to remix the Web so it fits
  their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)
  
• Use Trust networks and social constructs to balance security with ease of extensibility.
  
• Extend the browser functionality easily.

Ubiquity 0.1 was released. It’s a prototype version, so install it at your own risk. Ubiquity 0.1

• Lets you map and insert maps anywhere; translate
  on-page; search amazon, google, wikipedia, yahoo, youtube, etc.; digg
  and twitter; lookup and insert yelp review; get the weather; syntax
  highlight any code you find; and a lot more.
  
• Find and install new commands to extend your browser’s vocabulary through a simple subscription mechanism

Source: Mozilla Labs.

Ubiquity, Mozilla Labs, Mashup, Google, Wikipedia, Digg, Twitter, Youtube

ScribeFire is the blogging addon I use to post my blog post from my browser. This is an addon for Firefox. I’m using it for a long time. It used to be called Performancing and later changed to ScribeFire. The initial versions missed some of the features that would have been quite useful while posting, but they kept improving and have added lots of those missing features. ScribeFire 2.0 takes it to the next level with the following changes:

• Tabbed editing of posts, so you can open multiple posts or notes at the same time
• Added the Quickblogging feature for easy modification of existing blog posts.
• All users can now set the timestamp of their posts, not just those using Firefox 3
• Fixes to the account wizard make for a better account setup experience
• A cleaner layout: the left sidebar has been shrunk and the
  Delicious/Technorati functions have been combined under a new
  “Share/Promote” tab that also helps you submit your posts to social
  bookmark sites.
• Fixed YouTube embedding for Blogger users
• Added custom ping URL option
• Added easy YouTube and Flickr integration
• Major fixes for using ScribeFire in its own tab or window

Yahoo has released beta version of Yahoo Messenger 9. This version has a new theme and look. Here are some of the changes in Yahoo Messenger 9, other than the theme:

• You can expand the contact list to see the large avatars and you can hover the mouse above the contacts to IM, SMS or call a friend.
• New emoticons.
• Integration with Flickr.
• Inline media player to view Maps, Photos and Videos right in the IM window. You can watch videos from Yahoo Videos and Youtube.
• You can forward Phone In and PC calls to home, mobile or office number.

You can download the new beta here.

Sources: Yahoo Blog, Yahoo.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo Messenger 9, Beta, Flickr, Youtube, Yahoo Videos, Emoticons