MakeUseOf Directory » Directory Services

Snapm: Find Professional Photographers & Book Online

Sharninder — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:31:54 +0000

If you’re an amateur photographer trying to make a living off your work, you’d know how difficult it is to find clients and get them to at least take a look at your work. On the other hand, if you’re a customer trying to find professional photographers (that doesn’t cost the earth) for your special day, you’d be surprised how hard it is to get someone who you like within your budget. Snapm hopes to bridge this gap.

Snapm is an online matketplace for professional and amateur photographers. Searching for a photographer is as easy as entering the zip code of the area that you want to hire the photographer in and selecting the best man for the job by browsing through the hundreds of portfolios on the site.

Photographers can register for free at the site and create their portfolio. Snapm takes a 15% cut of the total fees paid by customer.

Features:

Comprehensive listing of amateur photographers
Easy search using zip-code of the city
Photographers can create a basic account for free and upload their portfolio
Free to use for Customers.

Checkout Snapm @ www.snapm.com

Fonolo: Skip Automated Phone Menu Instructions

azim — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:31:58 +0000

When you call a large company, it is a dread to listen and follow through all those phone menu instructions (“press 1 for English”, “press 2 for Spanish”, etc). Fonolo is a handy web service that lets you skip the phone menu instructions and connects you directly to your desired extension. Instead of listening to the instructions you can visually scan the phone menu and click the spot you need to call.

Service is free for consumers and paid for businesses. Once you register you can access your account from any Internet enabled device, save your most called companies and frequently used numbers (PINs, account numbers etc.), record calls and more. Sign up to get started.

Watch Fonolo on ABC News:

Features:

Skip automated phone systems and connect directly to your desired extension.
One click calling – instantly dial “common actions” for most companies.
Includes extensive list of companies in its database.
Quick tones – save your frequently used numbers (account numbers, PINs etc).
Add frequent calls to a bookmark list and access them with one click.
Records calls and add notes.
Phones menus of companies constantly updated as they change.
Free for consumers. Sign up to start using.
Similar websites: IVRHacks, DialAHuman and GetHuman.

Check out Fonolo @ www.fonolo.com

PrimoSpot: Find a Parking Spot in New York City (NYC)

Kaly — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:21:07 +0000

Here is a nice little web app for New Yorkers. PrimoSpot helps you quickly find free parking spots and garages in busy areas of NYC. At the moment it covers parking spots in Manhattan and Brooklyn areas. Queens, Philadelphia and Boston areas are coming soon.

Enter the address, intersection, or a zip code and click Search. PrimoSpot will then show you a neighborhood map along with available parking spots (see above) in the area. The different color legends indicate the time left at that parking spot. Click on the pin to see some photos and additional details. There are currently over 13,500 locations in the PrimoSpot.

Furthemore you can access PrimoSpot straight from your mobile device. The mobile version of the site can be accessed at m.primospot.com. Search results will be sorted based on the distance from the given address, starting from the closest.

Features:

Find parking spots in the busy areas of New York (Manhattan, Brooklyn).
Coming soon: Queens, Philadelphia and Boston areas.
Access PrimoSpot from PC or mobile phone. (iPhone-optimized version available as well).
Contribute by adding parking spots and garages that aren’t listed.

PrimoSpot Demo

Check out PrimoSpot @ www.primospot.com

Outalot : Find nearby Restaurants, Bars, and Movie Theaters

Aibek Esengulov — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:34:01 +0000

Outalot is a location-based local directory. Tell Outalot where you are and it will show you the nearest restaurants, bars, movie theaters and shops. It lets find nearby restaurants, movie theaters (incl. show times),

It will also show the exact location of the place on the area map. Currently Outalot supports only New York City and SF Bay areas.

You can bookmark places you like, places you dislike, or want to try. Simply tap the heart icon on a restaurant or bar to bookmark it to your profile page. Furthermore you can give places you like a thumbs up, the places you don’t, a thumbs down. Similarly, you can see how other folks feel about particular place. Also share your favorite places with friends, and add others to your network to combine your bookmark list with theirs.

The cool thing about Outalot is that it can be accessed from a mobile phone as well. It supports iPhone, as well as many other popular mobile devices like Danger Sidekick, HP, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Palm Treo, Panasonic, RIM/BlackBerry, Samsung, Sanyo, Sony Ericsson. Here is how it looks on mobile phone.

Check out Outalot @ www.outalot.com

MobileTraffic : Check Traffic Cameras from Mobile Device

Kaly — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:09:24 +0000

Using MobileTraffic you can check live traffic cameras from your mobile phone and see whether one or the other road junction is busy. It helps you find out what is the best road to take. The service is quite new and already has 4,655 cameras across 7 countries, including most of the major cities like New York, Washnigton, London, Sydney etc. You don’t need to register or pay for anything, it’s free and can be accessed both from computer or mobile phone (data usage fees may apply).

Features:

Check out live traffic conditions from your mobile phone.
Browse traffic cameras by country, state, city and street.
Includes over 4600 cameras across US, Canada, Austalia, China, Luxemborg, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Requirements: web-enabled mobile device with a data plan.
What’s missing: Maps integration, no search option.

Please note, if you plan to use this service on a regular basis then make sure to check with your mobile carrier about the data usage fees. Unless you are on an unlimited data plan, using MobileTraffic.tv from a mobile phone can be quite costly.

Go to MobileTraffic @ www.mobiletraffic.tv

4info : Free Alerts and SMS Search for your Phone

Kaly — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:09:09 +0000

4info is an ultimate all-purpose free assisstant for your mobile phone. Want weather reports, stock quotes, flight status, package status, nearby WiFi hotspots,…. it’s all here. Quick, simple and free.

How does it work?

(1)

Available alert categories: Sports Scores, Player Stats, Weather, Stock Quotes, Horoscopes, Celebrity Gossip, Celebrity Birthdays, Health Tips, RSS News Feeds, Package Tracking, Craigslist, Personal reminder

(2) Text Message Search: Instantly lookup specific information by sending short text message. Type in a search term and send a text message to 4INFO (44636) Type a search term in the message body. Your serach term may vary depending on what type of information you want to lookup (stocks, weather, flight status etc.).

Available search categories: sports scores, player stats, stock quotes, wifi hotspots, package tracking, weather, yellow pages, news, flight status, city search, TV Guide, movie show times, drink recipes, price lookup, jokes, joke, horoscopes, pickup lines, celebrity gossip.

Additional Features:

RSS Alerts: Monitor updates from your favorite blogs and websites.
Customization: Choose time and number of alerts you want to receive per day.
Create as many alerts as you like. Manage, modify or edit your alerts online.
If you want to test message search functionality right now you can do it from here.

[Video] 4info Intro

Check out 4info @ [ www.4Info.net ]

Boopsie : Ultra Fast Search for your Mobile

Aibek Esengulov — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:19:53 +0000

Boopsie is a thin, yet powerful search client for your mobile phone. The idea behind this search tool, is to help you find whatever you’re lookng with as little typing as possible. And it achieves this by combining live search with topic-specific search channels (dictionary, news, movies, etc.).

LifeHacker: “Boopsie, a free mobile search app, aims to cut down the number of keypad clicks between you and the information you’re looking for.”

There are over 100 channels in total. Search match scores, lookup stock prices, local weather reports, find phone numbers, search Wikipedia, find nearest Starbucks or FedEx store, movie reviews (via IMDB.com), area code lookup, search Amazon books, read global news and lots more. .

Features

Live search: As you type letters, Boopsie finds and shows answers in real-time.
Works over any data connection (GPRS, EDGE, EVDO, WiFi, 3G etc.) Basically, if you can browse web on your phone, you can most likely use Boopsie.
Works with pretty much all popular phones (BREW, Blackberry, Java (J2ME), Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Mobile and iPhone). See a full list of supported devices here.

Boopsie video demo (no sound)

Check out Boopsie @ www.boopsie.com

WorldTaximeter : Taxi Fare Calculator

Aibek Esengulov — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:53:40 +0000

One of a kind online service where you can instantly calculate the cost of a taxi ride in a number of top cities worldwide (London, New York, Rome …). Accessible both from the web and mobile phone. Please note that WorldTaximeter doesn’t give you an actual taxi fare but a failry good estimate (accuracy is 85% and growing). Definitely a must-have for any frequent traveller.

Features

Currently supported cities: Barcelona, London, Madrid, New York, Prague, Rome and San Francisco.
For each city, view main transport hubs (airports, stations, etc.) and popular tourisitc places.
Check out popular taxi trips.
Get direct access links to calculted fares (i.e. London Heathrow Airport -> Trafalgar Square).
Mobile friendly: Lookup taxi fare from your mobile decive (www.worldtaximeter.com/m).
View featured local taxi services.

Check out WorldTaximeter @ www.worldtaximeter.com

MoDazzle: Access Facebook Account via email or SMS

Aibek Esengulov — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:09:10 +0000

MoDazzle makes it easy to access Facebook, LinkedIn and dozens of other web services (local directory services, weather, stock quotes, etc.) via email or mobile text messaging (sms). Using MoDazzle you can:

1. Access, retrieve and update profile information (ex. LinkedIN, Facebook): update your Facebook ‘status’, get ‘un-read’ messages from your Facebook inbox, get someone’s profile info from LinkedIn, and lots more.

2. You can also use MoDazzle as a directory service: get driving directions, restaurant reviews, location of the nearest Starbucks, and so on.

MoDazzle Features

Access your profile on: LinkedIN, Facebook, Lavalife, Salesforce.com, Hoovers, and VentureSource.
Additional services: latest news, Stock quotes, weather forecasts, driving directions, nearest Starbucks locations, restaurant reviews, flight updates, yellow pages. See how here.
Invite friends from your Yahoo Mail or Gmail address books.
Use MoDazzle from several email addresses or mobile phones.
Note: Modazzle is a free service, however depending on your mobile contract standard text messaging fees may apply.

Examples:

For instance, to update your Facebook status you can either send an email to ‘fbprofilestatusupdate@modazzle.com’ with your new status message in the subject line, or send an SMS message to ’22553′.

Check out MoDazzle @ www.modazzle.com

GetHuman: Bypass Corp. Answering Machines

Kaly — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:45:08 +0000

Fed up of automated answering machines? Enter GetHuman, a growing database of direct access phone numbers for top 500 US companies and government agencies. From major bank headquarters, airline offices, to IRS and FBI phone numbers. If a company you’re looking for is not listed, see the ‘tips’ page for a couple tricks on how to fool answering machine.

Feature Overview

Get direct phone numbers to support personnel.
Read tips on how to get connected to human personnel.
Browse companies alphabetically or by service category (credit, finance, government, hardware, insurance, internet, mobile, pharmaceutical, shipping, software stores, telco, travel, and tv/satellite).
Improve service by rating existing numbers and adding new ones.
Note: Service lists only US branch phone numbers.

Check out GetHuman @ www.gethuman.com