MakeUseOf Directory » traffic

Waze: Get Real-Time Traffic Maps on Your Mobile

Israel Nicolas — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:06:29 +0000

Waze is a user-driven mobile application (for iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and other mobile systems) that provides turn-by-turn navigation suggestions based on the real-time conditions of the road. Using it you can avoid traffic jams, and at the same time help other drivers (by sharing your driving data).

Once the app installed, it will passively record your route as you drive, and send data to Waze to update the live traffic information map. For example, Waze will know that you are stuck in traffic and appropriately update the map for others to see.

You can also actively send reports with a few easy clicks. For example, if you come across an accident or construction work that obstructs traffic, you can make a quick report for other users to see. You can also take a photo of the road and upload them to the live map.

The strength of Waze is its user-generated content. With its crowd-sourced philosophy, users can update or report errors in the live map. The more users use Waze, the better the live maps are.

In fact, Waze added a little incentive for users by giving points for hitting a waypoint in the live map. These waypoints will show as goodies in the live map. Users can drive over these goodies to help the Waze community complete the missing data in these maps.

Waze is the perfect tool for drivers that demand real-time data where today’s GPS maps cannot deliver. With updates from the Waze community, everything happens in seconds.

Features:

Free downloads available for iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and other mobile systems.
User-generated real-time maps help you navigate while driving.
Quickly tells you if there is traffic, accident, or road blocks.
Easy interface allows users to update maps by adding in missing roads, street names, junctions and more.
Available live maps all around the world.
Take live photos and upload them to update the map.

Checkout Waze @ www.world.waze.com

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Waze: Get Real-Time Traffic Maps on Your Mobile

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Feng-GUI: Generates Visual Heatmap For Your Website

aainsberg — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:16:20 +0000

Have you ever wondered what your subscribers are seeing when they come to your website or blog? Feng-GUI tries to predict what a human mind would look at within 5 seconds of looking at a web page and generates a visual heatmap. This is the perfect way to tell what your readers are watching and what is grabbing their attention.

You start by browsing for a picture of your website from your computer. This picture should be less than one 1MB and either in jpg. or png. formats. After you have selected the picture of your website, click ‘Heat map.’ This will take a few seconds to load.

You will then see the same screen shot you uploaded, just with various colors on it. Click (the magnifying glass with the flame) to enlarge the image.

So what do all of these numbers, lines, colors and circles mean?

The number shows the order in which a persons eyes move, with the lines representing that movement. The colors show the quantity of interest. If the color is bright blue, there is minimal interest. If the area if bright red then it is a main focal point. The circles resemble the size of the focal points.

Features:

Generates visual heatmap for uploaded images.
Save created heat map onto your computer.
Ability to zoom and change the opacity of the picture.
Helps you find weak and hot spots in your website design.
Free, and no need to sign up.
Premium accont with more features is also available.
Similar tool: CrazyEgg.

Check out Feng-GUI @ www.feng-gui.com (via Ben Lang, by Alex Ainsberg)

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Feng-GUI: Generates Visual Heatmap For Your Website

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GlobalStatCounter: Global Web Usage Trends and Stats

deans — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:54:05 +0000

Global Stat Counter (originating for its parent company ‘Stat Counter’) is a web app which keeps track of the global trends when it comes to web technology and the internet. The homepage consists of a huge trend graph which plots statistics from the previous few months. The data is based on a monthly pageviews (5 billion) collected from across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites.

For example, when I visited the site the graph showed the percentage success/fail of the big search engines; Yahoo!-Bing, and Google. The graph was easy-to-read and what’s more it was accompanied by a news story. This is something I found particularly fitting with Global Stat Counter – it gives the news as well as the statistics; I found this makes the graphs more credible and without them the site would just be a bunch of graphs with no real context.

There are several categories which Global Stat Counter keeps track of in the tech world. These include; Search Engine Usage, OS Usage and Browser Usage. Not only this but you can also select where in the world you want to get statistics from. By default it is set to Worldwide but you can further narrow it down to continent or even to a specific country.

When you have found the statistic you want you can do one of three things; save it as a jpeg image; download it as an Excel document or embed it using the HTML embedding code provided.

Features:

Keeps statistics in technology industry from around the world.
Gets stats on Search Engine Usage, OS Usage, Browser Usage… etc.
Stats are based on 5 billion pageviews per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites.
Ability to select particular world region.
View stats as line or bar graph.
Download the graph or save as image.
Share graphs by embedding.
Related news headlines are included.

Check out GlobalStatCounter @ gs.statcounter.com (by Dean Sherwin)

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GlobalStatCounter: Global Web Usage Trends and Stats

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TrendCounter: Site Counter Widgets For Your Blog

kaly — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:22:20 +0000

TrendCounter provides a number of free site counter widgets. The counters show the number of visitors has received and are really easy to embed. In addition, each counter can be quickly customized to match the look and feel of the website. No registration required to get the counter widget.

The counter starts counting visitors as soon as it is added to the site. Clicking on the counter bring up live overview of visitor. View visitor profiles by county, check visitor statistic over time, visualize data on graphs, see forecasts and pageviews.

See sample counter below:

Features:

Free visitor counters for website or blog.
Simile and easy to embed.
Customize counter in terms of design, color and font.
Shows detailed overview of your visitor statistics.
Similar tools: 99counters, Amung.us, FlagCounter and FeedJit.

Check out TrendCounter @ www.trendcounter.com

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TrendCounter: Site Counter Widgets For Your Blog

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99Stats: Free Web Statistics Tracker For Your Site

azim — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:39:02 +0000

99Stats is a free online web statistics tracker that lets you analyze the traffic of your website or a blog. It lets you monitor your daily traffic, view its geographical distribution (continent, country, city), get detailed info about site visitors including their browser, OS and screen resolution. Additionaly, it shows referring URLs and search keywords used by visitors to find your site.

There is nothing to install, you simply sign for a free account, get the trackin code and insert it into a template file of your website.

When it comes to reportsing, reports available for the last day, month, 60 days and a full year.

Features:

Free wtraffic anayltics service for your blog or a website.
View detailed information about your visitors (browser, OS, screen resolution).
See where most of your visitors are coming from.
View referring URLs (blogs, search engines) and search keywords.
View most popular pages of your website.
Quick and easy to get started. Nothing to download or install.

Check out 99Stats @ www.99stats.com

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99Stats: Free Web Statistics Tracker For Your Site

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Mon.itor.us: Extensive Online Site Monitor & Analytics Tool

abhijeet — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:56:41 +0000

Mon.itor.us is a comprehensive online site monitoring and tracking service which not only warns you when your website is down but also provides statistics of your website’s uptime, downtime, visitor traffic and more. It provides a lot of information about your site and web server that helps you maintain a high uptime.

Mon.itor.us monitors your website from multiple locations and sends downtime alerts via email, text message and RSS. Besides these, it has internal monitoring features like keeping an eye on computer/server memory, CPU, etc. with an installable agent. It also features real-time visitor monitoring.

Features :

Online website monitoring and tracking service.
Monitors your website and sends downtime alerts via email, text message and RSS.
Provides information helpful in maintaining high uptime of the site.
Internal monitoring features.
Also features visitor tracking capabilities.
Similar site: Site24×7.

Check out Mon.itor.us @ http://mon.itor.us (By Abhijeet from Jeet Blog)

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Mon.itor.us: Extensive Online Site Monitor & Analytics Tool

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FlagCounter: Flag Counter Widget For Your Webpage

kaly — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:45:17 +0000

FlagCounter offers free flag counter widget that anyone can easily add to their website, blog or personal web page. Once it has been added the counter starts counting visitors, each new visit adds to the visitor count next to respective flag. The counter is fully customizable, users may change the number flags shown, flag columns, title, background color, text color and border color.

The total number of visitors from each country is also shown next to the flag. Clicking on the counter reveals additional information such as visitor disitrbution on a pie chart, flag map and total page views for each country.

Check out sample counter below

Features:

Get flag counter widget for your website.
Customize your counter: number of flags shown, flag columns, title, background color, text color and border color.
Free and very easy to add.
Similar counter tools: 99counters, Amung.us and FeedJit.

Check out FlagCounter @ www.flagcounter.com

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FlagCounter: Flag Counter Widget For Your Webpage

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RiskyRoads: See Fatal Traffic Accident Statistics For Your Area

kaly — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:44:47 +0000

RiskyRoads is a new Google Maps mashup that lets you find out if you live or work near roads with high rate of fatal traffic accidents. The app maps fatal traffic accidents that occur within 1000 feet of one another and presents data as a heat map showing the worst hot spots for traffic fatalities. The traffic accident statistic data is obtained from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (NHTSA).

To check the accident stats in your area, simply enter a city name, zip code and click on the “GO” button. Yhen you should see accidents in your area shown on the map marked with different color markers. Each color representing particular number of incidents. To learn more about specific accident simply click on its marker.

Features:

Find out fatal traffic accident rates in your area.
All accidents are presented on the map with colored markers.
The data is obtained from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
To check your area, simply enter city name, zip code or address.
Free. No signup needed.
US only.

Check out RiskyRoads @ www.riskyroads.org

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RiskyRoads: See Fatal Traffic Accident Statistics For Your Area

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99counters: Stylish Web Counters for your Blogs and Profile Pages

Aibek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:06:54 +0000

Dead simple way to get real time traffic stats for your websites, blogs and social networking profiles. If you’re looking for some fancy counters for your blog or online profile pages (Orkut, Friendster, Hi5, Bebo, Myspace etc.) then 99counters is for you.

The counter will display the number of users currently visting the website, total for the day, and total numbers of visits since it was installed. There are nearly 20 counter templates, in different size and colors, so there is a good chance you’ll find something to match your site’s theme.

If you don’t like any of the available templates then you can quickly create one on your own. And as can be seen in the screenshot below it’s really easy to create one.

There is one thing you should be aware of though. If you plan to add the counter to your website then make sure that it appears on every page or it won’t be able to count all of the visits.

Check out 99counters @ www.99counters.com

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99counters: Stylish Web Counters for your Blogs and Profile Pages

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