Buses add an additional layer of transportation goodness that allows one to see buildings and parks without walking long distances on crowded sidewalks or deal with the oppressive heat of NYC summers.

Here are 6 great tools with NYC subway maps to help you navigate your way around NYC using the web and free applications.

Have a Windows Mobile phone? Try Metro, a personal favorite of mine. The interface is easy to use, the results are accurate, and you can get directions for over 300 cities, including New York City.

The NYC version offers directions to and from over 700 stations, tourist attractions and every subway line. It is also available in multiple languages, which makes it a great choice for international travelers.

HopStop is a great free website with accurate and comprehensive directions throughout the New York region. Need to use the subways but want to minimize the walking time to your destination? Then HopStop is for you.

It offers the ability to select whether you want more street walking over transfers, subway only, bus and subway directions, no regional rail and more. The features HopStop’s search algorithms offer make it worth visiting the site.

You can also get a free HopStop app for your iPhone, use HopStop via SMS or access the HopStop website from your Blackberry or PDA.

MTA Mobile is a text-only version of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s website, which gives you access to NYC subway maps, service notices and schedules from your smartphone or web-enabled device. All you have to do to access the site is go to MTA.Info from a mobile device. The site will automatically format itself for your device.

Trips123 looks a lot like HopStop on the surface, but it has some cool features that HopStop lacks – such as live traffic updates.

I also like the Planned Events page, which makes it easy to find out about directions and service diversions for scheduled events at the Meadowlands, Yankee Stadium and other destinations within the region. Their links section is really second to none, with links to every transit provider in the region, so you can stay up to date with schedules and service offerings.

Are you curious to know what traffic is like on a Saturday afternoon on 5th Avenue and 23rd Street? Pull up Trips123’s live traffic cameras and check out the speeding taxis, walking pedestrians and buses as they get to their destinations!

Only for the iPod, Nano and iPods that feature video, Zsubway is a free set of photos of the entire NYC subway system map. You can easily upload the photos to your iPod using iTunes and use them where ever you go. I like Zsubway because it isn’t as obvious that I’m lost as if I was using a paper map, and I can use it underground, where cell phone signals don’t work. Sorted by line, you can quickly find your way using this handy map system.

Using the familiar interface of Google Maps, Google Transit makes it easy to find transit directions in NYC. Type in your origination and destination addresses and press ‘Get Directions‘. You’ll get 3 proposed sets of directions, along with a Google map, so you can use Google Streetview to make sure you know what the subway station and your destination will look like. The map is easy to print and read if you are accustomed to Google Maps for driving directions.

Any suggestions? Let’s hear it in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• MetrO – Ultimate Public Transport Guide for Your Phone (3)
• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)
• Google Maps Adds GPS Tracking To Mobile Phones (12)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)
• Five Things I Like About The iPhone & Four That I Don’t! (16)

Wanting to experience life as it was lived by the footloose heroes above is sending thousands on the road today who will have their movements and moments chronicled on the world wide web.

When you’re starting to plan a trip today, it’s not as easy as it was for Sal Paradise in the 1940s. You can’t simply board a greyhound and expect everything to go great. Planning and further planning are necessary to get from A to B. In this article, I will provide you with a road trip planning guide for the technology enthusiast by showing you the top web apps available for the backpacker, adventurer or holidaymaker.

Yahoo Trip Planner

This is a tool for road trip planning that will get most of the nitty gritty work done for you such as finding hotels, things to do, where to eat and it will even give you suggestions of where to go. The planner can be found here. When you first go to the trip planner, to your right you’ll see ‘Create a Trip’. Click on this button. You will be asked to sign in with your Yahoo ID. If you do not have one you can register here.

When on the ‘Create a Trip’ page, enter in the location to which you want to travel. This could be a country, area, city or town.

Then, you’ll be asked for information about your trip such as dates and scheduled activities such as tours and outdoor pursuits. If you’re not sure about where to stay then enter the city you’re visiting into the destination bar. This will return tons of hotels, facilities and things to do in the area, which are constantly updated with event plans and new hotels, restaurants etc…

The trip planner also has a Journal to keep your friends and family informed. Here, you can write about your experiences on the open road. Your family (who undoubtedly will subscribe to your journal) will be able to keep track of what’s going on with you, look at your photos and comment on them. Think of this as a kind of travel Twitter come blog.

MapQuest

Okay, so now you’ve got your ideas formulated into an envelope full of timetables, bus tickets, hotel reservations and your trusty passport. What’s next on your road trip planning to-do list? Well now, you have to know where to go. While the average internet user in you will automatically point you to Google Maps, I’d suggest using MapQuest as it is more tailored to the traveler who has a geeky side with a touch of organizational OCD.

Their maps are just as detailed as Google’s but give better information for those on-foot and in a car. For example, while you’re driving at cruising speed you may as well instruct Johnny in the seat next to you to pop open the Mac Book and see what’s to come. Along the top of the map window which is on the homepage of MapQuest you’ll see buttons like ’Gas Prices’ and ’Traffic’ that will inform you of the situation that lies ahead, such as low or high gas prices and traffic conditions ranging from ‘Normal’ to the dreaded ‘Road Closed’.

How about the best restaurants or what’s going on in the city? Each major urban centre will have a star beside its name. Click on that star and MapQuest will give you all the current news on what’s happening in that city.

Quest Map is also available on your iPhone. To find it, the best thing to do is open up the Apple App Store and type MapQuest into the search bar. It is much the same as the web version with most of the same functions so I shan’t repeat myself.

Rand Mac Nally

This useful road trip planning website will give you the best info for the city you’re heading off to. Sure, the Yahoo! Trip Planner and Map Quest will give you small bursts of what’s hot in a city but Rand Mac Nally will condense the whole city and all of its thousands of energy pockets into a few articles that Johnny can read aloud whilst cruising along.

As you can see from the screenshot, there are loads of sub-categories for each city and along the left hand side; there are several options for any kind of traveler. Each city has a huge article detailing its history, cultural monuments and sights.

Rand Mac Nally is less of a planning tool and more of an idea mill from where I’m standing. Before traveling to a city, you can see what’s going on and some facts about the place like weather, population and the local culture and customs. It’s a perfect road trip planning guide.

My final advice for the tech savvy traveler in this article is to be prepared for failure. Often, while out on the road where the internet still comes via a phone line, relying totally on your Mac or iPhone for travel advice and suggestions is a silly move. The best thing (and perhaps the essence of travel itself) is to talk to the locals, see what’s going on and get the inside scoop. While it’s almost blasphemous to say on a website such as this one but the internet isn’t perfect.

On the other side of that coin however, making a journal entry on Yahoo! about how you were stranded offline for three days is interesting and makes for a great experience. Here are my Top Five Tech Travel Tips:

1. Always have spare batteries

2. Carry different plug converters for different regions

3. Charge your equipment at any chance you get – in cafés, hotels, anywhere there is a plug. Free electricity!

4. Download Google Maps for your Cell Phone. This can literally be a lifesaver. Read my article on how to do it here.

5. Tweet – loads!

Any other tips?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)
• Cool Online Resources to Plan Your Next Vacation (11)
• 5 Review Sites To Help You Find The Perfect Hotel (18)
• Travel The World with Hello Backpacker (4)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)

It would be totally awesome if you could somehow take the map along. Google offers a print option but you can only print what you are able to fit on the screen which is hardly the solution you are looking for if you want to get a map of the entire city at the desired zoom level.

You can save the map as image files and go through the pain of stitching them together in Paint or Photoshop. Or you can spare yourself some trouble and get Google Maps to work offline with Google Map Buddy, which does everything for you in a click.

It doesn’t require any installation, just extract the zip file, run the executable and you are good to go.

Using the Google Map Buddy interface you can browse to the Google Maps site you want. Search for or navigate to the location you wish to create the map for. You can zoom in or out so that you can see the entire region for which you want to create the map. Let’s say you want to create a map for the city of Paris with all the major roads, landmarks and public transit stations.

Such details are visible when you are zoomed in pretty close, in which case you cannot fit all of Paris on your screen. So Google Map Buddy allows you to zoom out to a level where you can see the entire Paris on your screen (don’t worry if you can’t see the details at this zoom level) and specify the area you want to create the map for.

Now click the draw button, and draw a rectangle encompassing the entire Paris at your current zoom level. You don’t need to zoom to the desired level of detail because Google Map Buddy lets you specify the zoom level of the map that it will create. So you can zoom out to fit the required region on the screen, and then specify a higher zoom level inside the application’s toolbar to get a more detailed final map.

Once you have specified the details, hit create map and the application gets to work. It downloads the required tiles and stores them all on your hard disk. Once it has downloaded all the images it then stitches them together to create a complete detailed map according to your needs.

It can take quite some time to download and stitch all the images, so you would have to be patient while it is working. It would be nice if the application displayed a progress bar or current activity information to let the user know what it is up to.

After all the downloading and stitching together has finished, your map is viewable as a image file. You can scroll and zoom inside the map image just like any other image file that doesn’t fit completely on your screen. Put it on a USB drive, your iPod, your mobile phone (or maybe print it) to take it along. The tiles that it used to stitch together the map are also available just in case you need them, you can keep them or delete as you wish.

Do you know of any similar application you use with Google Maps? Let us know about it in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks (3)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)
• HopStop Helps Me Find My Way On The Subway (3)
• Google Maps Adds GPS Tracking To Mobile Phones (12)
• 6 Subway Map Tools To Navigate Your Way Through NYC (6)

That is why I have compiled a list of 3 handy dandy features of Google Maps that you may not have known about – features that will help you make it through the day without hitting a pedestrian due to your frustrating experiences like the ones pictured above.

Google Driving Directions – Drag and Drop Routes

For those who really want to customize how they get from Point A to Point B, Google Maps has a tool that allows you to drag the route they have provided in certain directions say, because you know that the driving directions given will require you to traverse a heavily bogged down construction zone. New directions are provided on the spot, as if you had just searched for them. Here’s an example.

In light of the Los Angeles Lakers’ recent NBA Championship, here is a set of directions from the Staples Center (where they play) to The Walt Disney Concert Hall, both in Los Angeles:

Now if I decided that I wanted to go on the Harbor Freeway, CA 110 for some crazy reason, I could drag the route:

Here is a side by side comparison of the driving directions. They are automatically calculated and changed as you drag your route. Pretty neat, huh?

One thing you may need take note of is that your constant dragging back and forth may be cumbersome to sort through. You may find that the final directions you obtain after fooling around with the path is an infinite loop. Although this is a very handy feature, make sure to double check that all of the directions are feasible.

Congestion Overlays

It is every traveler’s worst nightmare to run into accidents, construction, congestion, or an overall slowing down of traffic. This is most likely why Google Driving Directions has provided an extremely useful overlay of your map that describes current driving conditions, with a full blown legend that houses live traffic updates along roads.

The only foreseeable downside to this feature is that it mostly only provides these overlays on larger roads, highways and interstates. Then again, larger roads are the ones that we worry the most about.

I’m sure all of you can read, so I won’t go into detail to explain what the colors mean. Certain icons mean certain things, for instance in the above screenshot, the warning sign denotes some type of accident or stoppage due to hazardous conditions, whereas a small man shoveling coal (or at least that’s what it looks like) denotes construction. A red circle with a line through it means that the current lane is closed.

Let’s say you have a planned event, and you would like to know what the traffic conditions will most likely be like at that time. No problem! There is a feature that allows users to choose the day of the week as well as the time of day, and Google Maps will provide a prediction based on aggregate data it has compiled previously. This should give users a better idea of what to expect on certain roads during rush hour or things of that nature:

Search Box Customizations

Although technically more than one “feature,” there are certain things to know about the direction search box that can prove to be useful when finding directions. Believe it or not, I have had more than one friend come up to me and ask me if there was a way to add multiple “checkpoints” to stop by on along their trip. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you take time to read:

If we should decide to add a final destination (no pun intended), we can simply click the link and hooray, we have successfully set up segmented directions for a cross country road trip to the Empire State Building:

Google Driving directions also has a dropdown menu for you to choose by what medium would like to travel through. This service may be limited because most of it is still in beta, but certain locations DO give users the freedom to choose. As of now, it is limited to “by car,” “by public transit,” or “by walking”:

Finally, if we click “show options”, we can choose to have Google Driving directions search for routes that avoid toll roads or highways, or both:

So, there you have it. We hope that wherever you go, you drive safely and are aware of your surroundings. Google Driving Directions is an extremely powerful branch of Google Maps – it provides users with a lot of freedom and flexibility to roam around and explore new areas without actually going there.

This article only provides a few of the handy features that Google Driving Directions encompasses, but there is so much more to learn about. Check out other features of Google Maps, as well as their new mobile phone feature!

Has Google Maps helped you map your transit route or get your out of stuck traffic? Let us know how you have used it, in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Top Mapping Tools: Maps, Local Guides & Driving Directions (12)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)
• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)
• Locate Local Useful Businesses & Services by Address with MashSpots (3)
• HopStop Helps Me Find My Way On The Subway (3)

The Google Maps API has opened up a ton of different uses of Google Maps, and some fantastic applications have been built on top of and use Google Maps. Below are nine of the best.

They range across a huge variety of categories and uses, but all can be both interesting and useful ways of using Google Maps. I’ll warn you in advance, a number of these are US-specific but most have good international alternatives.

Mapdango

Mapdango is a tool for total exploration of a given place. When you search for a city or a country, Mapdango pulls photos from Panoramio and Flickr, as well as information about relevant and important places from Wikipedia, Eventful and Google Local; in order to give you a great way to explore a city. You’ll see pictures of the city, get helpful markers for hotels, museums, parks and more, and generally have a ton of useful information to work with.

If you’re looking to spend some time in a city or country, definitely give Mapdango a try – it’s an event planner all by itself.

Hotspotr

More and more, I find myself walking around with my computer open, hoping and praying that I stumble across a WiFi hotspot that I can use. I always thought to myself, “there has to be a better way.”

Turns out there are a bunch, and one of the best is called Hotspotr. It’s a user-generated list of WiFi hotspots that is growing at a pretty huge rate, with over 15,000 hotspots being searched in over 3,000 cities. A simple search brings up Google Maps pegs for every hotspot, which can be narrowed down to only show free hotspots, or even only the ones in cafes.

Diaroogle

Gotta go? In an unfamiliar place, having to find a bathroom can be a nightmare. That’s what Diaroogle was created for. It’s a community-driven database of public toilets in three different cities (currently New York, San Francisco and London), complete with reviews of the bathrooms, in order to help you find an actually sanitary alternative to the nasty fast food bathrooms.

Live Sports Map

The Live Sports Map is full of live-updated sports news and scores, which can be seen and accessed based on where they’re located. Only care about Denver sports? Just hover your mouse over Denver, CO, and you’ll be updated in an instant. The site shows news around the world but is most heavily concentrated in the US. It’s fast, easy, and even provides color-coding by sport just in case you couldn’t care less about hockey scores.

NYC Bike Maps

As a New York City resident, I know that there are tons of great places to ride a bike in the city. But I have no idea where they are – that’s where NYC Bike Maps comes in. It’s essentially an overlay of bike routes on top of Google Maps, showing you which bike paths are on a street, which have special hours, and more importantly, where they all go. There are a bunch of different maps, and you can even search to find the ones nearest to you. This is something that needs to exist in every city, for every biker.

ZIP Codes and Area Codes

I get tons of phone calls from area codes I don’t know. Equally often, I’m sending a letter or a package, know the address but don’t have a clue what the ZIP code is. For both situations, there’s the USAnaviguide’s Area Code and Zip Code maps. Both use Google Maps to create overlays of the codes by their location, as well as make them searchable. Want to know where area code 660 is? A quick search tells me it’s in Kansas City, MO. The searches are quick, easy and useful more often than you might think.

Twittervision

Okay, these last three are more fun than useful, but all prove how cool applications can integrate with Google Maps. Twittervision shows, in real-time, Twitter updates from around the globe, by location. It’s a growing service but has huge implications – real-time breaking news, as well as seeing conversations as they unfold. Twittervision indexes everyone with a photo and location from their Twitter bio, and has tons of interesting people and tweets featured.

Real World Racer

Ever wanted to drive cross-country? Well, with the Real World Racer, you can. You select a start point and an end point, and suddenly you’re in a high-speed car race all over the world! The game is surprisingly difficult, but a lot of fun and a great way to kill a few minutes seeing the sights of the world as you drive through them in your super-cool red car.

Dig a Deep Hole

Did your parents ever tell you that if you dug a hole deep enough, you’d end up in China? Well, unless you live in Chile or Argentina, it’s a huge lie. That’s what I learned from the Big Hole application, which does but one simple thing – lets you pick a point on a map, and then tells you where, if you dug a hole to the other side of the Earth, you’d end up. Me? I’d end up in the middle of the Ocean – so I’m probably not going to try it any time soon. It’s a fun application, though, and a nice way to ruin all childhood wishes to dig to China.

What’s your favorite use, tweak or mashup of Google Maps? Let us all know in the comments!

Photo: thejourney1972

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)
• Get FREE 411 Directory Assistance with GOOG411 (27)
• Top Mapping Tools: Maps, Local Guides & Driving Directions (12)
• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)
• How To Use Google Maps On Your Basic Mobile Phone (18)

However, I never found any opportunity when I really needed a low-resolution digital camera, but I found myself in countless situations where I really could have used a phone with the global positioning feature.

Google’s mobile version of Google Maps has always offered the ability for mobile phone users to call up Google Maps to view the map of a particular location or search for driving directions. Later, Google added the ability for users who had a GPS-enabled phone or Smartphone to locate their current location through satellite triangulation.

This is a very cool feature of Google Maps, and one that sets it above most other free mobile mapping applications. However, since such a small percentage of Google Mobile users actually own a GPS-enabled phone, Google decided to add GPS Tracking to Google Maps. It’s an amazing technology that offers any cellphone user, regardless of GPS functionality, the ability to zero in on your current location. Google Maps does this the moment you start up the application on your cellphone, as shown here on my Cingular Smartphone.

That little blue dot in the middle of the map is the magical location icon that represents your current location. If you have GPS on your mobile, the Google Maps accuracy is phenomenal. If you don’t have GPS on your phone, Google triangulates your position using the three closest cell towers. There are both pros and cons to using this approach in order to identify your current location. The only con is that the accuracy of GPS is usually within only a couple hundred feet. The accuracy of Google’s new “My Location” features can range as wide as 5000 meters. The pros, however, are:

• “My Location” works faster than GPS, since cell towers are quicker to access than GPS satellites.
• The positioning feature works anywhere your phone can reach a cellphone signal, including indoors.
• Unlike when you use GPS, your phone’s battery will not drain any faster than normal.

Use Google Maps Mobile to Plan Your Trip

The feature of Google Maps that I personally use the most is the Satellite View. In this mode, Google Maps switches to the popular Google satellite imaging feature, where the map is replaced with a real satellite image of your location (dated back a few weeks or months.) My next order of business was to switch to Satellite View and then map out some directions.

Here you can see the amazing clarity of the satellite view. The menu items show all of the things that you can do with Mobile Maps, including mapping out driving, walking, or transit directions, showing local traffic patterns (if you live in or near a city), using GPS, marking favorite locations, and even options like locating the map for any address listed in your phone’s contact list. My next step was to determine directions and distance for me to drive from Southern Maine to Los Angeles, California.

Look at that, only 3,077 miles, and just under 48 driving hours. The resulting directions are straightforward; and if you’re confused, you can just click on any one of the steps, and Google Maps presents that portion of the route for you, in either satellite view or map view.

The route display is highlighted on the map, just like you would highlight your own paper atlas when you plan for a long road trip. As shown in this map, Google Maps sticks to the major roads and highways, and attempts to identify the fastest and most direct driving route for you.  No more spending hours pouring over maps the night before a trip.  With the click of a button on your Smartphone, Google does all of the planning and routing for you.

Instant My Location Updates at the Touch of a Button

If you drive for a few hours and want to determine where you are, just open up Google Maps and press 0, or click on the little magic blue ball at the lower right corner of the displayed map. Google Maps performs its cellphone tower triangulation magic, and you’re instantly swept to the map that shows your current location. It’s like having your own personal navigator and mapping system right on your cellphone. Who needs a GPS unit now?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• How To Trace a Mobile Phone Location with Google Latitude (80)
• Top Mapping Tools: Maps, Local Guides & Driving Directions (12)
• The Ultimate Guide To Your Windows Mobile Phone [PDF] (12)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)
• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)

Thankfully, though, there are a ton of ways to find to do computer-like things when you’re not at your computer. Different places are creeping up that will help you read emails, make plans, win bets, find pointless information, and generally do things you’d do on the computer, without it.

I’m going to assume that you have your cell phone with you when you’re away from your computer. With just your cell, and for most of these, any cell will do, you can do many of the things you always do on the computer.

Here are 9 of the many ways you can use a computer with just a cell phone, beyond just accessing mobile sites (which most sites have by now):

Disclaimer: with these products, you will start texting – A LOT. If you don’t have an unlimited texting plan, prepare to see your bills go up more than slightly!

1. Texting, Google-style with Google SMS

You name it, Google SMS can do it with a text message. By sending a text message to GOOGLE (466453) you can find information like restaurant listings, weather, sports scores, calculator, conversions, and the like. Here’s the full listing, from Google, of all the things they can do with your text message.

But of course there are some risks to using Google SMS…..

2. Ask, and You Shall Be Answered

Got questions? Text them to ChaCha (242242). A real-live human being will answer your question in 160 characters, and send you the answer.

ChaCha is great because it’s a real person on the other end, which means you can ask a real question instead of trying to nail down search terms. If you don’t want to send a text message, call 1 (800) 224-2242 (2ChaCha). ChaCha can also send you a random joke or weather information, but the question and answer service is their bread-and-butter. It’s a great way to settle bets, or find answers to the irritating questions you just can’t seem to figure out.

3. Get your Wikipedia On

Wikipedia, in the words of The Office’s Michael Scott, “is the best thing ever.” Trouble is, for anyone who’s tried to use it from a cell phone browser, it’s tough to read. The formatting is bad for a cell phone, and using Wikipedia is much harder. Wapedia fixes that by taking Wikipedia and formatting it in a way that’s much easier to read on your cell phone. It strips away all the unnecessary stuff like the sidebar links, and puts everything into a one-column view that’s much easier to read on your cell phone. For an information-phile like me, Wapedia’s a great way to keep an easy-to-use Wikipedia in your pocket.

4. Go to the Movies

Want to go to the movies? Despite their terribly annoying ads, Fandango’s still the best place to buy movie tickets. In addition to their mobile site, you can use their relatively new SMS service to make buying tickets from your cell phone even easier. Send your zip code and a movie title to FNDGO (36436), and Fandango finds all the results for you. With an increasing number of carriers, you can even buy tickets with a text. Spur-of-the-moment movie craving? You’re all set.

5. Find a Starbucks and some Wi-Fi

I love Starbucks. There’s one on the ground floor of the building where I live, and I may personally be keeping it in business. Odds are, wherever you are, you’ll be able to find a Starbucks just by turning around. If not though, text your zip code to MYSBUX (697289) and Starbucks will show you their three nearest locations. Plus, with more and more Starbucks offering Wi-Fi, you’ll be able to get back on your computer.

Don’t want to go to Starbucks? Send “wifi” and your location to US411(87411), and you’ll get a whole list of free Wi-Fi hotspots nearby. That way, you won’t have to miss your computer any longer.

6. “Hello, Operator?”

Google search, for your voice and phone. Most 411 services are ridiculously expensive, but Goog-411 isn’t. You search Google with your voice, for a business or personal listing, and it connects you for free. You can even request a text message with all the contact info, for free.  Just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-6446411). For more, check out Karl’s post.

7. Never Miss a Thing

Let’s say you’re looking to buy something on Craigslist. A boat, say. If you want to know when a boat comes onto Craigslist that’s in your price range, check out Notify.me. Set up notifications for everything from your friends’ Twitter statuses to breaking news stories, and Notify.me sends you an alert every time something matches.

They can be sent to your IM, email, desktop client, or cell phone via SMS. This one’s the one that will kill your texting bill, but if you’re sitting at your computer waiting for something, or just don’t want to be behind, Notify.me is a really useful tool.

8. Never Miss the Important Stuff

So, you’re kind of a big deal. People know you. Sometimes you get important email, even when you’re away from your desk. With AwayFind, you don’t need to worry about missing crucial email when you’re not at your computer. Using AwayFind, you can set up an “Out Of Office” email to auto-respond every time you get email, and include a link to your AwayFind page.

If someone needs to get in touch with you, they can fill out the AwayFind form, and their email comes through to you on your phone. It gets trimmed to one message, and helps you rest easy that if someone really needed to get through to you while you’re on vacation, they could. Plus, it gives you something to check as habitually as you do your email.

9. Buy, Buy, Buy

Let’s be honest: half the fun of the Web is the random, unneeded impulse buys. If you’re away from your computer and decided you’ve just got to have that cool thing you saw this morning, never fear, Amazon is here!

Using their “TextBuyIt” service, you can send a text message with a product name to AMAZON (262966). You’ll get two results from Amazon, with more coming if you reply with a text saying “m”. If you decide to buy something, reply with the result number, and you’ll get a call from Amazon to create and confirm your order. It’s so simple, it’s a little scary.

Who says you need to be at a computer all the time? Just by using your cell phone, you can free yourself from its grip.

Which cellphone numbers or mobile services do you use to grab information off the internet?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Get FREE 411 Directory Assistance with GOOG411 (27)
• 15 FREE Useful Services To Access from your Phone (9)
• 12 Google Services with Mobile Access (14)
• Watch Online Products for Price Drops with ShoppingNotes (9)
• User Generated Content (Episode II) (2)

That is where HopStop comes in. It is billed as your city transit guide. They provide door-to-door subway and bus directions and maps for New York City. You can also search for places to eat, drink, sleep and see in the City Guide. While the site says it only works for NYC it seems to now work for Boston, Chicago, Long Island, San Francisco and a few others.

With HopStop you can:

• Send directions by e-mail or text message to a cell phone directly from the website.
• Plan a trip with multiple destinations using the Itinerary.
• Get directions or the locations of nearby subway and bus stops remotely on your cell phone or PDA with the HopStop Mobile SIte.
  

I jumped on their site and punched in my intersection and Time Square’s intersection and this is what it spit back at me:

Directions that are perfect. Thanks HopStop!

To make it even better they have mobile options! Yes and it is still completely free – FTW!

I know they will be adding even more cities soon but in the mean time tell us what YOU use to find subway, tube or metro directions. Holler at us in the comments kiddies!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)
• Google Maps Adds GPS Tracking To Mobile Phones (12)
• A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks (3)
• 3 Features of Google Driving Directions You Probably Never Knew (8)
• Top Mapping Tools: Maps, Local Guides & Driving Directions (12)

So here are the three best things about it …

1. Default Location

When you go to maps.google.com you will most likely see a map of North America. Being in Europe this is not very convenient for me, so I made my hometown my default location.

To set a default location at which Google Maps will always start when you open it, simply enter a location and then click “Make this my default location” on the left. The location you choose has to be at least a city, but can be as detailed as the exact street address.

2. My Maps

With My Maps you can create your own maps, annotate a Google Map, add comments, placemarks, draw directions or just goof around, which I did as you can see below.

Within My Maps click on Create new map and you’ll see four new tools in the top left corner of the map. From left to right: select/edit map features, add a placemark, draw a line, and draw a shape. Whatever you add to your map, it will appear in a small legend on the left, including the title and description you gave your items.

Needless to say you can save and share your maps, edit them anytime, collaborate on a map with others, make your maps public or keep them private.

With the Collaborate option you can invite individuals to edit your map, you can allow them to invite others as well, and you can even let anyone edit your map.

For a direct link click on Link in the top right corner of your map.

3. Browse Popular Maps

The popular maps are both useful and fun. The Distance Measurement Tool for example is incredibly easy to use and easily reveals how far a distance it is from one point to the other, Place Finder translates your location into latitude and longitude or vice versa, Amtrak has a map with passenger rail connections and stations, another map lists all Crop Circles sightings, with Clouds you can view satellite pictures of global cloud cover, and much, much more.

Once you return to your maps you can check or uncheck the maps you have added, change settings or edit them (if applicable), and of course delete them.

4. Get Directions

It doesn’t work everywhere, but for most places you’ll be able to get directions by car. Recently also walking directions went live. Simply right click the map and select “Directions from here” at your start point, followed by “Directions to here” at your destination. Then choose By car or Walking from the drop-down menu. For the route I chose for my example Walking was not available – smart thing.

The coolest thing is that for some routes you can even view images of your trip.

5. Google Mashups

Have a cool idea for a map? Create it, make your own website and become popular, just like these guys…sort of.

• At safe2pee.org you can find a bathroom in your area (US only).
• Antipodes Map will find what’s on the other side of the world. Interestingly Australia isn’t really down under you, but in the middle of the North Atlantic ocean.
• The HealthMap lists the current global state of infectious diseases.
• QClock instantly displays the local time worldwide.
• Use grüvr to find live music nearby.

For more about Google Maps check out Mark’s post Google Maps Rolls Out Spanking New Features from May this year.

What’s your favorite Google Maps feature? What did I miss?

(By) Tina is a regular MUO author. In her offline life she’s a PhD student interested in unraveling signaling events that determine cartilage and bone development.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)
• How To Use Google Maps On Your Basic Mobile Phone (18)
• Google Maps Adds GPS Tracking To Mobile Phones (12)
• Get FREE 411 Directory Assistance with GOOG411 (27)
• A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks (3)

Métro is a free worldwide public transport guide that always sits on your PDA (Palm, PocketPC, Smartphone…). It is a small database application that allows you to download different cities metro information. And it is totally search-able.

From Metro’s homepage:

Metro finds your way in public transport systems in more than 350 cities around the world (Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, any city with a subway & many more!). FREE, FAST & ACCURATE.

No, your mobile won’t be screaming at you to catch the train across the platform because of a sick passenger up ahead. It will not automagically get you to your destination faster – BUT you can manually use it to search for alternate routes when you are in a jam, calculate travel time, or lookup directions in hundreds of cities worldwide. And that’s what it is all about right? Free tools to get something done.

I have never seen a free mobile app with such a wide range of device support. This thing is available in almost EVERY language and for almost EVERY platform. Metro gets loaded up on almost any Palm, Windows Mobile or Symbian operating system (Now with iPhone support here).

Once you download the correct version for you device copy over any data files you think you will need. On first launch the application asks you to choose your database.

You are now ready to search. You can find how to get from one stop to another, major landmarks to stops or other landmarks, shortest distance, least transfers etc… In other words this program is a life saver. When I was in Paris it was awesome. I couldn’t pronounce a lot of the street names let alone speak the language to have someone help me out – so I whipped out my larger then life 2003 HP Ipaq and was finding my way around in no time.

Additional features include:

• Directions and information to major tourist attractions (in selected cities)
• Download and take only the cities you need.
• Easy station search.
• Really complete line & station lists: 575 stops in London, 785 in New-York, 1600 in Tokyo, 1526 in Paris, and so on.

To sum up, The AdmiN gives Metro 4 thumbs up… That is both of mine and my wifes! I have become very dependent on it and do not know how I would cope without it.

Enjoy! And I wish all of you MUO readers out there for this year to be better then last and for all of your geeky dreams to come true!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• 6 Subway Map Tools To Navigate Your Way Through NYC (6)
• Five Things I Like About The iPhone & Four That I Don’t! (16)
• 10 Websites For Free Mobile Phone Ringtones & Other Mobile Downloads (55)
• Top Mapping Tools: Maps, Local Guides & Driving Directions (12)
• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)

For my first MakeUseOf post I will be taking you through the wonder that is Goog-411. You dial up 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any (US) phone. After you get a friendly Google hello you follow the voice prompts which are extremely intuitive.

Start by saying your city and state. You hear the Google engines spinning in the background and then you will be prompted to say what business listing you want (pizzeria, repair shop, Burger King, etc.). They understood me every time even when I put on various accents. I had previously tried out 800-free-411 and they never understood me – it was infuriating!

Now Goog411 will also complete your call for you FOR FREE or send you a text message FOR FREE with your listing, a link to their website, a link to a map and directions or any other information they have. For a list of all the commands check out this page here. This is all easily save-able on your mobile. The service is still in its beta stages and currently has NO ads! Suck it up while you can this is the way most services will be going in the near future. If you are interested in seeing a video demo go to GOOG411 on MUO Directory.

Goog411 currently only works from the US and we got mad love for our international readers so we have Google SMS for you. Well, for most of you.

Just save 466453 “Google” into your phone and text it with your query and Google will hit you back with all sorts of free information. How about dictionary definitions, calculations, curency exchange rates or movie listings (Google SMS -All Features). Give it a shot – its free minus the cost of the text messages of course.

Got to love the Google!

For other similar alternatives you can also check out Free411 Dial Directions and TellMe.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Top Mapping Tools: Maps, Local Guides & Driving Directions (12)
• 9 Ways To Use Your Cellphone To Get Information Online (7)
• 12 Google Services with Mobile Access (14)
• Use Google’s new Mobile Directory without a Keyboard! (7)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)

For instance, Ask City seems like a top choice when it comes to getting around within your city, finding out about movie theaters in your area, etc. On the other hand, Google Maps does an excellent job at providing more flexible features for long-distance route planning. Similarly, Microsoft’s Live Search is the only application that provides free ‘Maps’ software for your mobile. So, Enjoy! (Note: entries 1-3 in no particular order)

(1) Yahoo! Maps

Features:

• Print maps, send by email, send link to Mobile, OR save to Yahoo! Myweb.
• View live road traffic stats along your route. (Geo restrictions apply).
• Map view modes: generic map, hybrid, satellite.
• Find local businesses (stores, pizzerias, car repair shops, etc.) for any area in US.

(2) Google Maps

Features: Demo (below)

• Print maps, send by email, get permanent link to the page.
• Ability to drag n’ drop route line right on the map (excellent feature). See Demo video below.
• Map view modes: generic map, hybrid, satellite and street view (restricted to specific locations).
• Live road traffic stats (mainly for US)
• Find local business locations (stores, pizzerias, car repair shops, etc.) for all cities in US, UK, Canada, Europe, and more.
• Get driving directions via SMS. Get Details

(3) Live Search – Local

Features: Demo

• Print maps (map, text, or both) , send by email, send link to mobile, OR get permanent link.
• Live road traffic stats (mainly for US)
• Map view modes: Aerial, road, hybrid and 2D/3D (restricted to specific locations)
• Find local businesses and people
• Free software for Local Maps and local businesses for your mobile (US and UK only). Learn more.
• Access website and get driving directions from your mobile via mobile.live.com/search.

(4) Ask City

Features:

• Print maps, email, OR get permalink.
• Map view modes: street and aerial.
• Find local businesses, events, and movies (US only).

(5) MapQuest

Features:

• Print maps, send by email, send map link to your mobile, OR get permanent map link.
• Get shortest routes (by Time, by Distance) + option to Avoid (Highways, Tolls, seasonally-closed Roads).
• Find local businesses and locations (US, Canada).
• Premium Offers (non-free): (1) MapQuest Mobile – note: you can get almost same thing from ‘Live Search’ for free, (2) MapQuest Navigator – piece of software that will turn your phone into a full in-car navigation system.

(6) Mulitmap

Features:

• Print maps, send by email, send to mobile OR get permalink
• Display Cash points, Tube stations, Parking, Petrol stations, Train stations, and Wi-Fi hotspots for your route.
• View shortest routes (by Time, by Distance)
• Map view modes: generic map, hybrid, satellite.

(7) Maporama

Features:

• Print maps OR send by email
• Get driving directions on your iPod in .mp3 format.
• Get Maporama software on your PDA

• Get FREE 411 Directory Assistance with GOOG411 (27)
• Google Maps Adds GPS Tracking To Mobile Phones (12)
• 3 Features of Google Driving Directions You Probably Never Knew (8)
• Use Google’s new Mobile Directory without a Keyboard! (7)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)