MakeUseOf » local directory

Using The MSN Hotmail Member Directory To Find Your Friends

Ryan Dube — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:31:15 +0000

For many years, anyone with a Hotmail account would go to Hotmail.com and access their email accounts in much the same way that you currently access Gmail. People become accustomed to the way Hotmail looked and felt, and it remained that way for a long time. However, in recent years, Microsoft started dramatically revamping the look and feel of Hotmail, so that many users have lost track of the things they used to have memorized, like accessing the MSN Hotmail Member Directory, for example.

Here at MUO, we’ve covered Hotmail a number of times. Jack wrote about how to access Hotmail messages from your Gmail account and Tim explained how to make your Hotmail email account more secure.

If you are one of those Hotmail users that has lost track of the MSN Hotmail Member Directory, I’m going to help you find it again, and also show you how to make better use of it to find your long lost friends.

Hotmail Is Part Of Windows Live

The first thing that the majority of readers will likely already know (so it shouldn’t be news) is that Hotmail is no longer just MSN Hotmail, but instead it’s now Windows Live Hotmail. This means that the MSN Hotmail member directory that people were so accustomed to is now the Windows Live member directory.

The problem with the new Windows Live Hotmail system is that it’s not really apparent how to get to the public member directory. When you’re logged into your Hotmail email account, you can access the member directory by clicking on “Contacts” in the left navigation bar. Most people assume that “Contacts” only means your own personal contacts, but this is in fact the starting point to find the public directory.

Within your Contacts page, you’ll see a link to “Add people” in the left menu. Over the past few years, like many other social networks, Microsoft has been busy cloning the Facebook model. You’ll find that the entire Windows Live social network system looks and feels a lot like Facebook, right down to the public status updates and how you connect with friends. The first step is to choose what privacy level you want to set your Windows Live account.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll find yourself in the Windows Live member directory search page. Here, you can import friends from your other social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, or your Gmail account. To search through the massive member directory for any long-lost friends, you’ll need to click on “Search for people.”

Now, you’re finally on the Member Directory search page. This is much like doing a Facebook search to find your family or friends on the Internet in that you can search by their name, employer, school or a number of other search methods. If you’ve been looking for lost friends or family and couldn’t find them on Facebook, you could very well find them on Windows Live, since it is currently one of the largest email systems online.

Type in the name of the friend you’re looking for and you’ll get back the results of everyone on Windows Live with the matching name. Just like on Facebook, you’ll see any location, educational or employment information that the person made public. These details should help you better identify whether that person is the friend you’ve been searching for.

Once you find them, the similarity to Facebook really comes out. You can invite the person to become one of your Windows Live “friends”. This allows them to see your updates and details, and lets them see yours. It also adds them to your contact list in Windows Live Messenger and any other Windows Live social apps that you use.

Another similarity to Facebook People search is the ability to dig through the MSN Hotmail member directory using a list of “variables,” including gender, location, education, and even interests. Not only is it a good way to find long lost friends, but it’s also a cool way to discover people that share your interests and potentially make new friends.

The one thing that really surprised me was when I started exploring the personal pages of some of the Windows Live users. Interestingly, the individual Windows Live pages are laid out a lot like Facebook pages. It’s pretty clear that Microsoft is trying to utilize the same layout as Facebook – catering to an online community that clearly prefers a social network where you post status updates and follow your friends’ updates.

It was also shocking to me that, just like on Facebook, people are so willing to offer their very private information. For example, I found one user (the one above) that provided her home and mobile phone numbers and her email address, to the public Windows Live network!

Such a large member directory that’s publicly accessible to anyone with a Windows Live account makes it an excellent resource to find your friends. It may not be easy to find the member directory search page, but once you sign up for a Windows Live Hotmail account and follow the steps above, you can start searching as much as you like.

Have you used the Hotmail directory to “discover” any lost friends? Do you use the Windows Live social network? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.

How To Add Your Business To Google Maps

Tim Lenahan — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:30:53 +0000

Everyone knows that if you own a business, these days you need a website. In fact, people will go further and say you need a website plus various other online presences like Facebook and Twitter.

One of the major reasons it is essential to have some sort of online presence is because you need your business to be found. And where do people go when they need to find something? Google of course! Personally, when I am looking for some type of business I usually head to Google Maps and run a search including the city and state (or even nearest address).

Google makes checking out businesses easy with well-detailed listings of all sorts of information. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, try going to Google Maps and searching for a local business. For the purposes of this article I will be running a search for Nicky Doodles (a local ice cream shop) so I’ll type “nicky doodles, rome, ny” in the search bar.

Notice that when you find the business in the search results that there is a “more info” link.

It is this type of detailed listing that I am referring to. As a business owner, did you know you can now actually have some control as to what your business listing says about your business? Let me introduce you to what Google calls Google Places.

The process is simple. Let’s go through it step by step.

Go to Google Places, sign in with your Google account and click “Add new business.”

Next, you will be asked to begin to enter your business’s details. This is mostly include location based information (address, etc.), contact information (like email, phone, web address), and descriptive information (a short description and categorization).

Now you’ll be asked to give more details to be included in the listing. It is good for potential customers to know about your service location, hours of operation and payment options. You’ll also have the opportunity to include photos and even videos in your listing.

The last part of the Google Places listing process is validating that all of this information is actually coming from the owner of the business being listed. You can either choose to validate by phone or by postcard. Believe it or not, going the phone route would be a lot easier and faster.

Google Places offers more!

In this article, I have majored on how to take control of what information is in your business’s Google listing. You must also realize that Google Places also offers business owners other valuable tools such as printable coupons, and a dashboard full of statistics and trends helping you choose how to better meet the needs of your customers.

As you know, Google has been listing businesses for easy finding for quite some time. Now business owners can have the control they need to maximize the benefits of Google, for free!

What do you think of Google Places and the tools it offers? Can you think of any more simple ways to maximize the potential of online business listings?

Search For the Best & Worst Local Businesses With Yelp

Ryan Dube — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:31:39 +0000

These days, when you mention Yelp, most people know what you’re talking about. Much like Twitter and Facebook, Yelp appears to be the next major social network climbing up in the ranks.

Jerry previously wrote about the Yelp iPhone app, where you could search for highly rated local restaurants to eat at near your location. In fact, numerous MakeUseOf readers have often mentioned Yelp. Personally, I thought Yelp was just another small fad social network attempting to build itself up upon the concept of mobile reviews of local businesses.

The reality is that Yelp is now much more than that. The community is now set up much like Facebook, with profiles and friends, but the heart of this particular network is the review process. Beyond searching for local businesses, members earn a certain status the more they review businesses. The stronger your status, the more other people pay attention to what you have to say.

Are we entering an electronic era where the highest rated Yelp reviewers will be as revered by local businesses as the fine dining newspaper columnists were back in the day? Maybe not yet, but things seem headed in that direction.

Yelp Helps You Out & Lets You Help Others

I have to admit, I learned about Yelp by accident. I was actually using a completely different mobile app on my Android called Where. Where is a pretty cool little app that almost acts like a mobile Yellow Pages – where you can search for local businesses through listings for local restaurants, shopping and more. I used Where a few times while I was traveling with the family, and noticed that each of the businesses had a little link labeled “Yelp Review.”

I wondered what a Yelp review was, and made a mental note to check it out when I got back home. Once I did, I was surprised to learn that it was a booming social network filled with user reviews for businesses in the US, Canada, Ireland and UK. Once I learned about the Yelp mobile app for Android, I switched to using it immediately.

I have two favorite parts of Yelp – the ease with which you can quickly search for local businesses as well as something to do in your area, and the awesome social network of people who are out there actively reviewing local businesses.

Searching for local businesses is as simple as either typing a keyword or typing in your town. The fastest approach is typing your location so that Yelp can offer a listing of local businesses that have already been reviewed (as well as those that haven’t yet – if you feel like writing your own review.)

The listings include the business name, a quick reference for the rating (from 1 to 5 stars) as well as the address and phone number. The most recent reviewer’s comments are included on the listing page as well – so you can briefly get an idea of the business just from the listing page.

Once you click on the business name, you’ll get all of the details, including average price range, parking, whether there’s waiter service or if the business offers delivery. There’s even a cool slideshow of photos for most of the businesses listed in Yelp.

The restaurant above is one near me called DiMillo’s – my wife and I had one of our anniversary dinners there. It’s literally a floating restaurant, permanently at dock in Portland Maine’s Old Port. I may just post my own review!

The Yelp Community

The number of Yelp reviewers are growing exponentially, and reading through the review section for any business is very entertaining. You’ll often see some reviewers going after the review of another reviewer – correcting it or explaining why they are wrong.

For some communities, where tourism is critical, reviews can really make or break the business – and many local business owners are starting to take online reviews from popular sites like Yelp very seriously. However, what businesses are learning is that the best way to ward off negative reviews is to develop a loyal customer base who are ready and willing to defend your good name and testify to the quality of your service or product. Communities like Yelp that encourage local folks to review businesses are really driving local businesses to excel and compete.

You’ll notice that the profile page for reviewers is much like a Facebook profile, except instead of status updates you have the main column with the user’s latest reviews. Other community members can actually rate those reviews as useful, funny or cool and they can forward reviews to friends. This approach keeps the reviewers themselves honest – because no one is going to give much credit to a reviewer who the rest of the community feels they offer poor reviews.

Best of all, on the main Yelp page you’ll see a link for “Yelp Mobile.” Here, you’ll find mobile versions of Yelp for just about every major mobile device – iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid and Palm Pre. I’ve downloaded it to my Droid (as you can see above), and plan on using it any time we travel and we’re pressed to find a good local place to eat. Now you no longer have to ask the clerk at the front desk of the hotel where there are any good places to eat – just pull out your mobile phone and check out what all of the locals have to say. When you listen to local reviews for businesses, you will never be disappointed.

Do you use Yelp, or do you have any other local business review social network that you like to use? Share your own insight and resources in the comments section below.

The Best Free Software For Your Blackberry

Karl L. Gechlik — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:31:24 +0000

It seems that recently all the attention has been going to the iPhone or the Android platform. There will soon be an uproar with Windows Mobile as they will be doing away with all the old installation packages and there will be no upgrade path to Windows Mobile 7.

Well we felt that we were missing out on showing our Blackberry users a little love. So here, without further ado, is a list of 6 free Blackberry software applications to download and install that will essentially trick out your mobile phone and make it do what you want it to do.

I tried very hard not to include any of the free Blackberry software we already covered here in this post from Grant.

The first application we will cover is the free Blackberry Kindle software. The free Kindle application can be downloaded first to your computer or over the air on your Blackberry via this link. You will be able to link to your Amazon account and any eBooks you have already purchased as well as being able to buy paid and free books via Amazon as well.

This is a nifty feature to add to your Blackberry, essentially making it a eBook reader. Nice!

Next up is an application called StockView and as you can guess it displays NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and NASDAQ quotes. There are loads of stock applications for the Blackberry but most of them are either charging $29.99 for the application or a monthly fee. This application is totally free (at least for now). The site lists it as a trial but it will work indefinitely.

Now let’s make your Blackberry into a powerful money sending/accepting machine. Paypal has provided an application via the Blackberry Appworld Store that allows you to log into your Paypal account and view your balance, check your history and send money. This is very cool stuff! Check if that payment came in right on the spot before you continue working”¦

You can download it via this link.

And of course if you have full access to your PayPal account why not your eBay account as well?

Well from the eBay App for the Blackberry you can pretty much do anything you can do directly on eBay’s website without having to be in front of a computer! No more waiting around for that auction to end and you can search auctions on the go!

Now how about having the power of Directory Assistance without having to make a phone call? The application is called Beyond411 and can be downloaded from here.

I first saw this on the iPhone and it looked great. Beyond411 is a service for information that goes one step beyond basic 411 information. It allows you to drill down and find what you are looking for. You set your location so it returns local stuff and it goes on to provide, in addition to the directory searching on Yellow Pages, support for maps, driving directions and white pages.

The last application, and certainly not least worthy, is a program called WorldMate Live. WorldMate Live has a free and a paid version. The free version allows you to view and modify your travel itinerary, see world clocks, weather forecasts and there is even a currency converter in there.

Consider this a traveler’s best friend or assistant. It will hold your information down so you don’t lose or misplace it. You can go Gold (paid) to have flight alerts and status automatically updated on the go. All in all, after using this application, I don’t know how to travel without it.

Did I leave out your favorite free Blackberry application? Well than hit us up in the comments!

Layar – A Versatile Augmented Reality For iPhone & Android

Simon Slangen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:31:56 +0000

According to Wikipedia, our office knowledge sensei, an augmented reality is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery.

Augmented reality is basically just a virtual overlay on the ‘real world’. Remember the robot-vision from Terminator? That’s what Layar does. Only slightly more current, and on your Android and iPhone mobile phones.

Why? Because, let’s face it, after a decade of GUI innovation we’re still not thinking outside of the box (pun intended). It’s time for a revolution.

Although Layar exists for both iPhone and Android, this review was based off an Android phone. Slight differences might occur in the augmented reality iPhone version, albeit minimal.

There’s Something About Layar…

Layar actually works very simply. It takes a streaming image input from your mobile phone’s camera, and adds one, or even a number of layers onto it, also dubbed filters. With these filters, you can look around for the nearest pub with Belgian beer, find interesting art expositions in Chicago, or even look at houses that are for sale. Some features are limited to a specific locale, but with almost 400 layers, there’s bound to be something you can put to use.

For less confusion, you can toggle off the grid overlay, or even switch to a list or map view of the nearest results. There’s a screenshot of the latter further down the article.

If you fire up Layar for the first time, you’ll be greeted with the Featured layers tab. Use these to go on a trial run of the interface. Also check out the Local, Popular, and Search tabs. See anything you like? You can ‘favorite’ a layer by pressing the lower left star button for future reference.

Layar Local Search

One of the first, and often most useful filters is Layar’s own local search. You can already find it in the Featured tab by default. The layer does a Google Maps search, and surrounds you with the results on a grid.

All you need is a keyword, and a distance. Obviously, in rural areas, you’ll have to set a larger perimeter than if you were downtown in a major city. ‘Pizza’ serves me just fine, but you can try ‘supermarket’, ‘shoe store’, ‘theatre’, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

The results of your search will be dotted out on your radar, and you can focus on each mark individually by making a pirouette. Layar and Google will show you the establishment name, and distance in meters. If you want more information on a specific result, focus on it and press the big OK button on your cellphone, or just tap the name on the screen. You’ll get the address, phone number and can even plot your route.

Your sense of direction drowned out by the results? Hit the Map button to get a cleaner overview. The rest of the interface will remain unchanged. Tap Reality to switch back.

The Twitter ‘Matrix’ & Other Layers

What else can you do with Layar? One of the other popular layers is Tweeps, which gives you Twitter augmentation on your cellphone. Look at some of the latest Tweets close to you. Very strange, but a great tool for party crashers and stalkers.

As said before, there are now almost 400 different filters available for Layar, and more coming up. The API isn’t hard to find, so you can even make your own. To find interesting new layers, regularly check the Popular and Featured tabs, or take a hit at Search. Try using general tags to turn up most results (e.g. art beats exposition).

Closing off, a question to take home. Where would you like to see graphical user interfaces heading in the (near) future? Buttons and sliders or augmented reality? Or can they co-exist? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!

Top 8 Sites to Identify The Owner Of A Phone Number

Tina Sieber — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:04:26 +0000

Phone numbers are a little like fingerprints. They can reveal a lot about a person, for example their name or where they live.

If you have a missed call from an unknown phone number, you may want to identify the phone number of the person who tried to reach you before you dial that number. Chances are you’re hooking up with a telemarketer. Eventually some random person simply dialed the wrong number. Or it’s your long lost best friend who finally found you. You never know.

There are several free online tools to reverse lookup and identify a North American phone number. However, with cell phone numbers it’s almost impossible to find out the identity of the person behind the phone number. Unless you are willing to pay.

Sadly, most seemingly free services will redirect you to a paid option, even if it’s possible to find the information for free elsewhere. To avoid these pitfalls, I have compiled a list with services for reverse phone number search and how to use them.

1. WhoCallsMe? (Worldwide)

If you suspect that a telemarketer called you, this is the service you should try. Enter the number in the search field and hit “Get Details“. If the number is not listed, no one has had complaints about it yet.

The database at WhoCallsMe? is supplied by its users. So if you have been receiving unsolicited calls from telemarketers, surveyors, charities or other organizations, help others avoid these people by entering their phone number and details into WhoCallsMe?’s database.

A similar page is Who Called Us.

2. Google PhoneBook (North America)

For North American landline numbers, Google is an excellent choice to identify a phone number. For listed US numbers, Google may return a phonebook result that looks like this:

It reveals the name and address of the person who owns the respective number. Using the convenient GoogleMaps link you can look up in what neighborhood they live.

For other numbers, Google may return links to local online phone books.

Now you could directly go to one of your local online phone books. Which one you choose of course depends on where you are. Unfortunately, I can’t list one for each country. Besides, reverse phone number search is restricted in and unavailable for several countries, including Australia and the UK.

The following four sites are for Canada and Germany. They basically all work the same – you find the reverse lookup option, enter the number, and hit search. So without further comments, here it goes…

3. 411 (Canada)

4. Canpages (Canada)

5. Das Telefonbuch (Germany)

6. Das Ã–rtliche (Germany)

These were your options for landlines.

But what if you’re trying to identify a cell phone number? Honestly, I could not find a free tool for identifying the owner of a given number.

However, due to the nature of North American cell phone numbers, the prefix reveals the location of the caller. The most you can find out for free on top of that, is the name of the provider and when the number was registered.

7. Cell Phone Tracer (North America)

This website will find you the the phone carrier and the location of the given phone number. If you choose to continue to receive the entire available information, you will be asked to pay.

8. Cellphone Registry (North America)

The Cellphone Registry may be able to tell you when the phone number in question was registered. Unlike the previous website, it was not able to find the phone carrier. And all further information is available for cash only.

Did we miss an online phonebook for your country with reverse lookup option? Please feel free to request a link or provide us with the resource in the comments!

Image Credit: iprole

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Locate Local Useful Businesses & Services by Address with MashSpots

Karl L. Gechlik — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:01:43 +0000

Have you ever been in a new neighborhood and could not locate a Starbucks or pizza joint? Sure you could go Googling to find one but we found a nifty website that seems to work all over the world in conjunction with a little Google Maps magic.

Basically you get a map with a pull down menu of locations to locate local businesses by addresses that are near you. They come pre-populated with popular stuff but as you will see below you can add custom stuff as well. They also have a free iPhone app but I do not have a iPhone to test it out on. So we will be covering the web application today.

When we first arrive at MashSpots you will see a map like this with your location data pre-filled out like below. It also picks what you are looking for in the first field. You are represented by a little green and blue icon in the middle of the map.

You will see that you can move your icon to tell the application where you are. This will list places closest to you first. So go ahead and drag that little dude around and place him where he should be. You can also just click on your location or modify the location in the top bar.

I dragged my little dude from the middle of Linden Blvd to Sheepshead Bay, as that is where I am. I left the default groceries in the what? field and this is what it returned to locate grocery related businesses by addresses that are near me. A list of 4 spots close by and their respective information. You can click on a red dot for more information.

Let’s look at the pre-configured categories. You will see they are Pizza, Coffee, Bar (yeah!), Restaurant, Hotel, Parking, Groceries, Apartment Building, Banks, Shopping and Hospitals (hope you don’t need them!)

But you can type in something as well. We tried it with Starbucks and it worked swimmingly. Below you will see the prefilled options as they appear on the site.

Locations where you can locate businesses by addresses near you include San Francisco, New York City (woot!), Chicago, London, Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Sydney, Tokyo, Mumbai and Shanghai. Even if your city is not listed just type it in like I did for Brooklyn below.

You can make the search results show 8 results instead of 4, using the drop down menu on the left under the search results. Below you can see I changed it to 8.

These 8 pizza places are shown on the map in relation to where I am.

Oh look my favorite Pizza place is on there! I love some Benny’s Gourmet in my neighborhood. They are a little expensive and kosher but if you can deal with no meat with your cheese it is awesome. I click on the appropriate red dot and see its information listed. I think I will order from them tonight. This is making me hungry!

Next up I typed Starbucks into the What? field and saw where my closest coffee fix is:

That is some walk so I will probably just get coffee at a corner store!

How do you locate places in a new area? Do you have another website you like? Have you used MashSpots’ iPhone app? We would love to hear about it in the comments!

3 Features of Google Driving Directions You Probably Never Knew

Leon — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:00:20 +0000

We know your problems. We know that if Aunt Martha sees your red sedan pass by her front porch, she will FORCE you to come in and try her lasagna. We know that you hate Toll Road #4339 Google Maps sends you on every time you want to go somewhere.

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.

9 Ways To Use Your Cellphone To Get Information Online

David Pierce — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:01:20 +0000

I’ve been called a computer addict before. More than once. I have an unending need to be online doing something, regardless of how inane and pointless it may be. With Google, Wikipedia and the like, finding information has never been easier. With YouTube, StumbleUpon and others, having fun is a click away. Only problem is, I’m not always in front of my computer. It’s a frightening prospect.

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?

9 Cool Google Search Shortcuts You Should Know About

Charnita Fance — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:01:38 +0000

Are you one of those internet users who is addicted to Yahoo and will only use Google if you can’t find it on Yahoo? Well, I know a quite a few people like that but after showing them all that you can do with Google, they were very quick and eager to switch.

A lot of people complain about Google but you have to give them credit, their search functions are some of the best around right now. So, since there’s so much that you can do with Google Search, I decided to share a few shortcuts with you that I’m sure will come in handy.

Package Tracking

When tracking packages, most people head straight to the shipping site such as FedEx, UPS, or USPS to see details. But did you know that now you can enter tracking numbers right into the Google search box?

First you’ll need the tracking number of your order, which you can get from the actual site/company that you ordered from. Second you’ll need to know how it’s being shipped (via FedEx, UPS, or USPS). That’s it.

If your package is being shipped by FedEx, you would enter “fedex 121212121212” into the Google search box. If your package is being shipped by UPS, you would enter “ups 121212121212” into the Google search box. If your package is being shipped by USPS, you would enter “usps 121212121212” into the Google search box. Of course, in all three cases you would use your actual tracking number in place of “121212121212″.

Below I’ve entered the tracking number of a USPS order I want to track. If the tracking number is valid, you’ll see an image of a package show up with a link to view the tracking information for your order. Clicking on it will then take you to the site (in this case USPS) in order to see the full details.

Flight Tracking

You can look up information on any flight by simply typing the airline name or code followed by a space and flight number into the Google search box.

Below I’ve entered the name of an airline and the flight number that I’d like information on. If the flight information you enter is valid, you’ll see an image of an airplane along with brief stats of the flight. You’re also given a link that you can click on to see more detailed information from the actual site the stats were taken from.

Calculations & Conversions

Do you often find yourself reaching for a calculator to figure out simple calculations? I don’t know about you but I do not keep a calculator handy and I often go through at least 3 steps to open up the Windows calculator. Well there’s no need to do either when you have Google handy.

To use Google’s built-in calculator functions, you simply enter the calculations that you’d like solved right in the search box. You can even do more advanced math functions such as geometry and trigonometry. If you don’t remember what all the advanced math functions are don’t worry about it, there’s a very handy Google Quick Reference Cheat Sheet that you can use. This Cheat Sheet shows you all of the things that you can type into the Google Search Box in order to calculate basic or advanced math functions.

The Cheat Sheets also has a list of Units of Measures and Conversions that can be used to converts units and currency. In order to calculate conversions you would type in things like: three quarters of a cup in teaspoons; 130 lbs in kg; 65 mph in kph; 1500 in hex; 64 in binary; etc.

Weather

Finding out the weather in Google is pretty easy. You simply type the word “weather” followed by the city and state, zip code, or city and country. So, below I searched for the weather in Fort Riley, Kansas and Google gave me the current weather along with a forecast for the next 4 days.

Time

If you have family or friends in other parts of the world, you can easily find out what time it is in their area. You simply type the word “time” followed by the name of the city or country and Google will show you the time, day, and time zone for that location. Personally, this really comes in handy for me since I have a husband that will be deployed soon and all of my family and friends are in 2 different time zones from myself.

Dictionary

This is definitely something that comes in handy for me a lot as well. You can see the definition for any word or phrase by simply typing “definition” followed by a space and then the actual word(s) that you wanted defined. If you want to see a list of definitions from various resources across the Web, type “define:” followed by a space and the word(s). As you can see below, you’re given multiple definitions along with the website from where they were taken from.

Movies

Google allows you to quickly find show times for movies playing in your area. You can do this by simply typing in the word “movies” or the film title followed by your zip code in the Google search box. You will then get a list of up to two theaters; if there are more than two theaters listed, you can click the “More theaters” link to see the rest. This is definitely a lot quicker and more convenient than calling the theater and listening to a 5 minute lineup – especially if the movie you want to see is at the end of the lineup.

UPC Codes

This is definitely one of the more unique Google Search shortcuts that I’ve seen. You can find information about any item by simply typing in the UPC Code of the item into the Google search box. If you don’t know, the UPC Code for an item appears at the bottom of the item’s bar code.

Below I’ve entered the UPC Code of a random item I found in my house. If the UPC Code you enter is valid, you’ll see an image of a bar code along with a link to view more information about the item.

Phone Book & Residential Listings

If you need to look up a US residence phone number or address you can do that as well. Simply enter the person’s name along with a city, state, or zip code in the Google search box. If that person is listed in the phone book, you’ll see an image of a telephone along with their name, phone number and address. Google lists up to three matching results for you to see; to see more, simply click on the “Phone book results for” link. Google also gives you the option to see a residential map for that person.

So, as you can see, Google really makes a lot of useful functions easier and more convenient. Do you know of any other cool Google Search shortcuts? If so, feel free to share by posting them in the comments.

Charnita is a social media addict & Internet junkie. She blogs about internet & blog tools, website & blog promotion, web 2.0 & social media at her Social Web Tools blog.