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I work for a company in Japan and information is one of our key assets. We have a fairly good relationship with google but what concerns quite a bit right now is the direct use (consolidation) of third party information that's slowly but surely encroaching on every single little possible market they can figure out how to intergrate into their enormous system. We are struggling now to post information on the web as all our information is short and digestable and likely to be swallowed up as a "useful features" on the side of one of these google maps searches. This isn't bad for people but, its gonna kill so many industries in the coming years. I just hope the "dont be evil" philosophy holds up 'cause I cant see this direction changing.

Do people really need to be that connected? Probably not.

And do those same people really need to be contactable 24 hours a day? If not, then they do not even need a mobile phone in the first place.

Seriously, this is the same argument that people use against mobile/cell phones before they actually own one. But once they get used to having one (and to leaving it turned on all the time - yes Mum, I'm talking to you) then most people get dependant on the technology. I find now that I feel terribly isolated if I ever go out without my phone - especially if I am meeting friends somewhere and have no way of letting them know if I am running late.

I started using the internet on mobile phones years ago when I was into auction sites. I find that it puts you into a different mindset to be permanently connected to the net. It seems natural to always have access to the phonebook, or street map, or to look up a movie review while browsing in the DVD shop, or read the newspaper on the train, or grab the train timetable, or fill in a spare 5 minutes by checking out slashdot. Yes, it is all stuff that you can live without; at least, until you get used to having it.

There are ways around the screen resolution issues. I have a Nokia 9300 with a screen resolution of 640x200 which, when combined with Opera's Fit to Screen mode, does a really impressive job. However, if I find a site that still doesn't fit well - or is too slow to download - then I use Skweezer to reduce the amount of clutter in the HTML source code. Have a look at the original article when skweezed. Not quite as good as the print page version as linked by _PimpDaddy7_ below, but still a great improvement. There are some sites that I skweeze when browsing them on the desktop just to clean up the crap. I imagine even MySpace pages might look almost viewable using this site.

But you really should not get too hung up on the screen size issue. They are not intended to be desktop replacements. But if you need to make a last minute bid on eBay, then you can live with the slight inconvenience of having to scroll a bit more. It is more about connecting the internet with your life away from the computer, rather than reproducing the experience of sitting at your desk.

Try the award winning Whereis mobile.

Well, if you're in Australia anyway.

I SO want Australia... all the mapping options available to Australians, such as WhereIs (based on the UBD maps), totally sucks.

I was particularly interested in the acquisition of the Australian mapping company (which hasn't been greatly publicised). Does that mean that Australia might be getting Google maps? If so, WhereIs might be an acquisition they could consider, although it seems to be part of a larger Sensis search group. It's pretty good already, but it would benefit from extra bandwidth and a bit of Google sleek-ifying.

Compared to any offerings we have for this country, (Yes, I'm talking to you Whereis) Google Maps is sorely needed. Can anyone recommend an Aussie site that's better than whereis ?

when you have something as good as this.

for those Sydneysiders who feel like 'dropping in' but don't know where that is, Lime Street is down by King Street Wharf.

recommended action? annoying, non-destructive stuff, no superglue in the locks or permanent scarring of the building. flyers would be good

Here's a good idea : if anyone works nearby, indulge in the good old Sydney tradition of street chalking and write a neat 'Netharbour = Spammer', with an arrow pointing to their door each morning for a week or two.

Maporama.com. Very good, detailed maps for allot of countries, displays up to 999x999 resolution. Directions routing for Europe only.

Get Australian directions at WhereIs. But the Aussie streetmaps are better on Maporama.

Very cool arial photography on streetmap.co.uk.

It's in Sydney.

You find it buried on this page - looks like its currently at a self storage center in Sydney. (Near where the olympic village was).

Why post an Auscentric article like this to a USian site is beyond me, but for those interested, the map is here

Ok just had to check, I know its a little bigger a continent than some of you think. I put in Sydney and Perth in on whereis as driving from and to which are on opposite ends of the country and it gave me:
Total travel distance: 4041.51 km, Estimated travel time: 54 Hrs 55 Mins
thats over two days solid of driving!

Giving a location isn't good enough, you need to give directions. Better yet, tie the database in with something like http://www.whereis.com.au, so I know where the damn loo is.

Very cute.
The waycool bits are the fact that
1: Microsoft aren't going to be able to do anything about it, apart from fixing their web server code
2: Their whois is pseudo-fake
3: The mobile number they give is a Vodafone 'Quick Connect' number - no ID needed to get one.

Gotta love Australia. Totally untracable. Sucko Billy Boy!

The only thing they can get bitten on is if they haven't allready paid their internic bill for the domain.. (Which doesn't look likely - seems to have been created in April 1998 - 27th to be precices. Anyone know if it was taking about 26 days to process results around then?)

Oh, and for anyone who wants to know where that place is, here's a nice little link showing you where they are:

http://www.whereis.com.au/displayMap.asp?action= property&property=0&street=%3F&suburb=MILT ON&postcode=4064&state=QLD&busId=2000001&mapColour =0&auth=aeefbcd04aedbd20010

Click . (Note: This doesn't actually work, as the posting code is putting a space in the 'suburb' tag. BUG BUG BUG.)

I think it's fortuitous that the whereis map appears on top of a brewery 8-)