Driving may be a pleasure in itself, especially if one can even cough out sufficient funds to own a car down here in sunny Singapore, but it also comes with a whole lot of annoying peeves that can usually threaten to ruin one's sanity for the day. And searching for parking lots is usually one of those peeves, especially if one were to drive down the tourist belt over at Orchard Road during the weekends or on public holidays.
Fortunately, it seems that Google now has a solution to offer for busy motorists who are always spending more time looking for a parking lot than cruising down the roads: an app in the Android Marketplace which allows fellow motorists leaving their spots to make them out on Google's Open Spot service. The marked spot will be visible to all users of the app, and those who happen to be in the area can then fill in the empty space and mark the area as taken. Of course, they are also expected to 'unmark' the occupied area once they move out of the parking lot.
However, Engadget has reported that Google's Open Spot service, for all its usefulness, is still rather basic: at least, it seems that it is only capable of marking available parking spots, and not allowing users to make notes such whether it is a paid parking spot, a restricted area or if it is a popular illegal parking spot where our ever-so-friendly 'parking auntie' happens to be out for some note-taking. Not to mention that similar services has been offered in the past as well.
But hey, Google is the one providing such a service now. On top of that, Open Spot is completely free to download and use (assuming that it works on our local roads). Surely we could trust Google not to be evil, right?
Source: Engadget
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