Wi-finding

Last week for my “Quick Idea” I did a post on sending a text message to find free wi-fi. Since then I’ve found a couple of ways that currently exist to attack the problem. These seem to be the best:

4Info
How it works: Register your cell phone number at www.4INFO.net, send a text message to 4INFO (44636) with the word “wifi”, a space, and then either a zip code or a city name. You will receive one or more text messages back with the locations listed with address.

Hotspotr.com or m.hotspotr.com on your phone
This is just a list of hotspots, both free and paid, that does have a mobile friendly version. No text messaging though.

ilovefreewifi
This one would be my favorite, if it delivered on what Lifehacker promised. It is a community driven site where people list places with free wifi. Lifehacker did a write up in which it depicts the service as almost exactly what I had hoped for in last weeks post. It claims that you can send it a text and get a list of places w/code back, that then you reply with for more info - the problem is, this doesn’t seem to be communicated anywhere on the site. Oh… and if you live in the Cleveland area (which I still kind of do for a few more days) then you only have 2 spots to choose from and the service is more or less pointless, unless you start adding wifi spots.

That’s a lot more than I knew last week, which is just one more reason for me to continue doing the “Quick Ideas” posts - but this weeks may be a little different in that I will likely take on the idea in the next week or so…