It's just you and your Wi-Fi-enabled notebook on the road--and you're hungry, lost, and eyeing some gathering thunderclouds with trepidation. What to do? Skyhook Wireless offers a free and easy answer with Loki, a browser toolbar that pinpoints your location to give you the scoop on local food, maps, news, traffic conditions, weather, and more.
On the toolbar, a button labeled 'Find Me' locates you with reasonable accuracy; a Tuner button invites you to fill in a street address for better results on services. By default, Loki shows maps in Google Maps, but you can switch to Windows Live Local, Yahoo Maps, or one of the other three services that Loki supports.
Likewise, the channels that Loki offers through its Channels button hail from multiple sources. For instance, the Nearby HotSpots channel searches for Boingo, GoogleMob, JiWire, and T-Mobile listings. If the channels don't address a pressing need, type the object of your desire into the 'Search locally for' field. Loki gave me solid results on such varied search terms as "haircut," "museum," and "comic books."
Loki comes in two flavors--an Internet Explorer plug-in and a Firefox extension. Both are in beta form at the moment, but I've found the Firefox version easier to install; the IE version seems a bit buggy. (Perhaps this explains why the toolbar is named for the
Norse god of mean jokes.)
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