I’m all for fun little web services that make your life easier, better or faster by doing a single thing but doing it well, and I bet you can smell one coming. Trapster is a new service that alerts your mobile phone whenever you’re close to or approaching speed traps through a user-submitted database of them.
The way the service works is that you can signup and use their Google Maps mashup to see speed traps in your area — or across the whole of America. You can also report them through their website or by e-mailing traps@trapster.net the address and the type of trap it is.
Where it shines, of course, is when you’re on the go. You can download the Trapster application for your Nokia, Windows Mobile, or BlackBerry phone, and it will automatically alert you when you approach a trap. Additionally, you can turn on E-mail or SMS alerts (no charge) on this page by providing the appropriate information.
The service itself is a neat little utility that fills a useful gap. However, what I would love is if they expanded the service to “event alerts” in general — e.g. users being able to report accidents, events, dangers as they happen, and getting alerts for them in their respective area. Now THAT would be extremely cool and useful.
Hat-Tip: WebWare
