You all know the feeling... you are either moving with a cell phone, looking to get a cell phone, or trying to change providers, and while each and every cell phone provider out there has surprisingly comprehensive maps of their coverage areas and what is roaming and where their data areas are and all that good stuff... you are never quite really sure. I mean, yeah, they show that area as being solid green... but what about if it is down a valley? Or what if you live on just the outside of that solid green... what does that mean for you? You can never, quite, be 100% sure of the coverage of whatever areas you live in, until you actually get the contract, get the phone, and then you have already signed on the dotted line.

What to do... what to do?

Enter some enterprising individuals with a good working knowledge of how Google Maps works, and you get SignalMap. The premise is simple - using a Google Maps back end, users like you and me go into the system, find our current location, input in our signal strength and provider (and cell phone make/model if you want to), and the system stores it away. Then, when people looking to research coverage in a certain area, they go to the other side of the webpage, and get to see either all of the providers on the map (currently they only include the big names: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile), or you can pick a single one out of the flock.

The only drawback to the system? Well, besides the fact that it is listed as "Beta is an understatement...", it is also only as good as the information put into it. And, of course, heavily urban areas are currently the best populated with data points, and considering that heavily urbanized areas generally have the best coverage of anywhere, no one really cares about them. However, the more the name of this webpage gets out, the more people will look into it, and hopefully the more they will add information to its database.

So get out there, and start paying attention to your cell phones. When it cannot call home any more, notate where you are, and be sure to upload it to this webpage - who knows, it might actually be useful for someone else. And for those of you (like me) who are exceedingly paranoid about their privacy, it does not even ask for your name, so no worries on that count.

Oh, and, to continue to make it quite clear on how I am operating, this service did not provide me any manner of reimbursement for this plug, nor did any advertising service. I like their system, and getting its name out there will only serve to make it more accurate. And, as you can tell, this is not in the "for hire" category, so there you have it.