Home on the Web
By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin
Friday, April 26, 1996
First, how about all the published telephone numbers in the country combined with a lightning-quick way to search?
Go to http://www.switchboard.com for all the numbers.
The names in Switchboard are licensed from Database America, which compiles names and demographic information across the country.
Switchboard gets the names and numbers from published White Pages directories and other public sources.
The service is free, which leads to Internet abuse ranging from looking up all your relatives, finding old friends or spotting all the folks in Texas named Jim Bob.
Along with the telephone number comes an address. If you put the address in http://www.mapquest.com, you will get a map with the address pinpointed.
Again it is free, but it is not nearly as fast as Switchboard. The interactive mapping service does an amazing job of finding all sorts of obscure streets.
Along with the mapping service is a travel planner that gives directions between any two cities in the country. The program, so far, doesn't include all of Hawaii and Alaska, but it does have a slick new JAVA program that enhances the maps and allows you to zoom in or out and pan across the map.