If you travel on business with a laptop, it’s essential to have the right
bookmarks in your browser. This is business travel editor Mark Frary’s pick
of the top ten for travellers.
1. Boingo
Wireless roaming has been a long time coming but it’s now starting to work
well for business travellers. The site has a hotspot directory listing more
than 100,000 wi-fi hotspots around the globe, including 857 at airports and
more than 13,000 hotels. You can also download the client software for its
Boingo Global roaming service here. There’s no ongoing contract so you can
cancel the US$39 a month service it at any time you like.
2. Dopplr
Hook up with friends or avoid enemies who happen to be travelling to the same
city with this nifty social networking service. You enter details of all the
trips you are planning to make and then share them with friends and
colleagues. Any time you are serendipitously in the same location on or
around the same time, Dopplr will let you know. Silly name though.
3. Google Translate
If you need to translate some text or a web page from or into English, there’s
little to touch Google’s recently upgraded translation engine. Google’s
engine has been fed on a diet of billions of words of human translation
rather than using automated rules – the translations it comes up with are
eerily good.
4. Kwintessential
Cross-cultural training consultancy Kwintessential has put together a number
of guides on doing business and personal etiquette for most of the big
overseas business destinations around the world. Here you’ll find out
whether it’s a good idea to hug your host when visiting Azerbaijan.
5. Live Search Maps
Overseas and need driving or walking directions? There are plenty of sites out
there but none as useful IMHO as Microsoft’s mapping service. Extremely
simple interface lets you tap in your origin and destination and then choose
whether you want the shortest distance or the shortest duration. The maps
are fast and draggable and the directions reliable. You can also show other
points of interest on your route.
6. Oanda
Want to know how much 166 kroner is worth in pounds? Or how many Peruvian
nuevo sols that a thousand Guatemalan quetzals will buy you? The answer lies
at Oanda, an online exchange calculator that converts between 164 different
currencies.
7. Plaxo
Plaxo has been around since 2001 and is a service that keeps your PC’s address
book up to date automatically – handy if you’re a business person with
thousands of ever-changing contacts. Plaxo is also a member of the new
OpenSocial movement. It’s new Pulse service lets you keep abreast of
whatever your circle of contacts is doing on a variety of social networking
sites, such as Flickr, MySpace and Twitter.
8. ShowMyPC
Ever been out on the road with your laptop and realised that the file you need
is safely at home on your desktop? Fret no more. ShowMyPC is a collection of
tools you can download which lets you access a PC at home or in your office
remotely. Other software does the same thing but ShowMyPC is free of charge
and open-source, so it just keeps getting better all the time.
9. Where2Guv
If you forgot to organise a taxi before leaving the country, being able to do
it online while you are away is the next best thing. Where2Guv lets you book
licensed taxis throughout the UK while you are overseas. Simple but very
handy if you can;t be bothered to call a cab when you land at Heathrow.
10. Zagat
If, like me, you have spent far too long in dreadful hotel restaurants, then
restaurant review site Zagat is the answer. It has thousands of reviews of
restaurants in cities around the global. To get an idea of the extent of the
site, Paris has 945 restaurants reviewed. Never again will the words “Table
for one”send a chill down your spine.
