Is there anything Google can’t do? Or at least try to do? No-one can say they’re not ambitious.
The very beta Google Ride Finder tells you the location of cabs in 11 different cities around the US. I looked at Washington, DC (the closest city to me on their list) and it shows taxis and shuttles from 3 different companies, for a total of 126 vehicles. Hell – there are probably that many cabs just on the DC beltway right now!
Too bad this service doesn’t work on my mobile phone, where it could actually be useful. It also doesn’t tell me what I really want to know: when the Chapel Hill Transit bus is coming. I guess I’ll just have to keep getting around the old-fashioned way.