Here’s something that landed on my virtual desk the other day, which I thought was kind of interesting: Spotigo, which claims to run “the world’s largest hotspot directory,” now boasts more than 180,000 WiFi hotspot listings, 100,000 of them in Europe.

 

The directory lets you search for WiFi hotspots in more than 130 countries, and sort your results by country, city, ZIP code, provider and site type (e.g. café, hotel, park). For American users, the search form may be a bit confusing with its European flair (cities are selected as “town” and you’d use the Postcode field for ZIP). Also, once you select USA as the Country, there is one single pull-down list for cities, and it doesn’t specify which state the city is in.

 

I took the directory for a whirl, choosing USA and then Norwalk as the town (that’s the city where TMCnet is headquartered). At first, I thought the search had malfunctioned because it appeared that only a longer version of the form loaded on the results page. But then I scrolled down and voila! It found 32 WiFi hotspots in Norwalk, including at the Barnes & Noble café, The UPS Store, and several Starbucks stores.

 

Then, I decided to see if there were any listings for my hometown of St. Albans, Vermont. I selected “Saint Albans” from the Town list, and was puzzled by the one result it found, location: 1050 Ben Road, St. Albans, 25177. Strange, I don’t recall a Ben Road in St. Albans, VT. Ah, here’s why: ZIP code 25177 is for St. Albans, West Virginia.  I guess that’s the flaw with one list of cities, no state specified.

 

So, Spotigo’s search form is a bit clunky, but nonetheless it may be useful. Now what I’m curious to hear back is whether or not its listings are reliable. Is there really a WiFi hotspot at 1050 Ben Road in St. Albans, West Virginia?