Map of the Day: Google Ride Finder

Today's Google Maps Mashup comes from... Google! Their brainiac engineers at Google Labs have come up with a way to map the current location of livery cabs and limos on a map:

With Google Ride Finder, you can search for taxis, limousines and shuttles and make better decisions by seeing the exact location of vehicles in your area. Just enter a zip code, the name of a city or even a specific address. You will get a map showing the companies and where their vehicles are located.

While they claim the information is less than five minutes old, we're still not sure that makes it particularly useful. After all, just because a car is near your apartment doesn't mean you're actually going to be served by that particular car. And with only two current providers (Elite and Supershuttle), this thing still has a ways to go before it is ready for prime time. Still, good try!