Intertube-savvy metropolitan diners now have yet another way to make sure their every culinary craving is sated: the new website FoodieBytes, now beta testing, lets users search restaurant menus based on the food they desire. For instance, typing in “pesto” and “whole wheat pasta” yields over a hundred New York eateries. You can narrow your search by neighborhood and, once you find a restaurant that seems appealing, peruse the entire menu, get the hours,......

While even Google can't help out with the subway perv problem, Subway Blogger reports that they are "getting geared up to start mapping New York City Transit systems. Ultimately, you’ll be able to map a transit or subway route just like Google Maps." Sure, there are resources like Hop Stop and OnNYTurf that may end up suffering (and Silicon Alley Insider points out their flaws), but this development was inevitable ever since Google launched their......

What do tourists like more than walking slowly in bunches, visiting Ground Zero, buying fake handbags in Chinatown, and wearing socks with sandals? Eating at restaurants they can find at home! The Post is reporting that IHOP (aka the International House of Pancakes) is in talks with Vornado to open a location at 1540 Broadway (btwn 45th and 46th). It would be the 2nd Manhattan location for the chain - the first location opened......

No one likes getting a parking ticket, but it's those instances when tickets are handed down unfairly that really make people crazy and determined to beat them. Sanford Young, a lawyer, spent two years and an estimated $10,000 to beat a $65 ticket in Manhattan Supreme Court. From The Post:Young got the ticket on Nov. 29, 2005, after he parked on First Avenue near East 70th Street to have dinner with a friend. He returned......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Google Maps has upped its considerable offering to include "Street View," which offers views of the certain locations at the street-level imagery. The areas where you can see images are noted by blue lines on the map (click the "Street View" button). Manhattan is pretty covered and downtown Brooklyn is covered, but the Bronx, Queens and State Island views are pretty much limited by major roads. Below is 1 Centre Street; you can't get......

Today was Transportation Alternatives' Battle for the Fastest Commute! where a bike rider, subway rider, and cab rider are pitted against each other to see who can get to a destination fastest. This year, the race started at 8:25AM at Fix Cafe on North 11th Street and Bedford in Williamsburg and ended at Bellevue Hospital at East 26th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan. And results? Lucie Olewinski, the bicyclist, was the fastest, making......

If you've ever used Google Maps for driving directions, you might like the new feature they added. They've added real-time traffic information to the site. If you're actually navigating at street level though, the new feature isn't very useful. The traffic info only covers some highways and river crossings (it almost looks like only interstates and US highways). And if you're wondering what the colors mean, here's what the Google Blog says: "If your......

Google Maps Mania says it's the "ultimate travel mashup". The NY Times Travel section has integrated its Travel guide pages, with all its hotels and restaurants, with Google Maps to create guide for different cities. The map above is the New York City Guide, which is certainly useful, if not definitive. Check out more travel-related Google Maps mashups at Google Mania.......

Google Maps has added two useful features: subway stations and building outlines. The subways are indicated with an M on the map (Metro? MTA?), and the building outlines can be seen, faintly, in magnifications at the top two zoom levels. For instance, you can see them here, around Broadway and Lafayette. You can get similar info at OnNYTurf and PropertyShark, but for those of you who already use Google Maps, this is definitely a......

Google Maps Mania points to a new map offering: Walking, subway and bus directions from GypsyMaps, all laid out on a Google Map. Actually, bus information will be coming in April, but GypsyMaps has a nice start, as it shows the point to point directions all laid out. (We asked for directions between 1 West 57th Street in Manhattan to 1 Centre Street.) Google Maps Mania also lists other NYC Transit and Transportation maps,......

Following the announcement earlier this week that Pfizer is closing their Brooklyn plant, the Times has a virtual paean to the company and how they've played a role in the community for the past century-and-a-half. Founded in 1849, the company's first best-selling drug was an intestinal-worm remedy called antonin, Pfizer's headquarters remained on Flushing Avenue until 1961, when it moved to Manhattan. In the 1970s, as the neighborhood surrounding the plant deteriorated, Pfizer kept......

Today's our lucky day! As late as 4:30 this morning, Gothamist was having a little insomnia problem, the Weather Service was calling for widespread freezing rain during the morning rush. Thankfully, that threat and the mess it would have created, have passed and all we've got to worry about today is a few flurries. That's right, it may snow today. Just a few flurries now and again, with maybe a heavier snow shower this evening.......

Twelve-year old Jacob Colon was killed after being hit by a speeding Mercedes-Benze while crossing 108th Street at Atlantic Avenue yesterday. Colon was going home after helping his mother at her laundromat job. Moments before the fatal accident the Mercedes driver rear-ended a Toyota on 112th Street. According to the Daily News, when the driver of the Toyota suggested calling the police the Mercedes driver offered to pay him instead. When the teenager insisted......

Via The Daily Politics, the City of New York has created its own Google-type map with all sorts of information overlaid to show you the nearest services. For instance, you can map an address and then find out the nearest post office, school, subway station or WiFi hotspot. You can also define boundaries as boroughs, zip codes - or landmark districts, business improvement districts, city council districts, or community boards. There's also regular map......

For the "Too Good to Be True, So It's Just Not True" file: The NY Times reports that 23 year old Daniel Markovitz "told people that he could get their parking fines reduced, saying that he knew someone in the Parking Violations Bureau or that he worked for a Web site that helped adjudicate tickets." Markovitz collected up to $780 from each person and did pay off fines for 53 parking tickets (which totaled $4,700).......

In the tradition of "There's a website for everything" (and also file under "scatological"), there is a site called Worst Places to Take a Dump, which tackles the worst places to take a dump in the city. Here is the site's mission:George Costanza famously claimed to know of all the best toilets in the city; I know the worst. This photoblog documents the breadth of my knowledge, and features a Google Maps mashup to......

Today is all about the rainfall. A half-inch has already fallen from today's storm and that's just the beginning. We can expect that rain to continue throughout the day. The most intense rain should occur this afternoon. If you were hoping to see Mercury's transit of the sun you'll have to wait until May 2016. One to two inches more rain is expected before this evening. Our reward for all this rain? Once the......

#1 I have a coworker who is running the marathon on Sunday. Where are some good locations to cheer the runners on? #2 Is there a better map of the course out there? The official map is missing an amazing amount of information about the actual roads of the course? The ING New York City Marathon is one of the world's great road races, attracting more than 90,000 applicants from all over the world.......

Everyone has taxis on the mind! Mike at Google Map Mania let us know about this new Google Maps mash-up: The Taxi Fare Finder. We ran the imaginary taxi route of Mayor Bloomberg, going from City Hall to his East 79th Street townhouse and got a fare of just under $21 not including tip. The Fare Finder does have a disclaimer: Please remember that this number is estimated--many factors, such as traffic and weather,......

Who amongst us hasn't been there? It's three in the morning, you can't sleep and you've got a terrible desire to eat something, anything, but your pantry is empty (so to speak) and you don't have the energy or the desire to put on your shoes and go out to get food. Like most of us you've got a stack of take-out menus, but how do you know who's going to be open? It......

So, yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the first Son of Sam killings and today is another sad day in local history (*cough* Jersey *cough*). On July 31, 1916 Black Tom island, which was next to Liberty Island, literally blew up and off the map (what was left of the island is now part of the mainland in Liberty State Park). The island was a major munitions depot. And by major we mean "2,000......

Willie Neuman points out an interesting conundrum in today's Big Deal (third item). If a developer with a known history of building oversize and then biting the cost in sheer profits comes into your neighborhood and makes a play to build an oversize building there, what do you do? What if the property in question is an enormous pit? That's exactly what has happened in Borough Park where Mendel Brach, a specialist at the......

Figuring out how to get where you are going, without driving, in a city with as many options as our own can be a chore. After very little time in the city your average New Yorker (imported or native) normally has a pretty good grasp of their basic routes but beyond that things can quickly get hazy. Enter the internet. Just like Mapquest and Google Maps simplified driving directions, the past two years has......

If you're a fan of Overheard in New York, you're going to love today's Google Maps Mashup. Overplot takes "2876 quotes at 1108 locations" and reformats it all as a clickable map. So now you can find quotes conviently located near your home or office. For instance, near Gothamist HQ: Chick: ...and I was like, "Suck my dick!" Fuck that! Girl: Oh my god! He was super short, I thought he was an Oompa......

The internets are abuzz with Jason Kottke's "Manhattan Elsewhere" project. In it, he uses Google Maps and Google Earth to place Manhattan on the same map as other cities (Chicago, SF, Boston, Minneapolis, and the teeming metropolis that is Barron, Wisconsin!) The project is a loving remake of Bill Rankin's Errant Island of Manhattan project-- check that one out for LA and Philadelphia comparisons. Six years passed between the two projects, and it is......

Instead of morning rain and afternoon sun today will bring us the opposite pattern. We started off sunny but Gothamist sees the clouds beginning to move in. There's a chance of showers or possibly a thunderstorm later today but they shouldn't be as heavy as the downpours that have occurred the last two mornings. The stagnant low pressure system that has been bothering everyone from Chicago eastward is finally moving out to sea. Temperatures will......

Have you ever worried that you're not getting fat fast enough? If so, this Google Maps mashup may be the key to your peace of mind. It's pretty bare-bones right now-- just Burger King, McDonalds, and Wendys-- but there are enough data-points to get you started. Hopefully the author will add all the other fast-food chains soon-- especially the New York hometown favorites-- Ray's Pizza and Gray's Papaya. [Via Kottke.]......

Thanks to everyone who sent us the link to this Times Online article about global warning-- you guys just luuuurve freaking us the buck out: DOZENS of the world’s cities, including London and New York, could be flooded by the end of the century, according to research which suggests that global warming will increase sea levels more rapidly than was previously thought... The first study to combine computer models of rising temperatures with records......

The National Weather Service is giving a shout out to northern Queens in their morning forecast, saying "Windy and mild with highs in the mid 60s...Except upper 60s in northern queens" While everyone in Steinway, College Point and Beechurst will be enjoying the spring weather, the rest of us won't exactly be chilly. A warm front snuck through in the middle of the night and much of the area will be seeing near-record warmth today.......