I personally use Google apps and products on a day-to-day basis; my nifty little Android phone seems able to manage my life far better than I can on my own, with each byte of its native Google-powered tools, like GMail, Places and Maps.

Google Maps has swiftly become the web-standard for online geotagging – enabling sites to deliver satellite imagery and turn-by-turn, photo supported directions to destinations anywhere in the world.

Now, the Google giant is at it once again with the release of its new turn-by-turn biking directions in 150 American cities this week, as it has previously for driving, public transportation and walking routes.

According to the Google blog, bike directions were the most requested feature by Google Maps users.

“The demand for trail maps and information has never been higher, especially as more people recognize biking as a viable, inexpensive and healthy alternative to driving,” Rails-to-Trails President Keith Laughlin.

Google worked with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, an advocate group for the creation of biking and walking paths throughout the United States, to gather trail-map data.

Pro-bicyclist and environmentalist groups have been lobbying to Google to include bike routes in its Maps tools for quite some time now. One such group, Austin’s GoogleMapsBikeThere.org, had created petitions to develop this tool as early as 2007 – gathering over 51,000 signatures.

Go Google for Green

Motor vehicle emissions make up a tremendous percentage of greenhouse gas emissions: about 31% of total carbon dioxide, 81% of carbon monoxide, and 49% of nitrogen oxide are released into the air throughout the U.S. from motor vehicles alone.

Equipped with Google Maps, travelers can reduce these percentages each day by hitting the streets by bike or foot.

The new Google Maps feature delivers information about bike trails (sans motor vehicles) and streets and routes recommended for cyclists to avoid motor traffic and steep hills – encouraging those “on the go” to cut their emissions and put in some biking-effort.

Although the new feature creates vast opportunities for commuters and avid cyclists to go green and get fit, some argue that the technology, while a good start, still isn’t quite there yet.

According to a mixed review on Oregon Live, “Avid bicyclists, who have long demanded they be treated as equals on the city’s streets, suddenly felt the pain of every driver who has taken a wrong turn after getting glitchy Google Maps directions… Some said the site wanted them to backpedal away from official city bike routes, often adding 10 or 15 minutes to their usual commutes. One regular rider said Google was trying to kill her – directing her to get on Interstate 5.”

Check it out for yourself at http://maps.google.com/biking, or view the video below.

The application – FlightStats for Android, makes it easy for travelers equipped with Android-powered smartphones such as the HTC G1 from T1 Mobile and the HTC Magic from Vodaphone to track their flight status, find information on airport delays, contact airlines, and manage the complexities of business and leisure air travel.

Users can track individual flights, see flight status by route or by airport, view flight progress on a map, and save flights they need to track for quick and easy status updates. Airport information includes current weather conditions, FAA delays for US airports and FlightStats departure delay indices for global airports. Airline information includes web and mobile web site links and reservation phone numbers. Users can save favorite flights, airports and airlines for easy retrieval.

Flight status information comes from the FlightStats global flight history database – recognized as the World’s best source of timely, accurate and complete flight status information. The current location of flights en route through US airspace and many parts of Europe can be viewed on a Google map. A detailed flight status screen shows the flight’s status (en route, on-time, delayed, canceled, etc.), scheduled and actual departure and arrival times and gates, a flight tracker button to view the flight on a map, and links to detailed information on the departure and arrival airport conditions.

“FlightStats information has become an important part of the air travel experience and smartphones are now the preferred method of staying connected while traveling,” said Jeff Kennedy, CEO of Conducive Technology Corp., the developer of the FlightStats platform. “FlightStats is committed to delivering timely, accurate and complete flight and airport information to corporate and leisure travelers through whatever mechanism they prefer. The new Android phones are a great platform for delivery of current flight status information,” he added.

FlightStats for Android can be purchased now for $5.99 US in the Android Market. For more information or to purchase the application, visit: www.android.com/market.

About FlightStats

FlightStats is an airline, airport, and travel information service provided by Conducive Technology Corp. FlightStats tracks nearly 150,000 flights world-wide each day and publishes current data on flights and airports via Web services APIs, RSS feeds and on the FlightStats Web site at http://www.flightstats.com/.

Visitors and developers can get flight status, view on-time performance ratings by flight or by airline, check for current airport delay and weather information, and much more. All services are free to site visitors and many services are available via APIs and as widgets for installation on other web sites or personalized home pages such as iGoogle and Microsoft Live. FlightStats is also a leading provider of flight and itinerary monitoring and messaging services for corporate and on-line travel agencies, and airlines and is the definitive source for historical airline performance data.