I've now seen proof positive that the Internet has transcended the realm of geekdom to shower its beneficence on the average American. A new web-based service from toilet paper-maker Charmin, Sitorsquat.com, will deliver the location of the nearest public restroom to bursting-bladder travelers who carry an iPhone or Blackberry.

The site can also be viewed on your PC. It uses Google Maps as the base on which toilet sites are noted. It functions essentially as a wiki, inviting users to recommend and rate their favorite seats of ease. Within a few miles of my house alone I count 17 drop-off points.

My only quibble is that one needs the street address of the location of the toilet he adds to the wiki; the fuzzy logic that Google Maps accepts (for example, Walgreen's at W. Henderson and Kenny Rd.) isn't accepted and translated into a street address by Sitorsquat.com.


This site is not the first to offer restroom recommendations, however. I wrote last year about MizPee.com, which purports to supply WC locations per text message or via an Internet-capable phone's browser. However, the site doesn't show evidence that it has been maintained in some time, so I'm skeptical that it can be depended upon.

Mizpee.com apparently planned to use the information about where you were and when to send you recommendations about nearby attractions, and charge those attractions for the foot traffic sent their way. Charmin's value-added approach, using Sitorsquat.com to build its brand and cultivate customer loyalty, seems a lot more sustainable. For this service, Charmin is number one AND number two in my book!

Thanks, Advertising Age