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Map your business trip on the Web

By Nick Easen for CNN

Maps with travel plans allow people to visualize where you are.
Maps with travel plans allow people to visualize where you are.

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(CNN) -- Virtual private networks, e-mail, wireless hotspots and text messaging are just some of the technology tools that assist business travelers while they are on the road.

With all this technology it can still be hard to track down the boss or client, especially if they are out of the office for months on end.

One Web site is changing all that. It allows you to chart your trip, upload pictures of your satellite office in Seoul to the Internet and add notes for your secretary en route.

"Business users can share a trip with their colleague in the main office by sending the interactive map by e-mail," Stephane Nicolas founder of Continento.com told CNN.

Although there are numerous mapping sites on the Internet, many focus on offering directions including MapQuest, MapBlast and Maps On Us. One Web site in Australia even labels public toilets www.toiletmap.gov.au.

However, Continento.com is a little different. On entering the site you can use a map of the world to add details of where you plan to stop. The site then marks your dates and progress. And you can also feed in notes as a "pop up" at each location.

As you jet around the globe you can update travel plans and itineraries via the Internet. Entry to your personal route planner is free and is password protected.

By e-mailing colleagues the Web site address of the map, they can log on and catch up with your progress.

Anyone can access it either in the office back home or those you plan to meet with at the next destination. In total 65 percent of those that have registered are business users.

"One regular corporate user from the UK asked if contact addresses could be added while being on a trip. So we added this function right away," says Nicolas.

An address book allows you to add contacts of business partners, friends and family to the site, as well as send your map to a number of contacts at once.

You can also upload digital photos taken on your trip, and deposit them at locations on your personal map.

This year the Web site has been updated so that members can send each other messages.

"It does not make any money and it was not the objective when I created it, and there is no advertising at all on any pages -- I hate pop-ups," explains Nicolas.

The idea came to Nicolas five years ago while traveling in Australia and South East Asia.

"Every time I called home and told them of my whereabouts, they could not imagine how far away and different this place could be compared to home," he explains.


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