So my kitchen remodel, which is already behind schedule, was in jeopardy of slipping further behind. Aparently, the dark green tiles in the kitchen installed in the 1950’s are not only butt ugly but potentially life threatening (asbestos).

So I needed to test the tiles before we could begin tearing down the kitchen, and if the tiles contain asbestos I would need to hire some folks and pay them crazy amounts of money to remove them.

So exactly how do I figure this out? Well, that is where my trusty friend, Yahoo Local Search, came to my rescue. I did a simple seatle for “asbestos testing” and located a testing company fairly close by.

I initially tried A9, but they returned no matches for “asbestos testing.” Google Local and Yahoo Local both returned very relevant results.

I found Yahoo Local more useful because they had a nicer little homepage for the business that provided useful little features, such as, Send to Phone, Add to Address Book, etc. Send to Phone is really useful because it saves me from the hassle of copying down information on some random scratch paper on my desk, or printing everything out and bringing another piece of paper that will eventually find it’s way on the floor further cluttering my already cluttered life.

I simply click the Send to Phone link, enter in my phone number, and a few seconds later I receive an SMS message on my Blackberry with a link to a WAP page with the address, intersection information (very useful), click to call link (in case I get lost anyway), and a small map image. This was super useful.

The only complain I have involves driving directions. The WAP page contained a link for driving directions (I was hoping I could avoid 99 or I-5 North), but then I was prompting to log in and provide my password. Ok – forget it. The problem is that Yahoo knew where I wanted to go, but not my location. Seems like an option of providing a zip code, or sending my address since I was already logged in to My Yahoo on my PC, would have been better options. It is super annoying that the web browser on my Blackberry doesn’t allow me to save username/password information. Constantly retyping this information on a tiny device is not a pleasant user experience.

The best option would be to incorporate location information, where the device can provide driving directions from it’s current location to the destination.