New York, NY – When Nature Calls, Use Your Cell Phone

New York, NY – A new cell phone-based service promises to help desperate New Yorkers with no place to go – by finding them the closest, cleanest public rest room.

Mizpee.com works on cell phones with a built-in Web browser: Plug in any street address in Manhattan, and the nearest public toilets pop up on the screen.

"I came up with the idea when I was in a public library [rest room] and had a splitting headache within two minutes because it was so filthy," said Peter Olfe, creator of Mizpee.

"I thought, 'Boy, if I only knew where there was a place within walking distance that I could just walk into.'"

Mizpee rates the rest rooms for cleanliness on a scale of one to five. It says whether the bathroom is accessible to the disabled, whether it has diaper-changing facilities, and – if in a store or coffee shop – whether it's only available to paying customers.

Mizpee is free, but users may be charged depending on their service plan, and currently it is only available in Manhattan. The service plans to sell ads and referrals to nearby businesses. It will be rolled out to other boroughs shortly, and will be accessible next month by text message and on desktop computers, Olfe said. [NY Daily News]