Everyone's lost something. In most cases, retracing your steps results in either a quick find or the impromptu reorganization of your linen closet. TheFoundBin is a new service that helps both losers and finders come together through the Internet. Craigslist and LostAndFound have been doing this for a few years now, but TheFoundBin has some helpful features and a visual appeal that the others don't.
TheFoundBin combines Google Maps with some basic form tools to tell people what you've lost or found along with where it happened. You can include any helpful photos of the item, as well as a description with reward information. From there, you can e-mail the item's owner or item poster anonymously (similar to Craigslist), or you can pass the post on to somebody else if you think it would be helpful.
What might be TheFoundBin's best tool is its lost pet service. Registering your pet as lost on the site will have it send out an automated e-mail to registered local shelters with your post. This is handy and takes some work off of the very unfun task of attempting to find lost pets. LostandFound.com has a similar service, but again it's a bit more straightforward on TheFoundBin.
Call me a cynic but I normally assume localized services like this don't work with anything besides pets. People just tend not to be that honest when they find an iPod or a $20 bill on the ground. The saving grace of The FoundBin is its design which is incredibly simple and intuitive, so posting item information is a snap. Geo location and lost and found should have been combined a long time ago, which is where The FoundBin totally gets it right.
[via Lifehacker]