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Not something you hear everyday right? Well it's set to become a familiar cry across the US as Google Transit debuts today.

Search Engine giant Google have revealed plans to allow users (via Google Local in future) to search for public transport methods in their local cities. The search function gives you bus directions and what bus routes to take in order to get from point A to B.

Currently, Google only offer transit planning for the city of Portland, but they plan to expand to cities in the country and around the world shortly. Transit works well in Internet Explorer 6+ and Mozilla Firefox 0.8+.

Transit will also calculate the cost of driving, cost of driving is based on the average mileage for the shortest route between your start and end addresses and the cost per mile (40.5 cents) that the IRS allows businesses to deduct. This is only an estimate and doesn't include things like tolls, parking fees, or variations in gas mileage for different types of cars.

Google doesn't have any definite plans or dates as to when they will expand this service throughout the US or Worldwide.

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