Update: 311 Rolls Out Official Taxi Lost and Found Website

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For years, if you left something in a cab, like say a $500,000, 184-year-old violin, you would have to hold your breath and give a little prayer while going through a tense, inefficient 15-hour cab hunt via 311. The system was imperfect migraine-inducing, to say the least. But nearly four years after a damning report about the Taxi and Limousine Commission's disorganized lost and found process, the city has finally unveiled an official "Yellow Taxi Lost and Found Information" web application!

The new site offers you the option of searching using the four-digit medallion number of the cab, or without it. The medallion number can be found on the hood of the taxi, on its license plate, or on your receipt; putting it into the site will get you the contact info of the garage where the taxi is based. As both the Post and NY1 note, drivers are supposed to bring lost items to their garages.

Although it's the first officially-sanctioned taxi locator, this isn't the first website to offer such services: the NYCTaxiFinder has been around since at least late 2009. But something that bugs us about the wording for this story: both the Post and NY1 refer to the website as an "app." And while it is an application, app generally refers to a phone program nowadays. So why isn't there a phone app for the taxi search? If you lose something in the cab, doesn't it make sense that you'd want to try to contact the cab immediately?

Update: We talked to Nicholas Sbordone, director of external affairs at the NYC Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications, who told us that immediacy was exactly the reason they created the taxi locator. He added that it really was more of a feature, rather than an app; and he also noted that 311 does have a downloaded app which allows you to report stolen items, among other things.