Google’s inveterate tinkerers continue to have their way, with another Googlelabs project breaking cover.  Google Open Spot is billed as a way to alert other Android users to available parking spaces nearby, relying on helpful tagging of free spots which show up on a GPS-led map.

The freshness of spaces is indicated with color-coding – red means it’s a fresh spot, orange means it’s five minutes old, yellow spots are over 10 minutes old, and after 20 minutes they’re cleared from the map by default – and only those within around 0.9 miles of your position are displayed.  An Android 2.x app, Open Spot is currently available in the US, Canada and the Netherlands.

Unimpressed by Open Spot?  You could always try making your own version; Google pushed out App Inventor this morning, a simple drag & drop way to create your own apps, even if you don’t have any coding skills.

[Thanks JD!]