Google helps millions of people find things on the Internet. Now, it's helping COTA riders find their bus.

Riders can go to the COTA Web site, www.cota.com, and punch in the starting and ending points of their trip, along with the date and time the trip will be made. Google Transit processes the information and tells riders where and when to meet the bus that will take them where they want to go.

It even tells riders how to get to the bus stop and how long it should take them to reach it on foot.

Google Transit is more customer-friendly than a trip-planner program already on the Central Ohio Transit Authority's Web site.

"We have heard quite a bit from Internet users and customers that they found our trip planner to be difficult," said Marty Stutz, COTA spokesman.

Google Transit became a feature of Google Maps last fall. More than 50 transit agencies around the world offer it. COTA supplied stop information and schedules that were integrated into Google Maps.