Google adds traffic to Mobile Maps

[wirles]

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/49135.html

Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:21 am

Google today announced that it has begun offering mobile phone users in more than 30 major U.S. cities the capacity to view highway maps with "live" traffic data.


After downloading Google Maps for mobile through their mobile phone's web browser, users simply move to the desired location within the application and select "show traffic" in the menu. The most up-to-date traffic information will be sent directly to the users' mobile device, and will highlight the conditions on the covered commuter routes using red, yellow, and green overlays.

In addition, when mobile phone users search for driving directions, they will now see the expected drive time as well as any unexpected traffic delays, making travel planning much easier and more effective. And another new feature - the ability to store their favorite searches and driving directions - will allow users to access frequently used routes and compare traffic conditions on them.

To download Google Maps for mobile, users simply visit http://www.google.com/gmm from their phone's web browser.

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It is pretty cool. I am playing with it as I type this. I am not sure what the source of their data is, though.

[TelcomJunkie]

Funny you post this, I just clicked on a link to it through the google ads at the bottom of the page and played with the traffic on the demo.

[bobolito]

Hopefully this will put an end to the ridiculous fees that some other companies want to charge (TeleAtlas comes to mind) to be able to get traffic information on mobile devices and learn that this information should be free like weather and news.

Another way that people usually forget is to check their local TV network stations to see if they have a mobile website. Here in the NYC metro, ABC has news and local traffic available for mobile phone users. You can also try downloading Opera Mini to your phone (which is free) and then get the traffic information from regular web sites like MSN. I currently pull traffic information using Opera Mini from Metrocommute.com, Traffic.com, MSN, and the local TV stations websites. But ABC is the only one that has a mobile phone version of their site that offers traffic, at least in NYC.

I like the fact that it has a real-time kilobyte counter that tells you how much data has been downloaded at all times. I like the simplicity of the color coded maps rather than written reports that can take forever to read. At least in NYC there are so many traffic report incidents occurring at one time that it can take you forever to find the road you are looking for. The satellite view makes it much easier on my eyes to see the extent of delays. I've also noticed there is an auto-refresh feature to ensure the map is always up to date! Pretty neat! This works good if you have an unlimited data plan, though. Don't even try it with a plan with less than 5MB. You can eat that in a few minutes!

[Gman]

It works great on my a900 with Sprint EVDO. Speedy and detailed pictures as well. I hope they tie in GPS functions but I doubt it since people will pay for those.

[Matt]

now this is a cool idea

[Yankees368]

Man, Google just keeps updating this program over and over!

I don't know how accurate traffic data is around the NYC area though, the traffic changes every second.

I usually create my own traffic report by using traffic cameras along my routes. Here are the 2 sites for all of NYC and Long Island

http://www.informny.com/trafficinfo/camsmap.asp

http://nyctmc.org/

[wirles]

Originally Posted by Gman

It works great on my a900 with Sprint EVDO. Speedy and detailed pictures as well. I hope they tie in GPS functions but I doubt it since people will pay for those.

Plus, not every carrier has handsets with GPS....and LBS is a cash cow for the carriers.

[walkguru]

this is pretty neat.