Google Traffic: Not much, for now

Continuing in its quest to be everything for everyone, Google has added color-coded live road traffic information for 30 U.S. cities to its Google Maps service.

Will the traffic information be truly useful or just sit idly on Google’s servers as a fun novelty item? It probably depends on how detailed the data gets in future months. A quick check of two areas I know well—my current location in Washington, DC and my hometown outside of Orlando, FL—didn’t reveal much.

So far, the traffic info looks as if it is only for major highways. As you can see above, in Washington, it showed heavy traffic for the beltway and the highways leading into the city center. For Orlando, it showed heavy traffic on the only highway leading into downtown. No surprises there, but if the data gets more detailed, Google Maps could change the way drivers view the road ahead. I imagine the service could be very useful on web-enabled mobile phones, as Google is already claiming it is.

As venture capital reporter John Cook notes, Google is being coy about its data sources. The likely reason? Microsoft is working some mapping initiatives of its own, and the company could get into the traffic business to compete with Google.

Editor’s note: Kyle Spector is a former researcher for FP. He’s now finishing his undergraduate degree at the George Washington University, where he serves as the senior opinions editor for The GW Hatchet. Kyle will be guest-blogging for Passport as time allows.