Google offers live traffic maps for mobile phones

30 major cities in US get new service

25 July 2006 19:54 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Google has announce that has started offering US mobile phone users the ability to view maps with live traffic data via their mobile phone.

The search engine has announced that comprehensive traffic data is available in over 30 major US metropolitan areas (including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and others), with partial coverage available in many more.

The search engine said that Google Maps for Mobile would allow mobile phone users to chose a destination within Google Maps and select "show traffic", If the data is available then Google Maps simply calculates the route to the location accordingly.

Highway traffic information is sent to the phone, with road conditions highlighted in three colours: red for congested, yellow or orange for slowdowns, and green for smooth sailing.

The service can be found on mobile phone Web browsers at http://google.com/gmm however it isn't yet available for the UK, but you should be able to get the service if you are visiting the US this summer.

Full tags

Phones, Apps, Google, Yahoo