Mountain View, California — Of late, global search engine behemoth Google is beefing up its live traffic feature of Google Maps. The company has rolled out a massive expansion in traffic data, adding live traffic information of more than 130 U.S. cities and the capitals of Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama, the company announced today in a blog post.
The company originally introduced its Maps service in 2008, but the list of cities that actually could take advantage of the feature missed it. Though for many, that changes now.
Today, the company announced that it is spreading the functionality to 130 smaller cities across the United States, Google is expanding the support to Bogotá in Colombia, San José Costa Rica, and Panama City, Panama.
Besides, 13 other countries have been awarded expanded support. A ton of places in other parts of the world are also getting support too, including Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Now more people can see if traffic in their areas is moving fast, slowly, or somewhere in between.
Moreover, new cities with live traffic info include Kalamazoo, Mich.; Portland, Maine; and Tuscaloosa, Ala. In addition to adding new cities, live traffic conditions have also been expanded in “parts of Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.”
You can access the feature from a web browser or Android:
This is a massive boost in the coverage for its traffic service and demonstrates just how dominant Google is in the mapping arena. Live traffic first hit Google Maps back in April 2008, and since that time the service has improved. No other company is doing as much proactive work to collect traffic info in as many concurrent countries around the world.
As a matter of fact, back in June, Google expanded the feature into: Minsk, Belarus; Riga, Latvia; Tallin, Estonia; Mexico City, Mexico; Lima, Peru; Bucharest, Romania; and Johannesburg, South Africa.
A live view of all of the cities now getting traffic data is here, you can check it to see if you are on the list.
Check out the video below for more on live traffic in Google Maps:
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