Now real-time traffic on Google Maps

Foxed by traffic jams? A new traffic update feature on Google Maps may offer some respite.

The internet company,on Wednesday,launched a new feature that highlights real-time traffic flow on its online maps of six Indian cities,besides a voice-guided navigation system that will offer driving directions to smartphones running on the Android operating system.

Googles India arm said the new traffic feature,which is in use globally,would now be available across Delhi,Mumbai,Bangalore,Chennai,Pune and Hyderabad both on desktops and Android phones. The feature uses a colour scheme of green,yellow and red on a Google city map to indicate free flowing,sluggish or congested traffic conditions. Several roads,however,will still have gaps without any information as the data is based on the feeds from Android handsets that have location-based services.

The availability of traffic feeds is directly dependent on how many people are using Android devices and driving or walking or otherwise moving along these roads, Darren Baker,product manager for Google Maps,said.

In general,you find that the larger the road,the more highway-like it is,the more users you are likely to have there. So,there will be more reliable data and you will see fewer gaps on busier roads.

He added that the traffic feature in India specifically uses only user submitted data while it incorporates other sources such as government data in some other countries. In Bangalore,over the past year,the local traffic police department has been using social media platforms to put out route advisories during rush hours. Besides,the traffic department also has electronic signages on major roads in the city.

Indias overall handset market was estimated at 183 million units in calendar year 2011,of which smartphone sales accounted for 11.2 million units,according to CyberMedia Research India. We have been watching this very closely and we have been waiting for the time when we felt we had solid enough Android adoption and enough data volume coming from this channel, said Baker.

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The Google Maps Navigation feature also takes traffic data into account when calculating directions and can suggest alternative routes. The feature,which relies on Googles search capabilities,can also pop up driving directions to restaurants,ATMs or petrol pumps,and the likes. The company said that it has also incorporated local landmarks in its real-time driving directions,a feature that it has now introduced in West Asia and Africa.

From a mapping perspective in particular,India is actually like the crown jewel of Googles user mapping community. I think we have far more active mapmaker users here in India than in any other country, said Baker.

India is undoubtedly a very important market for us,particularly when it comes to mapping services.