Late last week Microsoft Live Maps introduced “ClearFlow,” based on four years of work and data collection. ClearFlow is intended to provide traffic predictions and better secondary routing. Now, as reported in Google Operating System, Google Maps has introduced its own version of traffic predictions, based on historical traffic information.

We haven’t spoken to Google about this feature but it’s interesting to speculate about whether this was something already in the works or whether it was quickly built in response to the ClearFlow announcement.

We’ll ask and report back.

Related Topics: Google: Maps & Local

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling