Google Maps To Work With Inrix On Real Time Traffic

TechCrunch reports Google is working with Inrix to power their real time traffic data for Google Maps.

TechCrunch said, “Inrix went from contract to implementation in under 45 days. Initially available in 8 countries, Inrix’s real-time traffic information for all major motorways will be integrated with Google products and services online and on mobile phones.”

Google tells us Inrix will be used in conjunction with other data sources for traffic estimates, including croudsourcing, government data and other third-party sources.

I should note that in July, Google removed “worst case” travel estimates with traffic from the Google Maps desktop view. You can still get these through the Google Maps mobile application.

Either on the desktop or mobile, Google will tell you a travel time estimate for between two points. But until July, it also provided a “in traffic” time estimate, a guess at how long a route might track with traffic. It is this “in traffic” estimate that was removed.

In both cases, a real time view of current traffic conditions continues to be offered.

Image from Luna Vandoorne/Shutterstock.

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About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.