Mobile Access to Info: See The Traffic

Yes, I’m the mobile search/info guy and although what follows isn’t exactly search and might only be of immediate value to those of you who live in the Washington DC/Baltimore region, I still wanted to share it because in the next few years we’re likely to see (no pun intended) similar services from companies (Yahoo? Google?) for cities located around the globe.

Over the past several months we’ve blogged about new services that allow you to view current traffic “incidents” mapped using Yahoo Maps and also with MSN Maps. MSN will also send current traffic reports via SMS. However, wouldn’t it not only be cool but very useful for you to actually view the traffic in real-time on your mobile device? It’s one thing to see an icon on a map alerting you to an incident, it’s another thing to see exactly for yourself how the traffic is moving.

Here in the metro DC area, a free service called TrafficLand.com has been around for over a year and allows you to view real-time images (updated every couple of seconds) of traffic conditions via feeds from more than 400 cameras.

I’ve found TrafficLand very useful prior to leaving my home/office but when I’m driving “on the road” I don’t have a computer to use.

Now, for a small monthly fee, Trafficland is offering a mobile version of their service that they’re calling AirVideo. It that allows users to view the live cameras from throughout the region on many types of mobile web browsers. It’s not only making a useful service even more useful but I also think it’s a sign of things to come.

I know the City of New York also offers real-time traffic images but I don’t think they provide a version optimized for mobile browsers, yet. If they do or you know about other mobile web traffic services, I would love to hear about them. Email me at: [email protected].