Now that the usual ooohs and aaahs from the latest Google release of Traffic information has died down, I wanted to bring some useful information to the fore. The traffic information is pretty much useless.

Lets have a look at what the colours from the traffic information means (from the Google Help Topic):

* Green: more than 50 miles per hour
* Yellow: 25 - 50 miles per hour
* Red: less than 25 miles per hour
* Gray: no data currently available

The reason the system falls apart is that there is no context for the traffic information. You have a fixed legend with no differing traffic information for differing road speeds. You get the same colours if you’re on a 70 mph road as you would on a 30 mph road. This makes the usefulness of the system a little fuzzy. Compared to the Live.com offering (US only), Google for once is definitely in second place. Well done Microsoft, you’ve done well here.