Google Now becomes more useful in India with live traffic cards

As we reported earlier today, Google has flipped the switch on its free turn-by-turn voice navigation service and traffic data in India. Any Android user can now use Google Maps Navigation to select best possible route to their destination, however the live traffic data is also available on desktop maps and mobile maps from the company.

Apart from these two developments, the traffic data availability has also made the Google Now traffic cards finally useful in India. For the uninitiated, Google Now is a new virtual assistant from the search giant for Android devices (introduced in Jelly Bean), which provides you information right when you need it. It uses your web history, habits to provide you with the best possible information.

Google Now uses card format to show this information and one of the several cards is traffic card, which gives you traffic conditions and alternate routes before you leave for work or home. Google Now also puts traffic to your next likely destination at your fingertips. But until now, the traffic cards weren't of much use in India as there was no traffic data, which has now changed.

Starting today, if you have a Jelly Bean running smartphone with Google Now, you will be able to see estimated time to your destination (home, office or any other location you search on Google) with traffic condition details. So, if you see that a particular road is seeing high-traffic, you can take an alternate route to your office and reach on time.

Google Now traffic card appears according to your pre-defined settings, like ahead of commute from home/office, or after searching Google, so as a user you don't have to do anything and everything is done in the background by the application. The application also displays the important traffic information in the notification bar of your phone, so you don't have to even open Google Now.