Google said on Tuesday that the company has begun offering mobile phone users in more than 30 major U.S. cities the capacity to view highway maps with "live" traffic data. The Mountain View, California-based company said that Google Maps for Mobile would allow mobile phone users to chose a destination within Google Maps and select "show traffic," said Gummi Hafsteinsson, product manager of Google Maps for Mobile. Google Maps calculates the route to the location.

Highway traffic information is sent to the phone, with road conditions highlighted in three colors: -- red for congested, yellow or orange for slowdowns, and green for smooth sailing.

The service can be found on mobile phone Web browsers at http://google.com/gmm.

Rival Yahoo offers live traffic conditions on its computer-based map service, but it does not yet provide a mobile phone version for Yahoo maps.

Google said it is offering comprehensive data on traffic conditions in more than 30 major U.S. metropolitan areas and partial information in an unspecified number of other areas. Traffic data is available only i