Despite the soaring prices in gas, Americans are still hitting the roads to travel in record numbers. You can make your drive, whether it is for work or for play, a little easier by getting live traffic updates with Google.

Launched today as an update to Google Maps for mobile, you can now access comprehensive information about traffic conditions in more than 30 major metropolitian areas, as well as partial information in many other areas.

To utilize the service, you will need to download Google Maps for mobile through your mobile web browser. After you’ve done that, simply moved to the desired location within the application, and select “show traffic” in the menu. The most up-to-date traffic information will be sent to the users mobile device, and will highlight conditions on the covered commuter routes using red, yellow, and green overlays.

Another added feature to Google Maps for mobile is the addition of expected drive time to directional searches within Google Maps. So now when you look up directions, it will also give you an estimated trip time as well as inform you of any expected delays. You can also store favorite searches and driving directions, and will be able to access your favorite routes even faster.

Google announced its 2nd Quarter earnings today after the close of the market, exceeding analyst expectations. Google said it earned $721 million, or $2.33 per share for the period ending June 30th. This figures are up from $328 million, or $1.19 per share a year ago.

Sales surged to $2.46 billion, up 77%, as Google placed more contextually targeted ads alongside its search results. Subtracting the commissions Google pays to its content distribution partners, the net revenue was $1.67 billion, up slightly from the $1.65 billion expected by analysts.

Excluding the cost of employee stock options and one-time items (such as the sale of their stake in Baidu), Google reports earnings of $2.49 per share.

In traditional Google fashion, they did not issue a financial forecast along with their 2Q financial earnings report. Industry analysts, however, are expecting the stock to go up in price, some estimating as high as $450 to $500 per share.

As you may have noticed, GoogleLibrarian.com got a bit of a facelift today. I’ve changed the design up to make it easier to navigate and view. While I am still tweaking things here and there, you might notice some slight changes over the next day or so.

Because the design of the site has changed, the design of the blog too will need to change. I will be coding the design for the site to work with the blog so that everything matches up nicely. This will take place over the next week, and in the meantime I’ve put up this default design til the new design is ready to go.

If you have any feedback in regards to the new design and layout, feel free to contact us via the contact form, or by leaving a comment to this post.