It's open source so it's an open system. Google isn't hosting everything either. You can install Wave on your own server and run your own Wave system. Your users can also interact with Wave users on other servers just like if they were native to your server.

Interesting note: This was invented by the people who created Google Maps!

That doesn't bode well for how updated it will be: I've noticed that the traffic on Google Maps tends to be about 20-30 minutes behind "real-time." When trying to get accurate traffic info, that is an eternity!

Google Maps gets its traffic data from the DOTs and Caltrans... It's only as updated as the traffic info they receive. I agree that it sucks, but until the DOTs and Caltrans give them updates quicker we'll be stuck with late traffic info. After some research it appears sites like Traffic.com have some ground vehicles and other means of obtaining data which helps them stay more ahead of the curve. Traffic.com also includes individual incidents that may affect traffic making their coverage much more comprehensive.

Also important to note: This team of developers left the Google Maps project after launch to start working on Wave. It's likely they didn't participate in the traffic integration.

Actually, I like Sigalert.com.