New Facebook widget accesses traffic cams near its users

TrafficLand, a site providing free access to a network of over 6,000 cameras, is now offering its live highway feeds as embeddable widgets. How much closer will this widget make users feel to their Facebook buddies?

Whether it's for travel or event-planning purposes or simply for the morbid possibility of witnessing a live car accident, TrafficLand's cameras, which are in place in over 60 worldwide markets, can now be placed in Facebook and other sites.

The image above is from one of the more frequently updated cameras on the site, located just south of Washington, DC and north of Springfield, VA, one of the areas of the worst traffic congestion in the United States. Images refresh here every two seconds, but some of the busiest cameras, such as the one in Piccadilly Circus in London, and on 495 outside of New York City, go as long as 6 minutes between image refreshes.

Though the image quality and frame rate do not lend a "video" feeling to these cams, local departments of transportation frequently offer the same public views.