AIS data online
http://www.aislive.com

A free online service, AISlive.com, allows internet users to monitor the location of ships in real time from their AIS transmitters, with information about the vessel's name, call sign, IMO number, length, beam, draught, type, location, heading, speed, destination and estimated time of arrival.

Information is available from AIS receivers along the Dutch, Belgian and British Coasts as well as Eastern Canada. Data automatically refreshes every 120 seconds.

The free information will lead to a subscription service, enabling users to send e-mail or SMS messages to vessels entering specific sector, display vessel positions on zoomable vector charts, playback functions, analyse near misses, berthing and traffic, follow specific ships and show latest reported position of a specific ship. 

The website does not indicate who is behind the service but the domain name was registered by Quality Positioning Services of the Netherlands, part of Netherlands based vessel traffic system company HITT group, also a shareholder in AIS manufacturer ICAN. Port software company Klein Systems is also part of the HITT group.

The site has links to all these companies, also TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory of the Hague, Netherlands, and Maritiem Instituut Willem Barentsz, a Dutch maritime training college.