GPS app Waze has been a matter of much discussion for the last few weeks. The Israeli startup has been around for a bit; I recall trying it when there were only a handful of users to pull traffic data from. Since then, the company has become a bit more popular, to the point that it was one of the traffic sources for Apple Maps. Most recently, there has been talk over who will buy the startup. Facebook and Apple were both mentioned, but there was a catch: Waze, an Israeli company, allegedly didn’t wish to relocate (Note: Hebrew ahead). Enter Google, a massive company with something of an interest in mapping and an existing Israeli campus.
Feel free to try to boycott them.
It’s possible that other companies offered more than Google billion dollars, but the lack of a relocation would have been the most tempting aspect. Google plans on keeping the two apps separate for now, adding Waze behind the scenes to Google Maps and making the Waze app a bit more search friendly. This is one of those rare acquisitions that doesn’t seem to have a downside.
I was thrilled to read this this AM. Kudos to Google for not fighting on the relocate.
BDS… Do a Google search for “my ass.”
Find it, get there, and kiss it.
Facebook’s loss is our gain
Lets see Waze sucks at finding things but is great at getting around traffic/obstacles, Google maps is great at finding things but bad at traffic/obstacles. its a marriage made in heaven.