Google has officially announced the acquisition of Waze, the application for social navigation. For several days there had been rumors about this deal and the doubts were due essentially to an interest by Facebook as well to buy it. The amount of money that will be paid hasn’t been declared officially: the rumors of the past few days were talking about $1.3 billion, now it seems to be around $1 billion.
The company Waze Ltd. was founded in Israel in 2008, initially under the name Linqmap. The principle of operation of the Maze application, currently available for the mobile platforms Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 8, is that it’s not a normal GPS navigation software but it uses crowdsourcing to provide its users live news about traffic.
The point of the Waze application is clearly explained on both Waze website and in the Google blog announcing the acquisition. Being stuck in traffic is frustrating, especially if you discover that you have chosen the wrong path. Waze allows its users to provide real-time updates on traffic allowing people who come later on that road to be notified of any roadblocks, accidents, hazards or other slowdowns.
In essence, Waze allows those who are traveling on the roads to help each other and in June 2012 a feature was added that allows users to report fuel prices. According to the company, the application currently has about 30 million users, a number steadily increasing.
The Waze application is social and mobile, a perfect combination in today’s technological world. For Google it’s even more interesting because obviously our thoughts immediately go to an integration with Google Maps. It’s therefore hardly surprising that in the official Google announcement Vice President Brian McClendon has declared his excitement at the prospect of enhancing the Maps service with Waze updates.
According to unofficial comments, negotiations in recent days with Facebook went bad because Waze managers wanted to keep the company and its staff in Israel while Facebook managers wanted to move the Waze team to California. Google has stated that Waze development team will keep on working in Israel so it seems that this is the element that determined its buyer.
It’s too early to say when a version of Google Maps enhanced with Waze will be available but this really seems a marriage that will bring significant benefits for the users of those services.
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