Google Buys Social Mapping Startup Waze

Do you remember when we told you there is attempts from Google to buy the popular social mapping startup Waze ? Well today Google has just announced officially buying social mapping Waze app. The deal follows months of speculation, with stories earlier this year predicting Apple would acquire the Israeli startup in order to improve own data in iOS Maps…

The Internet giant broke the news on its official blog:

To help you outsmart traffic, today we’re excited to announce we’ve closed the acquisition of Waze. This fast-growing community of traffic-obsessed drivers is working together to find the best routes from home to work, every day.

For those who haven't heard about Waze, Waze has proven that crowdsourced GPS navigation is viable—and it keeps getting better. At its core, Waze gives you voice-enabled GPS directions on your iOS or Android device.

Best of all, it's free. It's still not perfect, but if you're willing to trade a little routing efficiency for features you can't find on other navigation apps, like real world travel times and up-to-the-minute, user-reported traffic jams, Waze is definitely worth checking out. It's a close second to Google Maps, our Editors' Choice for free GPS apps, mainly thanks to that app's superior voice prompts and overall stability. 

The Waze blog post acknowledges that Google CEO Larry Page along with Brian McClendon and the Google Maps teams “have been following our progress closely and are excited about what we’ve accomplished”

Noting that “nothing practical will change” at the company, Waze said it evaluated many options.

Speaking of the Apple-Google rivalry in the mapping space, he opined:

Apple Maps are definitely getting better, but the challenge Apple has is that it’s hostage to its vendors – and those vendors are weak these days. TomTom is challenged, whereas Google has an unlimited war chest to better its apps.

At any rate, this deal is a double-blow to Apple. Not only will Waze help Googe enhance Google Maps, it could also leave Appl without a valuable source of data for its own Maps.

So what do you think about this move from Google ? 

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