Photo: autoevolution
The Mountain View-based search giant Google has recently decided to bring Google Maps and Waze under the same roof as part of a move that makes quite a lot of sense.
Both Google Maps and Waze offer navigation capabilities to drivers, providing them with instructions on how to reach a specific destination. But while Google Maps is a much more advanced service, Waze is based on a crowdsourcing engine that allows users to report incidents on the road.
In other words, the navigation component is the main focus of Waze, whereas Google Maps provides a series of other capabilities as well, including business information, Street View integration, and so on.
When it comes to the navigation experience itself, Google Maps can also offer instructions for traveling by public transportation, bike, or walking. Waze only supports a car mode.
A recent report reveals that Google wanted to merge the Google Maps and Waze teams specifically to streamline the operations, which would eventually lead to reduced costs.
In so many ways, the move makes a lot of sense, especially because Google Maps and Waze already share certain capabilities and provide each other with traffic data.
With a team of approximately 500 employees, Waze has until now existed as a stand-alone and independent company. And Google seems to promise that despite integrating Waze into the Geo unit, the navigation app will continue to run independently and separately from Google Maps.
This means that Google Maps and Waze wouldn’t be combined into one almighty navigation app but continue to be offered as a stand-alone application, just like it’s the case today.
Google’s Geo division seems to fit Waze like a glove, as it’s already the home of several similar Google products, including Google Maps, Street View, and Google Earth. This should also help improve the Waze capabilities in the long term, possibly by borrowing features from other Google services, as they are added to the platform.
In the meantime, the search giant seems to be aiming to complete the integration of Waze into the Geo division without any layoffs. But one notable change will be the departure of Neha Parikh, Waze’s current CEO, who will obviously step down as the service is becoming a part of a Google unit.
At first glance, it looks like Waze and Google Maps would continue to exist as separate apps, but nobody can’t guarantee the strategy wouldn’t change in the long term. Google is known for integrating apps and services into its own offering and then shutting them down, so for many experts out there, Waze becoming a part of the same division as Google Maps is the first step towards a potential demise planned in the coming years.
In other words, the navigation component is the main focus of Waze, whereas Google Maps provides a series of other capabilities as well, including business information, Street View integration, and so on.
When it comes to the navigation experience itself, Google Maps can also offer instructions for traveling by public transportation, bike, or walking. Waze only supports a car mode.
A recent report reveals that Google wanted to merge the Google Maps and Waze teams specifically to streamline the operations, which would eventually lead to reduced costs.
In so many ways, the move makes a lot of sense, especially because Google Maps and Waze already share certain capabilities and provide each other with traffic data.
With a team of approximately 500 employees, Waze has until now existed as a stand-alone and independent company. And Google seems to promise that despite integrating Waze into the Geo unit, the navigation app will continue to run independently and separately from Google Maps.
This means that Google Maps and Waze wouldn’t be combined into one almighty navigation app but continue to be offered as a stand-alone application, just like it’s the case today.
Google’s Geo division seems to fit Waze like a glove, as it’s already the home of several similar Google products, including Google Maps, Street View, and Google Earth. This should also help improve the Waze capabilities in the long term, possibly by borrowing features from other Google services, as they are added to the platform.
In the meantime, the search giant seems to be aiming to complete the integration of Waze into the Geo division without any layoffs. But one notable change will be the departure of Neha Parikh, Waze’s current CEO, who will obviously step down as the service is becoming a part of a Google unit.
At first glance, it looks like Waze and Google Maps would continue to exist as separate apps, but nobody can’t guarantee the strategy wouldn’t change in the long term. Google is known for integrating apps and services into its own offering and then shutting them down, so for many experts out there, Waze becoming a part of the same division as Google Maps is the first step towards a potential demise planned in the coming years.
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