Thought it was an interesting article…
Very interesting!
They are dedicating a lot of resources to make their maps as accurate as possible and they have lots of data at their disposal to make it happen.
As I read it, I started to worry a bit about what this means to Waze and how Waze can compete, then I remembered that our core function is traffic reporting. I believe that at this point in time we do that better than anyone else.
I also think, that if Waze continues to grow, we’ll be faster and more accurate then Google.
I wish the author could have put in there something about how this is what waze lets all of its users do… but then we might get too many bad editors…
Except that it won’t, Google already does all the “automated traffic report” stuff from their clients (it’s just not exposed to the user). They have verified accurate data based on GPS tracks from their street view cars as well as the data from the imagery (IE: the signs they can locate and read). The only advantage Waze has over Google is they have a bunch of untrained editors that can account for changes quicker than Google can… except that they’ve blown this by allowing every person to edit (vandalizing maps, fixing their personal routing problems by brute force deleting segments they don’t want to travel on, etc.), not vetting Area Manager’s from the get go and now crippling the same Area Managers rather than trying to sort out who is good and who isn’t. They’re neglecting the only advantage they have, local eyes on the ground that have some knowledge of how to edit properly, in favor of non local’s responding to problems reports (many of which amount to tech support problems and people complaining about the fact that streets disappear when you go over 40’ish).
I can tell you this much, with the exception of the data they collect from their smart phone clients, that article might as well be from early 2008/2009, and you can infer from that that they have advanced well beyond what is in that story.
I would think another advantage is that waze has a bunch of users that actually tell waze when they are driving.
I tried doing some maps edits early on with Google Maps. My additions (new roads) were rejected by someone in another state relying on imagery. That was the end of that.
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When you edit Google Maps, they usually want sources when you make a change to anything on there even if it seems obvious. You should have linked to your county’s Property Appraiser website that provides an up to date GIS of the county and tell them the info you edited was correct.