Waze joins Google

[kpouer]

When they bought Youtube, Youtube did not earn any money and it was spending probably much more money than Waze.
Google had their Google Video. The difference is that Google video was crap.
For me what is better in Google Maps is:

Livemap of course
POI
Search
Reliability (it never give me a timeout when doing a search or a route)
Speed (they find routes quickly)
Map data

What is better in Waze:
All social features (sharing danger, accidents)
The map that is updated everyday
Traffic

So waze has a lot to get from Google, and Google has also many features from waze that are interesting for them.
They can learn from our editing community (because MapMaker is not exactly friendly, you change one thing and it takes one month of talk to know if it is accepted or not) and many other things.
And Google Maps would be a great basemap for many countries where there is no basemap.

[kpouer]

I don't think there is a "real" situation that is different from what we know.
Waze will remains the same for at least a few years, and you never know what will happens after.
Companies change their strategy, they may have an idea now of what they want to do with waze in the future but it may be completely different in two years.

[kpouer]

I hope this change the way you share some informatiins.
At the moment you got 1 billion of $ and we loose the bing aerials.
I hope G share with us their better aerials than Bing.
I hope G force you to give more support to our needs, like answers to questions still alone, unanswered.

No we did not loose Bing aerials yet, we don't know and still hope to keep both.
And Google aerials are not always better, in several places they are older than bing's.

[kpouer]

that includes google's aerials and street view !

That's very good news, but please keep also Bing as an alternative.

[kentsmith9]

No matter how it turns out past this point, I have had a great year getting to know more about my Northern California than I ever thought possible. Hopefully I can continue to have Waze be my OCD outlet and I won't have to find yet another new one.

Congrats to the whole Waze team. I personally know the feeling when you reach this point of some cash for hard work in a startup.

Too bad the volunteer workforce cannot share in that happiness.

[jwriddle]

@jwriddle:
even at +3k posts myself, I still value every post/opinion at its own merits.

@bamablond:
editorial remark - please use proper quoting in your posts for better legibility.

And I value it with a yawn.

Cheers.

[jwriddle]

What a crock of crap. the Waze of today is so much worse and different then when I joined last August, I have been ashamed to tell people about it for the last 5 months. You are Cowards that have Sold Us Wazers Out, by joining facebook and google. If you had added a paid option, your money problems if any, would have been solved. I would have gladly paid a couple bucks for a lifetime membership that included more voice commands. What good is a Waze program that never connects to the network or server. The only thing it is good for, is to see street names nearby and cameras that have actually made it to being listed. Why have you forced us to include facebook info, to have friends instead of using the Waze app as intended. I/we have no need of google or facebook to use this app which used to work fine until insects were added.

Bamablond

Hm... 4 total posts since August 2012? ::yawn::

[jwriddle]

OMG. I have seen the future. "Indoor maps with walking directions for malls."

I met a gentleman photographer at a professional's networking mixer last year who was called out of the blue by Google while he was on a gig in Antarctica a couple years ago. They offered him a contract role 100% dedicated to shooting the inside of businesses and any other buildings averaging a lot of foot traffic. They deemed it important enough to pay for new equipment since he had just gotten to Antarctica and needed to leave his gear there for his replacement.

Not a bad deal -- monopoly on photographing the greater Atlanta-metro area for Google; at least initially. No telling how many contractors they employ now.


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[jurjenm]

I am not convinced yet nothing will change. Google paid a whopping 1.3 billion dollar. They need to generate money somehow.
Also Waze should not forget that without the community the program wouldn't be as big as it is now.

Hope that Waze will keep its word.

[juksemaker]

Since Waze has sold out to Google, I will not be a Wazer anymore. All it will bring is more targeted ad placement and spying. Too bad because I was actually enjoying the app.

Google, NSA etc already know enough about me. They have my mail. They know about every website i visit. They know where i am when i surf. They know everything i search for. They know everything i do online.

I don't need them to know where i am when i'm offline.

I have asked to be deleted from Waze.
http://tinyurl.com/delWaze

Bye,
Juks