When Google acquired Waze, there were those like me who dreaded the possibility of the demise of a great map app. It was a small consolation that I was also a fan of Google Maps. I was concerned whether Google will put a stop to Waze and integrate some of Waze’s features in Google Maps.

Finding Waze

Waze was a different kind of map app. It allowed users to post traffic jams, police traps, road obstructions, accidents, construction and other data so that other users could benefit from it.

Waze also has navigation. Though Google Maps has navigation, it does not allow users to report traffic jams or police traps.

But that’s changing. The information given by users of Waze, including traffic and accidents, will now be available in the mobile version of Google Maps - for Android and iOS.

Waze will also be benefiting from Google; it will get Google’s Street View and Google Search.

In a recent blog post, Brian McClendon, Vice-President of Google Maps, said, “No one likes getting stuck in traffic. That’s why the Waze and Google Maps teams are working together to harness the power of Google technology and the passion of the Waze community to make it easier to navigate your daily life.

“Users of Google Maps for Mobile will now benefit from real time incident reports from Waze users. This means when Wazers report accidents, construction, road closures and more on Waze, the updates will also appear on the Google Maps app for Android and iOS in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, UK and the US.

“The Waze community will also benefit from two new features. First, the Android and iOS versions of the app have been updated with Google Search. Wazers will now have access to even more search results when navigating. Google Search joins other search providers making it easy to find favorite businesses and any local address.

“In addition, after a successful beta test, the Waze Map Editor now includes Google Street View and satellite imagery to build out the map and make it easier to correct map errors reported by the community.”

Acquire or expire

It is now that it is getting a little scary, at least for people like me who like Waze. If Google Maps is getting and displaying Waze data and Waze is getting Google Maps features, what differentiation do the two map services offer? Will it be viable for Google to have two map services that overlap each other?

Now, we come to what I have dreaded. Will Waze be shut down? Quite likely, given Google’s reputation for shutting down services. It has to be noted that Google has not hesitated to shut down its own services, including Latitude, which was a part of Google Maps,

There are some who say the services will stay separate. Google users still can’t report incidents, they say. Google Maps will become too cluttered and unusable if it keeps adding more features, and that’s the reason Waze features will not be brought in Google Maps.

But many discount this possibility. They says Google will find a way out to integrate all the Waze services and discontinue Waze. Another scenario is to merge Google Maps with Waze and call the map service as Google Waze. The third scenario is to have Waze as a plug-in inside Google Maps.

The Waze blog had this to add: “Incident reports within Google Maps will not include Wazer profile information, but contributors will still earn points on the Waze side.” This means the Waze user database has not been merged with Google’s, and is likely to stay that way for at least some time.

And Waze lovers hope the app too stays that way.

dinakaran.rengachary@thehindu.co.in

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