Google Acquires Mapping Service Waze

Google has announced its acquisition of mapping service Waze.

Waze is a community based service that crowd-sources traffic and road information in order to keep its maps up to date. Based in Israel, Waze offers iOS and Android users free turn-by-turn navigation, and brings together a wealth of user-submitted information to make this an incredibly useful app. Waze even uses community-shared gas prices to help drivers save money at the pumps.

Now, with Google already operating its own Google Maps service, I doubt that Waze has a long and illustrious future as a standalone iOS app. Google claims that “for now” the Waze team in Israel can operate as a separate entity.

It has already expressed desire to use Waze’s traffic data to improve Google Maps. The news comes following a stream of updates for Google Maps, including a brand new look for both its web and mobile versions.

Expect to see many of Waze’s defining features popping up in Google Maps over the next few months!