News - Google buys Waze community driven navigation app

[HEXUS]

Facebook and Apple also reportedly wanted to buy Waze but the deal is now sealed.

Read more.

[Saracen]

Well, there goes any chance of me using it.

[kingpotnoodle]

"The acquisition was a defensive move, to prevent any other internet giant taking over Waze. The company would have been a great complimentary acquisition for Facebook suggests the Mashable report."

I would say it was 80% because of that, Google don't want Apple or Facebook getting any kind of unique feature or lead in mapping.

[Saracen]

"The acquisition was a defensive move, to prevent any other internet giant taking over Waze. The company would have been a great complimentary acquisition for Facebook suggests the Mashable report."

I would say it was 80% because of that, Google don't want Apple or Facebook getting any kind of unique feature or lead in mapping.

And, one more source, and quite a big one, of Google sucking up vast amounts of location data on users.

[crossy]

Well, there goes any chance of me using it.

You wouldn't have anyway - the whole point is that they track your every move while you're using it. As said, it's probably a good fit for Google - especially if it makes it easier to correct some of the howlers that exist in the Maps database.

[kingpotnoodle]

You wouldn't have anyway - the whole point is that they track your every move while you're using it. As said, it's probably a good fit for Google - especially if it makes it easier to correct some of the howlers that exist in the Maps database.

Yeah should tip them off to issues when the GPS says you're currently driving through a field when it's actually a new housing estate... Having said that they didn't take long to update once I sent in a tip-off about the new road I live on, couple of months at most. Although that may have just been luck from Google picking up new data after I saw the Ordnance Survey visit us...

Still haven't got the postcode right though :-( Apparently I'm 2 miles away in a ditch.

[Dooms]

I liked the idea of Waze and it had some good features, live updates, information and photos from users as and when it happened was all very shiny. The only problem with it was not enough people using it... integrating it with gmaps solves that problem. Yey.

[Saracen]

You wouldn't have anyway - ....

Perhaps. It would depend on T&Cs and privacy policy. But you could well be right.

.... the whole point is that they track your every move while you're using it. ....

Understood. I know the idea, and the advantages. And the price.

Y.... As said, it's probably a good fit for Google - especially if it makes it easier to correct some of the howlers that exist in the Maps database.

Oh could be. It just kills any chance for me.

[wasabi]

The logic behind the app is fundamentally flawed. Last thing I want to do if I know a good unused ratrun is to tell other people.

[Saracen]

The logic behind the app is fundamentally flawed. Last thing I want to do if I know a good unused ratrun is to tell other people.

But, if you know the area well enough to know a good, unused rat-run, why would you need a SatNav/mapping app? Turn it off, or rather, don't turn it on.

[wasabi]

The logic behind the app is fundamentally flawed. Last thing I want to do if I know a good unused ratrun is to tell other people.

But, if you know the area well enough to know a good, unused rat-run, why would you need a SatNav/mapping app? Turn it off, or rather, don't turn it on.

The problem is hundreds of strangers will be using your nice quiet ratrun the following week, making it slower.

[TheAnimus]

The funny thing is, something like this could work quite well if done at a government mandated for cars level. I was thinking about this the other day.

If you have a big enough server, every user of the roads would say where they are, and where they want to go. This means that congestion could be predicted before it even forms, if combined with a tax system, you could effectively have a dynamic congestion charging system which encouraged people to travel, not just at off peak times, but at times suitable for their route, would allow them to see the impact of taking the more expensive tollways vs the slower cheaper ways.

[Saracen]

The problem is hundreds of strangers will be using your nice quiet ratrun the following week, making it slower.

If think you misunderstood me.

If it's a secret ratrun, why would you be using a SatNav? After all, you must know the area well to know the secret ratrun.

And if you don't use one, those hundreds of users won't find your ratrun because they won't know about it, as it didn't get uploaded.

Not if you don't have your SatNav app uploading to tell them about it, and if it's a quiet backrun, why would you need a SatNav in the first place?

[Saracen]

The funny thing is, something like this could work quite well if done at a government mandated for cars level. I was thinking about this the other day.

If you have a big enough server, every user of the roads would say where they are, and where they want to go. This means that congestion could be predicted before it even forms, if combined with a tax system, you could effectively have a dynamic congestion charging system which encouraged people to travel, not just at off peak times, but at times suitable for their route, would allow them to see the impact of taking the more expensive tollways vs the slower cheaper ways.

Not a bad idea at all.

As long as, given it'd be a government IT project, it didn't come in 5 years late, 10 times over budget, cover all sorts of extra features, end up plastered in CCTV cameras, and yet abjectly fail to take uploaded data from cars (which was, after all, the point in the first place).

[Flash477]

The funny thing is, something like this could work quite well if done at a government mandated for cars level. I was thinking about this the other day.

If you have a big enough server, every user of the roads would say where they are, and where they want to go. This means that congestion could be predicted before it even forms, if combined with a tax system, you could effectively have a dynamic congestion charging system which encouraged people to travel, not just at off peak times, but at times suitable for their route, would allow them to see the impact of taking the more expensive tollways vs the slower cheaper ways.

Oh no no no! Definately not - the government taxes road users far too much anyway, without actually investing in back into the roads (which are a shambles!). Imagine then getting charged varying amounts on each journey, which they would then probably get wrong with the billing anyway!

Besides all that would most likely happen is that you would just move the peak times, or make B roads busier.

[wasabi]

Not if you don't have your SatNav app uploading to tell them about it, and if it's a quiet backrun, why would you need a SatNav in the first place?

Because the entire USP of the app is to share your personal knowledge, thus adding 'human' intelligence / experience... You either voluntarily ruin the benefit of your own local knowledge by giving it to others, or you don't upload your own knowledge, making it precisely no better than any other Satnav that relies primarily on metrics.