Google lays off staff at its mapping app Waze | Hacker News Reader

Google lays off staff at its mapping app Waze

reuters.com

26 pointsasnyder17 comments

Google owns Waze because Waze was the hot driving app for a long time. It provided information like up to minute data on crashes, speed traps, would suggest more aggressive alternative routes than Google Maps. It was a superior product for quickly taking driver data and pushing it to your phone.

So Google purchased them because, frankly, Google Maps in the US if it wasn’t in heavy use by drivers is pointless. This move makes sense to consolidate the ad buy but I suspect it’s going to end with the decommission of Waze since most of those features have since moved to Google Maps (with the exception of speed trap reporting).

Google Maps has a speed trap warning feature. Not sure if it's the same or as good as Waze. But I get a warning about 2-3x per long drive (like 5 hours) and it's decently accurate.

On the one hand, this isn't that bad because it's just Waze advertising division, and they are dropping Waze ads for incorporating Google Ads.

On the other, these things are never isolated and I'm assuming we have a few months before the next round of layoffs at Waze because of overlap with existing Google products.

Why do they even have Waze alongside Google Maps? I've never used Waze so not sure if there's any great differences.

Google maps is an awesome mapping platform, with some directions bolted on.

Waze is a driving app, and is very apparent when you use it to try and report a speed trap, or blockage on the road. Google maps does not make it easy, but I can add that hot new restaurant in two clicks.

I decided to pay for TomTom Go because I can't stand ads during navigation.Their privacy policy is much better as well. Seriously Google Maps must be a goldmine for intelligence agencies- it makes Tiktok look benign.

Yeah but does it tell you about the cop hiding in the bush ahead and those speed traps? This is why I use Waze.

Ah ok that's why I never thought of using it. I never drive because I live in a big city. It's just never been on my radar, so it turns out for good reason.

Because M&A.

Merging two apps won't get you promoted.

iPhones originally shipped with Google Maps...Apple Maps didn't exist. One day in 2012, Apple released an OS update that unexpectedly deleted its built-in Google Maps and replaced it with the brand-new Apple Maps. It was really, really terrible compared to Google Maps. Everyone was shocked to wake up that morning and suddenly not have Google Maps anymore.

Everyone would have immediately installed Google Maps except Apple gave Google the barest minimum heads-up about this so they were caught completely flat-footed and actually didn't have a Google Maps app ready for the iOS app store. So for about a month you literally couldn't use Google Maps on the iPhone.

Because Apple Maps was so terrible, people looked for an alternative and found Waze. Almost overnight, Waze found itself with 10-20% of the iPhone market, and people really liked it! It was the first navigation app that crowdsourced manual input data from its users and it made it really fun to report accidents, speed traps, road closures, and traffic congestion. It allowed you to message other nearby Waze users to say hi during road trips, and kept a leaderboard of points which was derived from a combination of manual reports and passive speed data collection. The leaderboard was mostly led by truckers but if you were vigilant you could get top ranks on a long road trip. You could also customize your own avatar/icon as it would appear to other drivers, which made following your friends kind of fun on errands or road trips.

Waze was also very, very, very aggressive about saving you time. It would provide the absolute most batshit crazy routes to save 2 minutes. If you absolutely, positively needed to save time, you used Waze -- but as a driver using it you had to be 100% on the ball.

Google Maps eventually released in the App Store but now there were three main competing products for iPhone users - Apple Maps, Google Maps, and Waze. I believe for awhile Waze and Google Maps had roughly equal market share. Many years later Apple Maps and Google Maps added speed trap and accident report features, and Apple Maps finally decided to spend billions of dollars to update its map accuracy, so now all the navigation apps play in the same league at least.

Google acquired Waze in 2013 to capture the customer data, under an agreement to allow it to run mostly independently for 5 years. It's been 10 years now, so Waze is finally getting sunset so that users can go back to Google Maps proper and Google can stop spending money maintaining two map apps.

I'm sad, I still often prefer Waze over Google Maps, but it's not felt like the old Waze for a long time now.

> Waze is finally getting sunset so that users can go back to Google Maps proper and Google can stop spending money maintaining two map apps.

I don't think there is any suggestion of that, and I doubt they will do it.

"I doubt they will do it"

The company is called Google. That should be enough of a hint.

Waze was not the first crowd sourced navigation app. I remember those from many years ago on my PalmOS Treo, long before the iPhone was invented. I was an active member of that community.

Google bought Waze mostly to shut down the competition, while stealing the most profitable bits.

For the same reason Facebook has WhatsApp instead of merging it to Messenger. Eliminate potential competitor with an acquihire.

Waze was bought by Google in 2013. It has surprised me how long this transition has taken. Keeping it distinct is a good idea because it is uncompromisingly a driving app, so I doubt that will change. The live user feedback is very useful for jams and hazards.

In certain places almost all Uber/Lyft/taxi drivers prefer Waze. It's more aggressive with driving directions, has a good UI for speed traps and accidents, and a few other features useful when driving.

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