Google has decided to merge Maps and Waze: what will happen to applications

Google recently announced this will merge the Waze service with the team overseeing the Maps product of the company, in another move within the large technology sector aimed at streamlining operations and reducing costs.

It is the first major change in work dynamics affecting the real-time car transit platform and turn-by-turn navigation Waze GPS since Alphabet acquired it in 2013.

Since then the Waze team has been completely independent from the Maps team, although Google’s map server has taken over some of its functions from time to time.

Now the staff of both applications will be merged, which it will not cause significant changes on any of the platforms.

Since Google acquired Waze nearly a decade ago, some of its tools, like speed camera alerts, have moved to Maps.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Alphabet will merge teams from the two services, both belonging to the Google Geo suite of tools.

“By bringing the Waze team into the Geo portfolio, teams will benefit from a further technical collaboration“said Neha Parikh, CEO of Waze.

The director, who will be leaving the team after a transition period, added that the platform will continue to be a standalone application which has 151 million monthly active users worldwide.

The future of Google Maps and Waze

Following the tech giant’s decision, a single organization will be charged with overseeing the package of geolocation services consisting of Google Maps, Street View, Google Eath and Waze in a bid to save costs.

The Geo division will now absorb more than 500 Waze employees and team restructuring should reduce overlapping mapping work between different mapping services.

Resource optimization is currently one of Google’s main goals, given the current economic situation. The company clarified that Waze will continue to be an independent platform with its own guidelines, so the change won’t be apparent in the user experience.

Google bought the Israeli mapping service in 2013 for a total of $1.3 billion. At that time the platform had around 47 million users, and Google started including some of its updates in Maps. Just in the year of the acquisition, the platform won the Best Overall Mobile App award at the Global Mobile Awards.

Google Maps has been updated in Argentina

On the other hand, Google Maps has launched new features to improve the experience of its user base, in the year that celebrates its 15th anniversary in the country.

For example, in early November, the app incorporated more than 150 tourism service providers, partnered with the nation’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and introduced more than 80 new locations in Argentina’s Street View.

Likewise, the company presented an extension and an update of the functionality that allows users to obtain information on public transport in various cities of the country.

With information from La Vanguardia.

SL