Andre Yoskowitz
20 Aug 2013 22:21
Two months ago, Google purchased Israeli startup Waze for over $1 billion.
The service, which offered high-end mapping with social/real-time updates, has now been integrated (in part) with Google's market leading Maps app.
Google says they have added real-time incident reports to Maps, sourced from the Waze community. This includes accidents, construction zones, road closures and more, in the United States, UK, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Switzerland will have access to the data.
Says Google:
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. For more information, visit the Waze blog.