Waze

[darylzero]

I never heard of this company "Waze" and now Google is buying it for 1.3B.

It developed an app for maps & driving for the android and iphone.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... waze&hl=en

Anyone using this, it actually seems pretty cool, not 1.3B cool but cool none the less.

[Dattebayo]

i heard about it, but only recently. I keep thinking that these new things are always some kind of conspiracy when they get pushed up into the public eye so fast like that...

[MinisterofDOOM]

I remember looking into it years and years ago when I first started using Android, but it ended up being kinda pointless for my commute since there were really no alternative commutes.

It's an interesting idea, but one that I've always found a little too clunky to be genuinely convenient. Google definitely has the tools to make it more seamless. If they were to integrate it into Google Maps and add Google Now support, it'd be basically effortless.

The biggest downside is that it's based on user-provided data. So if there aren't a log of Waze users in your area, it won't be as accurate. Google has plenty of traffic and mapping data already, so if they added that to the existing user data pool already used by Waze, it could get a lot more useful.

[Jesda]

I tried it a year ago but it was painfully slow on my LG Optimus. I might give it another shot on my Evo3D.

I don't have a traditional commute but I do find myself caught in traffic due to accidents and other hangups. The automatic rerouting would be nice as well as the police alerts.

[Dattebayo]

Well, I couldn't be more glad that I'm wrong about the whole conspiracy. Anyway, if it's all about alternative routes, then it's the one thing Google maps needs IMO. Somebody obviously convinced them it's the thing to do if they got 1-point-something billion out of it. I can't really see how a little bit of code can honestly be worth that...

[Jesda]

Facebook put in a bid for them among other firms but got rejected for not offering enough. It's impressive how much money can still be made in consumer electronics and applications, even as the industry matures.

[Dattebayo]

Yeah, but even 1 billion is ridiculous. I could live 10 times better than I live now and still have money left for my future children to live off of and not have to work. This is assuming the best economic climate, of course... Investments could even set my family up for generations to come! It's just mind-boggling.

And meanwhile, skilled labor is cheap as balls. Ugh.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I agree the purchase price was kinda nuts. But they were buying a LOT more than "a little bit of code." They were buying an entire data-harvesting platform and the established back-end and userbase to make it work. Google could certainly come up with their own equivalent, but Waze has not only done the hard work for them, they've worked out most of the bugs. That's worth a lot of money...arguably far more than the code itself.

[Dattebayo]

I just downloaded it the other night, and I can't really see what the fuss is about. It's really buggy IMO.

[Jesda]

Yeah, but even 1 billion is ridiculous. I could live 10 times better than I live now and still have money left for my future children to live off of and not have to work. This is assuming the best economic climate, of course... Investments could even set my family up for generations to come! It's just mind-boggling.

Only ten times?

The venture capitalists made a fortune. I believe the two creators/founders got a total of 200m combined. I hope they take half of their earnings and become angel investors themselves.

I wouldn't hold it against them for moving to Hawaii and retiring though.

[Jesda]

I just downloaded it the other night, and I can't really see what the fuss is about. It's really buggy IMO.

It's a bit laggy for me but the concept and user base is there. Google should be able to refine it and quickly implement the technology into Google Maps. Waze itself, as a separate app, will likely go away in a year or two, though Google said they'd keep the Waze development team autonomous instead of bringing them fully in-house.