Earlier this week we heard experiences that Google Maps was beginning to warn drivers about incidents reported by Waze customers — launching a brand new stage of synergy between the 2 Google-owned navigation apps. This isn’t stunning, however it’s one other instance of how a lot the road has blurred between the 2 navigation apps within the 11 years since Google took over Waze.
There remains to be a really clear distinction between the 2 providers, and the best way they navigate, however there are occasions the place it feels as if an eventual merging of Google Maps and Waze is inevitable. At the very least the 2 providers may simply find yourself so shut that there’s little to no purposeful distinction between them.
I’m not a fan of that concept, and I really feel it’s time Google took steps to make it abundantly clear that Waze and Google Maps are totally different merchandise for various folks. How? By preserving Google because the everyman navigation app that it’s morphed into, and stripping down Waze to the purpose the place it’s pure navigation — with no further fluff.
Waze vs Google Maps: The variations proper now
Right now there’s a single, clear defining line that differentiates Google Maps and Waze: The navigation. Google Maps is a service that selects a route while you load up the navigation, with a few options for the driving force to select from, and normally sticks with it in the course of the journey. But if circumstances on a selected route change an excessive amount of, the driving force is given the choice of switching to a sooner various — assuming one exists.
Waze doesn’t subscribe to that very same form of rigidity. Instead it’s extra focussed on getting you to your vacation spot as shortly as potential, and can change your route based mostly on real-time street circumstances. Or, quite, no matter circumstances it may well glean from different Waze customers. Waze may be fairly aggressive about this too, and the working joke is that Waze would fortunately make you drive by an energetic warzone if it meant shaving 5 seconds off your arrival time.
No matter how a lot information will get shared between Google Maps and Waze, both proper now or sooner or later, there’s no altering that reality. Google Maps is a really conventional GPS navigation system, whereas Waze is extra like being navigated by a small baby that memorized the road map and proceeded to drink a number of double espressos.
One different factor I’ve seen about Waze is that its non-navigational information isn’t all the time as much as scratch. There’s been plenty of work behind the scenes to offer Waze entry to Google Maps’ in depth catalogue of knowledge, nevertheless it’s nonetheless clear that Google does some issues higher. Business data is a giant one and it possible comes again to Waze traditionally counting on crowdsourcing-based programs.
Relying on folks to report incidents on the street and congestion is one factor, however anticipating them to maintain the opening hours of native companies updated is one thing few persons are prone to trouble with. It wouldn’t be so dangerous if each navigation app was like Waze on this space, however Google Maps completely thrives on preserving all that data updated — alongside numerous different issues.
So quite than stuffing Google Maps options into Waze and making it a pseudo-clone that occurs to navigate a bit of otherwise, why not scrap all the surplus and deal with what Waze customers truly like?
How Waze can stand aside and succeed
If you ask anybody that makes use of Waze why they do it, likelihood is it’s going to be due to the navigation. Some might choose Waze for the design or the cartoonish fashion of the driving force icons, however a large quantity will like the truth that Waze prioritizes pace above all else. That is Waze’s largest energy, and that’s one thing Google ought to deal with with this app going ahead.
The smartest thing Waze can do is go in the other way of Google Maps. Strip down, minimize the surplus fats and deal with what it does finest
No extra diluting the Waze and Google Maps manufacturers by making them too related to one another, as a result of there’s just one method that story ends: with Waze being killed like so many different Google services. Even if the Waze and Google Maps groups have now been merged, Google has a vested curiosity in preserving Waze round — it retains regulators off its again.
While nothing actually occurred when Google acquired Waze in 2013, that may simply change if Waze is formally folded into Google Maps. And the very last thing the corporate wants is extra antitrust instances being thrown round.
Really Google ought to contemplate sticking with Waze as an app that’s accessible for drivers that have to get locations, and need to do it as shortly as potential. Throw in some details about mandatory facilities like gasoline stations, EV chargers, relaxation stops, presumably mechanics too, simply to spotlight that “driving app” really feel. Adding something apart from absolutely the fundamentals to maintain the app helpful is superfluous.
In some ways, Waze is already like this. It has nowhere close to as many options as Google Maps, and when you’re not driving a personal automobile of some variety then it’s fully nugatory to you. It’s not like you’ll be able to lookup bus or practice instances, as a result of you’ll be able to’t Waze while you’re in a machine that follows a pre-set route. Same goes for strolling, as a result of except you’re leaving a Taylor Swift live performance you’re not prone to get caught in a site visitors jam of pedestrians.
Waze of the longer term could be vehicles or motorbikes, and nothing extra. That method drivers can proceed to make the most of Waze’s uniquely aggressive navigational technique, whereas the group behind it doesn’t get slowed down with all of the fluff and attempting to make the app a reskinned model of Google Maps. At the very least it ought to assist hold the dimensions of the app fairly low.
Google Maps simply carries on because it’s already doing, including options and data on its endless quest to develop and keep forward of Apple Maps.
Bottom line
I don’t know what Google has deliberate for Waze sooner or later. It’s clear that the app isn’t going anyplace anytime quickly, in any other case Google wouldn’t be including new options and instruments which can be truly attention-grabbing. Like the AI-powered Conversational Reporting. But there’s going to be a degree the place Waze and Google Maps get a bit of too related to one another, and massive firms like Google are not often followers of redundancy.
So quite than simply lastly merging Waze and Google Maps collectively, one thing must be executed to assist hold Waze separate and distinct. In a world the place Google Maps is popping into an enormous repository of knowledge, like if an encyclopedia and avenue map had a child, the most effective factor Waze can do is go in the other way. Strip down, minimize the surplus fats and deal with what it does finest.
