By 
Wondering what Google would be doing with Waze after they bought the crowd-sourced mapping service? The web technology company has just announced that Google Maps users will now be getting real-time incident reporting powered by the swift and informative community surrounding Waze.
Reports on construction, road closures, accidents and more will be coming to those with Google Maps in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.
On the flip side, those with Waze will now be getting searches powered by Google Search, as well as Street View and satellite imagery tools for the app’s map-building feature. This is the first of many updates, too, as Google says they will continue to bring together the best of Waze and Google Maps in the future.
Many had their doubts about this acquisition at first, but if these latest developments are anything to go by I’d say this marriage was a lot more fruitful than we expected it to be for both sides of the equation. Download Google Maps and Waze from the Google Play Store if you want to upgrade your navigation life.
[via Google]
Incidents including Police Activity? Most important one!
no kidding – let’s not pretend people are using it for the accident reporting
“Looky what we got here… a city boi who likes to speed. Get ’em boyz!”
;)
No love for Canadians? :(
Should be?
Their servers:
US and Canada – (www.waze.com)
Worldwide – (world.waze.com)
oh that’s good news then, Canada wasn’t in the countries listed above, so I assumed that we were left out.
Lets hope that they can do this with better battery management. I dig waze, but it is quite a juice hog.
That is my experience too. Even with the phone charging Waze eventually exhausts the battery. Still great to have though.
EPIC!
First time I see my country on a Google update, maybe the hell got frozen
which country is that?
Panamá, and a lot of other Latin American countries are on that list too I’m amazed
I’m amazed as well, I think it’s the first time Latin America gets first pick. Maybe it’s a new wave of change.
Yeah. In Spain we’ll have to keep using waze for a while…
If you ask me, this sucks. Google has made Maps virtually unusable for driving. I was forced to find something else and decided Waze was the way. Google will likely destroy it too. I wish they’d just leave Waze alone. :(
Why is it unusable for driving? I drive for a living and I have no problems.
Obviously the comment was in the negative extremist side.
It’s not that it is unusable, but it’s an oversimplified version of a navigator with many important features missing from others.
In waze’s case I would say waze is better in (keep in mind some of my appreciations might be due to me using Gmaps in Spain, with much less support for metadata than the US):
I can share with my wife my route with waze. She can see, in real time, my travel and know my ETA.
Waze can remember where you parked your car with a simple press after arriving to your destination.
Waze gives more accurate reports on traffic and routes
Waze reflects sooner track changes.
Waze has better angle of view, in my opinion. On Navigator, when no intersection in several miles, I can only see 2 or 3 corners. With waze I see several miles.
Waze has live notifications (accidents, radars, police presence, constructions, etc).
Waze does live rerouting or ETA recalculation when trouble arises/dissipates.
Waze tells you your speed (gps calculated). This might seem stupid but here in Europe ALL cars say you go faster that you really do (probably to avoid speed tickets reclamations). But I like to know my real speed and decide my cruise speed based on accurate info.
You can report trouble with waze.
I think this list is a good reason to prefer waze for the moment.
That’s a better explanation…rather than “Google has made Maps virtually unusable for driving” and “Google will likely destroy it too”. But I still prefer GMaps/Nav…Waze is a complete battery drain, much worse than Google and GMaps can actually do many of the things you’ve listed. That list will grow.
That’s a negative way of live your life. I prefer to think everything will benefit.
And this news is a step in the positive direction ;)
Thanks but I will use Apple Maps, a more reliable navigation app.
Google fail (photo)
Strange how CEO Tim Cook doesn’t think Apple Maps are as reliable as you say they are.
To our customers,
At Apple, we strive to make world-class
products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers.
With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this
commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused
our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time
progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps
including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration,
Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a
new version of Maps from the ground up.
There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new
Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a
week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a
billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it
will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received
from you.
While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.
Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the
best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will
keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high
standard.
Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO
http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/
Where’s the photo?
You fail.
HAHAHAHA!
Thanks but I will use Apple Maps, a more reliable navigation app
Google fail (photo)
This was an easter egg inserted by Google map editors jack ass. It’s a joke. Get your facts straight.
Strange how CEO Tim Cook doesn’t think Apple Maps are as reliable as you say they are.
To our customers,
At Apple, we strive to make world-class
products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers.
With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this
commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused
our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time
progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps
including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration,
Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a
new version of Maps from the ground up.
There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new
Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a
week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a
billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it
will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received
from you.
While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.
Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the
best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will
keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high
standard.
Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO
http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/
Perhaps you have chosen the amphibious car option…
Sorry phakeman, but crapple maps is still a Waze away
http://www.officialpsds.com/images/thumbs/Middle-Finger-psd63315.png
Aww did you get mad?
For anyone reading this conversation and is wondering who the commenter was and what he/she stated (since it now reads “This comment was deleted”), it was the “fake/troll” phatman who posted a picture of a middle finger. Yeah… reallll mature there buddy…
Would you please tell me the difference between phatmanXXL(Real) and phatmanXXL(Fake and Troll)?
Look at our post counts, he’s a troll that follows me around the internet and spams the sites I visit with cloned accounts.
Thank you for your answer
I noticed that thanks to Kevin Krause more Apple fanboy trolls have appeared around this website…
Gave that account with 95 posts the boot, let me know if that helps any. Info is supposed to be shared all across Disqus so it may help everywhere, if not then at least here :)
Awesome
Nice try hun. My ip gets refreshed every 15 min. :D
If you click on your username, it shows your post count of < 100, while your ridiculous username claims otherwise. What a joke.
Again, you fail.
This is exactly what I needed! No need to have separate apps now!
This will be very helpful for me.
I wonder if the use of navigation in Maps doesn’t contribute as well to drive times on Waze. It has to.
This is weird. So if I want to help and report incidents, I have to use Waze? Kinda lame.
I wonder who long it will take for Waze (and it’s awesome driving community) to be fully assimilated into Google Maps. To me, it sounds like the final step to bring Maps to that next, untouchable level.
Yes. I’d love to know where them police traps are.
I tried to like waze but it was just too complicated each time I installed it. Hopefully the integration will be better soon cause I dont need / want to install waze.
What is complicated about waze?
It is all based on the Waze community and quite frankly it couldn’t be any other way. I am hoping more people decide to use it. The more that use it, the better it will be. One thing I haven’t quite figured out is that once you report something, how long is it reported? I mean, a police officer won’t always be there once you report it.
I guess there is an automatic expiration for each type of incident.
Also wazers can inform when an specific notice is not valid anymore.
I still have doubt’s since ANYONE can update Waze with false information. Just like people do on Google Maps of locations of places that are closed or don’t exist. Crowd sourcing needs serious policing.
When Waze reports something to you, you should see a pop-up with on option of Not There; that’s how it knows when a cop has moved on once someone selects that. As for Maps, if you are using the current version and able to use it successfully while driving than you are 1 in a million. Go read the current reviews of Maps. They seriously destroyed the app with their redesign. I wish I’d bought Waze when I had the chance. ;)
Simply Awesome.
I’ve neglected using maps because Waze is so much more helpful informing of the real route situation.
I also like better the view angle for waze. I can see several miles ahead when no intersection coming soon. With Navigator I only usually see 300-500 meters ahead.
I’d love to see integration with Google Now and Waze. Or any navigator of my preference for that matter.
And talking about that I wonder: Why, if android is designed to allow you to choose the program that best fits your need for any action, google Now works only with google maps to navigate somewhere?
Better map support for Peru! Awesome.