According to information from the Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to merge Waze with the teams in charge of developing Google Maps. For the end user, however, nothing should change.
Waze should soon merge with the branch responsible for the development of Google Maps. This is what we learned at the end of last week from the Wall Street Journal. According to US media sources, Google plans to combine the team that works on the Waze mapping service with the group that oversees the Maps application (…) “.
For the user, however, nothing should change, because if the development teams of the two entities would become one, the Waze and Maps applications would remain in service and independent of each other, as is currently the case.
No layoffs in sight… while the period lends itself to it
In detail, we learn that the Google Geo division should therefore absorb some 500 Waze employees. As 9to5Google points out, this is an important change for the teams concerned since the Israeli firm’s workforce had until now operated completely independently of Google, even after the 2013 takeover.
This change in the organization chart should not lead to job cuts. Good news in perspective as many Tech giants have been laying off with a vengeance for the past few months. On the other hand, Waze would no longer have its own CEO in the future, the anticipated merger with Google Geo making this function more or less obsolete.
It should also be noted that the grouping of Waze, Google Maps, Street View and Earth under the aegis of Google Geo makes sense: it should make it possible to reduce overlaps in terms of cartography.
On the side of Google, finally, promise is made to keep Waze as it is and not to mess up its teams. “Google said it plans to keep Waze as a standalone service and does not anticipate any layoffs as part of the reorganization» emphasizes thewall street journalwhile the firm officially confirmed to the media that it “remains deeply committed to the Waze brand, its much-loved app, and its thriving community of volunteers and users“.
As a reminder, Waze alone has some 151 million active users each month.
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