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Google announced today on its Google Maps blog that it’s finally tapping into the talent and technology it picked up with its acquisition of Waze back in June by integrating real time incident reports from Waze into Google Maps. The new integration means that when Waze users report incidents for everything from accidents to road closures, Google Maps users on both iOS and Android will now be able to benefit:
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.
The features will initially be limited to users in certain locations, including: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, UK and the US. In addition, as Google first hinted back in June, the company will also be integrating Google Search into the Waze apps on iOS and Android, while the Waze Map Editor now has access to Google Street View imagery:
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… 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.
In July, a new patent application from Apple was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office detailing real-time, crowd-sourced traffic and navigation data through ratings and user reporting similar to Waze. Apple also appears to have some plans to beef up its mapping services with acquisitions earlier this year of mapping app HopStop and Locationary, a service that could help Apple improve local listings.
Waze posted a blog post today detailing some of the new Google integration on its end.
The Google Maps iOS app is available on the App Store for free.
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