How many different groups do you need working on mapping apps?
Google offers just so many online services, tools, and apps, that it’s inevitable we’ll find functions and features overlapping. Sometimes that ends up leading to a merger, as we’ve seen recently with Google Meet and Duo, or Hangouts combining with Google Chat. Now, the search titan is undergoing an internal restructuring to unite the teams developing Waze and Google Maps, although the apps will stay separate for now.
Google purchased Waze all the way back in 2013, an app boasting 151 million monthly active users (MAUs). With detailed traffic data and fun stuff like regular limited-time in-app festive and cultural changes, users have kept interested over the years. However, Maps is Google’s flagship navigation app, and the Wall Street Journal now reports that the company is combining the teams behind Maps and Waze to reduce costs and optimize the overlapping work on both services.
The move appears to be tied to Google head honcho Sundar Pichai’s goal to make his company 20% more productive, with efforts spanning budgetary cuts, internal restructuring (as in this case), and more. Google has already announced a hiring slowdown effective through what remains of 2022, but decisions like the one to combine Maps and Waze suggest new staffers likely won’t be onboarded en masse soon.
With the tech industry witnessing widespread layoffs recently, Google’s move also raises similar concerns about job security for the Waze team, but the company explicitly states the restructuring wouldn’t require laying anyone off. However, a Google spokesperson told the WSJ that Waze CEO Neha Parikh will step down from her role following the transition. Google insists that it’s still deeply committed to Waze’s brand, its users, and community of volunteers.
We recently witnessed Google Maps borrow a few Waze features, and it sounds likely we’ll see both services achieve greater feature parity and interoperability in the months to come. Since customers in some markets prefer Waze to Maps, it might be unlikely for Google to dissolve the customer-facing app of either navigation service. On the flip side, Google regularly pulls the plug on Area 120 projects and other seemingly successful services, suggesting one of the two maps apps could be killed off eventually. It’s hard to speculate with certainty, but it will be interesting to watch Google navigate the road ahead (yes, pun intended) with the teams now under one roof.
