Waze is a community-powered mapping and navigation app that gives you real-time traffic information and road alerts. Because it’s free, accurate, and feature-packed, it is rightfully considered one of the top apps in its category. But don’t think of Waze as a full-fledged alternative to Google Maps. Since the app is primarily designed for use while driving, you won’t find any transit or walking directions built in.The first question that most people will ask themselves is just how Google Maps and Waze differ from each other. While there are various answers to this question, let us look at it from a functional perspective.
Google Maps is your standard map app, present in virtually every country in the world and allowing you to find pretty much anything. It can also give you transportation and navigation options for all kinds of vehicles, including public transport, bicycles, and even taxis.
Waze, on the other hand, is more of a driving/navigation app. Its killer feature is that it crowdsources data in real time in what could be considered a mini social network. More specifically, it can tell you a lot about traffic, alternative routes, accidents, and even the location of police officers.
As you have probably noticed already, Google Maps sports some features similar to Waze. When Google bought Waze, it simply integrated some of its services to its own map app, without taking away from the main Waze app.
With Google Maps, however, regular users are not able to make an active contribution. While Google will indeed gather data while you are driving so it knows if there’s heavy traffic in your location, for instance, Waze will allow you to also mark a police roadblock or an accident in an instant.
No comments yet.