Google beaten Facebook and Apple in the race to acquire navigation app Waze. The company announced on Tuesday that it had bought the Israeli social mapping company. Reports suggest that the start up was bought for $1,3 billion (R13 bilion). With Waze on board, Google plans to use the app to improve Google Maps with the traffic update feature. Google’s vice president, Brian McClendon said:

We’ve all been there: stuck in traffic, frustrated that you chose the wrong route on the drive to work. But imagine if you could see real-time traffic updates from friends and fellow travelers ahead of you, calling out ‘fender bender … totally stuck in left lane!’ and showing faster routes that others are taking.

The Waze community and its dedicated team have created a great source of timely road corrections and updates.

According to McClendon, Waze’s product development team will remain in Israel and work from there. Waze CEO Noam Bardin said:

Nothing practical will change here at Waze. We will maintain our community, brand, service and organization.

The start up was founded by Uri Levine, Ehud Shabtai and Amir Shinar five years ago, and claims to have doubled its users in a six month period from the end of 2011 to June 2012. The app relies on input from community members which allows for real time updates. These updates assist users to avoid traffic delays or congested routes.

[Source: Wired, The Guardian]