Google Inc (GOOG) Didn’t Buy Waze for the Maps. At All.

So I understand if you forgot all about this wrinkle in the Google Maps feature set. There was hardly any reason to care about this pointless exercise.

But times have changed. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) now boasts nearly 1 billion Androids sold worldwide and Apple has shifted 600 million iOS devices. All of them won’t schlep around with Google Maps installed and GPS location sharing turned on, but it’s certainly a robust user base nowadays. For a sense of scale, Waze has about 50 million users.

Nope, this isn’t about Waze’s traffic algorithms at all. You should consider Waze to be an addition to the Google Plus social network, far more than a value-added Maps plug-in.

And I’m still wondering why Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) didn’t buy it, since Waze would kill at least two troublesome birds with one stone.

The article Google Didn’t Buy Waze for the Maps. At All. originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Anders Bylund.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund owns shares of Google, but he holds no other position in any company mentioned. Check out Anders’ bio and holdings or follow him on Twitter and Google+. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Google, and Facebook. The Fool has bought calls on Facebook. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Facebook, Apple, and Google.

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