Wiz (Photo: ShutterStock)
As part of the planned cuts in the company, Google plans to unite the teams working on Google Maps and Waze (Wiz) into one team, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The move is intended to avoid duplication of work on the products, but Google has announced that the Wiz and Maps apps will remain separate.
The director of Wiz, Naha Farik, will leave her position after a transition period, but according to Google no layoffs are expected (the team that works on Wiz is Israeli, of course), the 500 employees of Wiz will join today (Friday) the geographic division of Google, which includes Google Maps, Google Country and Street View.
Google plans to unite the teams working on Google Maps and Wiz into one team (Photo: ShutterStock)
However, a Google spokesperson was quick to clarify: "Google remains deeply committed to Wiz's unique brand, beloved app, and thriving community of volunteers and users," he told the Wall Street Journal.
Wiz has 151 million monthly active users, compared to the billion users of Google Maps services.
And yet, Wiz is a popular navigation app, of course also here, but also in Europe thanks to its community-based nature.
And yet, Google Maps and Wiz have been sharing features since Google completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of Wiz a decade ago in 2013.
Wiz's traffic jam information also started appearing on maps shortly after purchase.
With advertising revenue down, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he hopes to make Google 20 percent more efficient through layoffs and product consolidation, like the one happening now between Wiz and Google Maps.
technology
news
Tags
Wiz
waze