• A single editor, programmed by Serge Wroclawski, idenfitied and properly standardized road names across the country. In six months, the program fixed 4,156,347 street names to a nicer looking long-form style.
• Roughly 20 percent of changes made within OpenStreetMap are done by more than 99 percent of the user population. The remaining one percent is in charge of the rest.
• In addition to millions of miles of road, the program has a database of 78 million buildings.

And those are just some of the numbers involved. The more important pieces are done in helpful, striking graphics that show the advances the program has made city by city. A before and after presentation of downtown Chicago shows off the hundreds of buildings put in place via a single governmental database of the city. There are “heat maps” of updates to major cities such as New York City, Tokyo, and Sydney that show where users have made the most changes over a period of time. There are even glimpses into the most densely-mapped data in the world — compiled from an independent list and largely featuring areas in France, the U.S., and Cameroon — that show extra markers like walking trails, hills and even individual trees. But perhaps the greatest thing the report shows is the consistent hard work put forth within the crowd that keeps OpenStreetMap running and updated. There’s perhaps no better example of the value communities can create than  Google’s acquisition of Waze today for an undisclosed sum, and it’s easy to see why: The power of many minds can lead to great work and amazingly gorgeous data. Interested in getting in on the action? OpenStreetMap is an ongoing project, and its new user orientation can be found here.

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This is the second billion dollar exit where Facebook lost out. In case of Tumblr, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg offered around $500 million to David Karp, but Marissa Mayer charmed Karp and, of course, more than doubled the money she was willing to pay for Tumblr. It was rumored that Facebook were in the running to buy Waze, but couldn’t pull the trigger.

Actually, selling to Google (or anyone else) was actually the only outcome for this company — even though it had tens of millions of people using the software in dozens of countries worldwide, it would have been pretty hard for them to turn social commuting into a real business. Google, on the other hand, can simply layer this on its maps and try and use the data to drive more real world transactions.

As I pointed out in a post about the new Google Maps, Google will ultimately create more natural advertising formats for maps-driven interfaces and Waze helps them towards that objective. That said, it is a great exhale for Waze’s investors, who were facing the prospect of building a real business — a much harder proposition than most in Silicon Valley understand or are willing to admit.

The big winners in this deal are investors that include Magma Ventures, Blue Run Ventures and Vertex Ventures, who were earliest backers of the company. Sources say they each made well north of $100 million from the deal. The surprise (and ironic) winner might be Microsoft, which is rumored to have invested in the company as a strategic investor.

The company had raised $12 million in its Series A funding in early 2008 and was valued at around $20 million at that time. It snagged another $25 million Series B funding in November 2010 and was valued at just under $100 million after that round of funding. The company received cash from Qualcomm Ventures and Microsoft in addition to other internal investors.

Horizon Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers were the last money into the company, but they too have made a nice chunk of change on this deal. In October 2011, the company received another $30 million in funding from Horizon Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers at a pretty hefty valuation – around $250 million, according to sources.

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The Google post said that the company is eager to work with the Waze community of users “who are the DNA of this app,” and to integrate the real-time traffic updates and other information that the network provides into Google Maps:

“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.”

This kind of integration is one of the reasons why many argued that Google should try hard to snatch the company out of Facebook’s hands (Apple was also at one point rumored to be interested in the company), since the addition of Waze’s real-time traffic info could make for a significant competitor to Google’s app.

Product team to remain in Israel

On the Waze blog, the company’s founders said that they agreed to the acquisition offer from Google because CEO Larry Page and the Google Maps team “share our vision of a global mapping service, updated in real time by local communities, and wish to help us accelerate.” The founders added:

“Nothing practical will change here at Waze. We will maintain our community, brand, service and organization [and] we will continue to innovate our product and services, making them more social, functional and helpful.”

Google’s blog post noted that the Waze product team would remain in Israel and operate separately “for now.” According to reports in the Israeli media, the issue of moving the company’s staffers to California was apparently a sticking point in the negotiations with Facebook, and a commitment to keep the company based in Israel may have made the difference for Google in the negotiations.

Waze, which has been growing rapidly, has a user base of about 50 million in 110 countries, who shared more than 90 million reports of traffic conditions, speed traps and other data on the network in 2012. The company has raised $67 million in venture financing from investors such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Li-Ka Shing and Blue Run Ventures.

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News of the Facebook bid emerged earlier this month via reports in the Israeli media, which said that the social network had offered up to $1 billion to acquire Waze, which adds a real-time social element to traffic maps and claims to have close to 50 million active users. More recently, however, the Facebook talks have apparently bogged down over issues involving whether Waze will have transfer most of its staff from Israel to Facebook’s home base in California.

As with many such reports, the Bloomberg news is couched in all sorts of qualified terms, quoting anonymous sources “familiar with the matter” who say the company “may be considering” an offer, and it’s not uncommon for companies to float such rumors when they are looking for more money — or when they want to convince their acquirer to drop certain conditions, such as the requirement that Waze move its operations to San Francisco.

Some Israeli news outlets have also reported that Facebook has locked down its offer with a clause that prevents Waze from negotiating with other companies. And Google may have decided that making a bid for Waze simply isn’t worth the hassle that it might generate from antitrust authorities, who are already said to be looking at the company on other matters.

Google needs Waze more than Facebook does

All that said, however, there are some compelling reasons for Google to make a bid for Waze, as I tried to outline in a recent post. While it would make sense for Facebook to acquire the company — if only because it would help cement the social network’s move into mobile, and broaden the range of behavior and location data it could use to target users — it makes far more sense for Google.

Google Maps is one of the core offerings the company has when it comes to mobile, arguably almost as important as search and email. And it’s clear that Google cares about evolving the service, since it continues to pour resources into redesigns and added features like the ones that Om wrote about recently. There’s also no question that the social data provided by users is a crucial element of maps — and that is what Waze specializes in, and has managed to build right under Google’s nose.

I would argue that Google can’t afford to let Facebook (or Apple, although it reportedly isn’t part of the current negotiations) get its hands on Waze — in much the same way that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg came to the swift conclusion that he couldn’t afford to let Twitter acquire Instagram, and made a surprise $1-billion offer without even consulting his board of directors. If Google hasn’t already made a bid for Waze, I think it needs to get busy working on one.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Dunechaser and Eva Blue

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Originally developed for the Department of Defense, acoustic shockwave bearing estimation was designed to help soldiers locate snipers. The technology takes advantage of the properties associated with gunfire – the initial flash of the muzzle blast and the shockwaves that follow. The supersonic speeds and whizzes of bullets can be tracked with microphones and a really precise clock hooked up to a microprocessor. These sensor nodes communicate with smartphones via Bluetooth; data from a few differently placed sensor nodes are required to triangulate the location of the gunshots.

The sniper location system was built into combat helmets, but the research team has now updated it for smartphones with funding from DARPA. Some nodes are still required, so civilian use may not be practical. But the researchers think security details or police squad cars could make use of the smartphone version.

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In a new update for the iPhone (no word yet on an Android update), Scout now has the ability to share any location or event with a friend via email, text of Facebook. And because Scout’s nav service works as an HTML5 app, those messages will automatically generate browser-based turn-by-turn directions to the location referenced – even if the recipient doesn’t have the Scout app.

The Scout update also incorporates a feature that will send out your estimated time of arrival via a text message. For instance, if you’re meeting a friend at a restaurant, Scout can send that friend a message as soon as you launch the route, calculating ETA not only on distance, but speed limits, traffic lights and real-time congestion data.

You can even program the app to send out your ETA to specific people anytime you start a particularly route. So anytime you program your iPhone to take you home, your spouse would get a message notifying him or her of when to expect you. Or if you’re heading to daycare to pick up your kid, the app will send a similar message to your child’s caretaker.

Finally Telenav is inserting real-time event data into the app. Instead of merely finding the baseball stadium on the map, you can discover when and which games are being played.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Ana de Sousa

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Kia will tap into Google’s APIs to bring Maps and Google Places data to its UVO eServices connected car platform, which will first be available in the 2014 Kia Sorrento and 2014 Forte. Hyundai will use a similar implementation in its Blue Link connected car system, though it didn’t reveal when or in which car models.

All three companies were short on the details of their respective partnerships — and are likely waiting for the grand stage of CES next week to reveal them — but it looks like Google is acting more as technology enabler than an app developer in both cases. Instead of allowing a version of Google Maps to be downloaded into the car, both Hyundai and Kia appear to be relying on their own navigation apps. But they’re liberally pulling Google mapping and location data from the smartphone and the cloud.

In Kia’s case it’s incorporating the mapping functions into its own UVO smartphone app, which will be available on both the iPhone and Android in the next six months. Meanwhile Kia’s Microsoft-developed in-vehicle platform will host several apps that will use Google map and point-of-interest data as well as local search technology. Google said in its enterprise blog that both Kia and Hyundai would also use its voice recognition technology to find and manage their destinations.

The vehicle navigation space is definitely getting interesting as web and mobile mapping software becomes more sophisticated and more cars get mobile internet connections — either directly from the dash or via a smartphone. Google is working with several other automakers, including Audi, Daimler and Tesla to bring its cartographic, Street View and search data to the dashboard. Chevrolet is also tapping into Google Local Search to provide business and point-of-interest info in its forthcoming BringGo navigation app.

Google isn’t the only tech company looking to break into automotive. Apple announced Eyes Free with the launch of iOS 6, which allows Siri to act as the surrogate voice assistant in the connected car. GM is supporting Eyes Free in upcoming versions of MyLink in the Chevy Sonic and Spark, and several other automakers are working with Apple as well. Eyes Free isn’t a nav platform, but it could become the interface for controlling a car’s navigation system or even a future in-vehicle version of Apple Maps once it works through the app’s laundry list of bugs.

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Aaron Dannenbring, Nokia Location & Commerce VP of product management and field opps, said that many of the latest enhancements for the Nokia Drive are designed to bridge those final disparities between a dedicated in-vehicle nav system and a smartphone app. It’s added spoken street names, the ability to tailor your route, multitasking capabilities and a lot more 3D. Here’s a video of our interview for the details:

After our talk I tested out the latest version of the Drive software — a beta for Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices called Drive+ — using the new Lumia 822 offered by Verizon Wireless for a few trail runs in the city and in a weekend trip to Wisconsin. I even pitted it against the in-dash nav system in my father-in-law’s minivan. I have to say, the experience was far better with Drive+ than with any other smartphone-based navigation system I’ve used.

First off, to fully utilize Drive+ you need to download map files from Here servers. These are no dinky files and you only select the geographies you plan to use. The map of California, for instance, is more than 200 MB, and the app requires you to make those transfers over Wi-Fi (so don’t wait until you’re in the car to set up the software). The maps are also vector-based, meaning it generates maps from data points rather than loading map images into your screen.

That not only makes the map flow on Drive practically seamless, but it also saves battery life and spares your data plan since the device isn’t constantly reaching out over its 3G or LTE radio to get the next set of map points. Most significantly, it allows Drive to function offline. If you lose your data connection, maps still works and it works well, as long as you can see GPS. I disabled the Lumia’s radios for 20 minutes and navigation continued to function without a single hitch.

I can’t emphasize how important that feature is if you truly want to use your phone as a vehicle nav system. A journey to some far-flung relative’s house in the boonies means I’m going to be driving out of 3G coverage quite regularly, which would render most phone-based nav systems useless. I was also impressed with by the Lumia’s ability to almost instantly capture and hold onto a GPS signal, though that’s more a function of hardware than the Drive software itself.

Nokia is also incorporating 3D across its mapping products, generated from laser arrays mounted on its mapping cars. I could find 3D constructs of every building in my neighborhood on Here.com though most of that information is stripped out in Nokia Drive. The nav software, however, does render a 3D image of your destination if available as well as other significant landmarks. It’s easy to see how this kind of technology could eventually be used to generate more user-friendly routes — instead of instructing a driver to turn left at 1^st Street, the app could tell him to turn left at the giant donut or the 7-Eleven.

It looks to me like Nokia’s ambitions for Drive go well beyond the smartphone and extend to the car dashboard. There are already automakers exploring this kind of bring-your-own-navigation business model. Chevy, for instance, plans to launch a nav app called BringGo, which lives in the smartphone but upon entering the car immediately projects itself into the on-dash monitor of its MyLink infotainment system. It wouldn’t be the a stretch for Nokia to do the same thing if it secures the right automaker partner.

Nokia already sells map data for nav systems through its Navteq division, and its key software partner Microsoft is a big player in the connected car OS space, powering Ford’s Sync system. In order for Drive to become an integrated connected car app, it would have to be platform agnostic, but Nokia is already moving in that direction. It launched its Here app for iOS last month and plans to do the same for Android in the first quarter. Here doesn’t have all of the features of Drive+, which is optimized for Nokia Lumia phones, or Drive, the version for other Windows Phone devices; but it could only be a matter of time.

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From the police report:

Local Police have been called to assist distressed motorists who have become stranded within the Murray-Sunset National Park after following directions on their Apple i-phone.

Tests on the mapping system by police confirm the mapping systems lists Mildura in the middle of the Murray Sunset National Park, approximately 70km away from the actual location of Mildura.

Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the Park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees, making this a potentially life threatening issue.

Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception.

Bad directions and misidentified locations are usually just inconvenient or annoying; they do not usually lead to life-threatening scenarios. But in certain cases like this one, they can be, which is why Apple needs to get a fix in place as soon as possible. Apple is reportedly working to improve the bad imagery, misidentified locations and off-target directions. But this is not exactly great PR for the company and its brand new Maps product.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has admitted that Apple “screwed up” with its initial release of Maps in September, as he said last week in an interview with Bloomberg. Besides removing some former overseers of the project and assigning a new leader, Cook said, “We’re putting all of our energy into making it right. And we have already had several software updates. We’ve got a huge plan to make it even better.”

The sooner the details of this “huge plan” are revealed and implemented, the better.

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The update means that the Google Maps API for Android is now vector-based, which is when mapping data is stored as a series of points and lines as opposed to pixels. That makes for easier and better pinching and zooming to points on a map; the previous version of Android maps had to load a new image every time the user zoomed to a new level, which made them look blurry or pixelated sometimes.

Google isn’t the first to take this approach with mobile maps: Apple’s taken a lot of heat over its decision to build its own Maps application for iOS, but it was widely praised for going with vectors. Some thought Google Maps looked a bit sluggish in light of Apple Maps.

Google Maps for mobile has long been the standard for most users thanks to its inclusion from 2007 until this fall as the default mapping app for the iPhone, as well as its presence on the most widely used mobile operating system, Android.

But with Apple throwing its hat into the mapping ring, Google is no longer the default for millions of mobile users. Nokia has also stepped up, and is looking to rejuvenate its business with its own rewritten and rebranded maps for desktop and mobile, called Here.

Google says its new mobile maps are already being used in several high-profile Android apps like FlightTrack, Expedia and Trulia. They can be accessed by updating those respective apps.

This story was updated at 2:05 p.m. to correct that the Google Maps API for Android is now vector-based. Google Maps were previously vector based.

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