First of all, we all need to stand up and salute the brilliant entrepreneurs behind the navigation app Waze. Should the deal Google has reportedly reached with Waze go through, students are going to learn about the deal in universities worldwide.
Who would have thought a simple navigation app would be sought after by tens of millions of drivers in 110 countries? And now, with the tidings about Google's fat check for Waze, everyone has acknowledged the fact that these people are ours. They are Israeli.
More than $1 billion -- that's the incredible sum that Google will reportedly pay to acquire Waze. The app's developers were able to live out the ultimate dream that, in addition to the heavenly exit, all budding startups aspire to: They developed a product that truly changed the lives of its users.
Try to imagine yourself coming home from work without Waze's ability to calculate the fastest route. Think for a second about all the times you were asked to get somewhere for the first time, and instead of memorizing the route or scribbling down nonsense on a crumpled piece of scrap paper, you simply typed in the address, and got where you needed to go the fastest possible way. What at one time felt like a complex task has become approachable and easy, thanks to Waze. It was only a matter of time until the big players in the global market got their paws on the little company from the Holy Land.
Whoever needed proof that Israel is a high-tech superpower, all sarcasm aside, has got it now. We ought not hold a grudge against the entrepreneurs, their grandchildren or their great grandchildren, over the money that's going to take care of them for many years to come.
It's worth keeping in mind that the deal with Waze is subject to approval by U.S. regulators, and laws pertaining to the matter are clear: There are severe restrictions on mergers that either threaten competitiveness or create a monopoly. The purpose of these limitations is to protect consumers from market concentration. The overwhelming majority of information is held by a relatively small number of huge corporations. Google is at the top of the list.
All Internet use is today connected to Google in some way, shape or form: Google's mailbox Gmail, YouTube videos (that company is also owned by Google), or mapping services offered by different companies that source their maps from Google's search engine. We surf on Google's web browser, Chrome. Many people own smartphones that run Google's Android operating system. Just this week, we saw the uproar and rage in the U.S. over the Prism program, in which the administration systematically penetrated huge database networks, Googe's among them, to gather information about users.
But we netizens need to check ourselves. No one put a gun to our heads, forcing us to update our Facebook statuses with everything we do. No one ever bothers to read even one letter of Google or Facebook's privacy terms and conditions. Users made it easy for the U.S. government. All the administration had to do was mine the information from Google and the social networks. And who provided the information? Why, we did, voluntarily.
Google will continue to provide all the necessary services to enjoy the Internet. Now Google will know when and where we have physically traveled. We can only hope that no one decides to use this information against us.
Because, if we reach a dead end, even Waze won't be able to calculate the way out.
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