Following days of speculation, Google has finally acquired the Israeli start-up Waze Mobile, a popular mapping and navigation service that Google plans to use integrate into Google Maps. The price tag? $1.1 billion.

Waze is a free GPS app that develops traffic reports socially — by collecting information from drivers ahead of and around you to provide the most accurate, real-time traffic data possible. According to Waze, “roads are dynamic and changing all the time, yet maps and GPS devices fail to reflect this, leaving drivers in the dark as to what's really happening out there on the road.”

With nearly 50 million users worldwide, the key to Waze's success is definitely it's community-contributed social features: “When users drive with the app open, they passively contribute real-time road information that gives other Wazers an up-to-the-minute, highly accurate picture of conditions out there on the road. Users can also actively create road reports that give even more information about what's going to others in the local driving community.” This brings a social boost to Google Maps and adds features that it currently lacks. 

The news today must come as a blow to Facebook, as they were also in talks to acquire Waze earlier this month. In fact, Facebook executives reportedly made a recent trip to Israel to meet with CEO Noam Bardin, but the deal fell through over Facebook's stipulation that Waze employees relocate and work from the U.S. Google is allowing current employees to remain in Israel.

Read Google and Waze's statements on how they've partnered up to outsmart traffic.