Gadgetory

hey everyone welcome to the inside scoop I'm cnet's Kara Tsuboi joined by staff writer Donna Tam and today we're talking about Facebook supposedly in talks to buy ways first of all tell us what ways is it's a mapping app that is built on like a social layer so everyone that uses the app helps contribute to the data on the app so it does things like track traffic track if there's an accident people also put in like where the police cars are which I've people seem to like a lot and so that's what it does and it's really about like having mobile data and using mobile data to create this network so why is it company like ways of interest to a company like Facebook well facebook wants to be big on mobile that's really important to them and this would be an easy way for them to acquire Matt whole mapping system that's built on big data and people contributing data to it absolutely to find out more about their users right how far along are we in these talks and is there a dollar amount put on the company so they've been in talks allegedly for at least like six months and I've heard as high as a billion dollars in terms of price tag for ways which is pretty big and it could rival you know Instagram which was initially and talks for a billion as well that's right that was last fall at some point so this would be like the next big acquisition for facebook and ways is an Israeli company not that that matters much I know there are people here in the US but and ways and Facebook have also teamed up in the past isn't that right where if your ways user you can share that data on your Facebook page right entryways is one of the companies that Facebook spotlights sometimes they pick out certain apps that have doing particularly well on their network and they'll say hey here's an example of how well a mobile product can be on using Facebook music Felix platform and so ways is one of those companies that they've spotlighted interesting obviously having mapping for facebook is huge but how do you think it positions them with other big tech giants right now in the valley yeah well they certainly want to catch to Google and everyone thinks maps they think Google right and so this would be a great way for them to get a leg of them that also in terms of like mobile advertising you know Google beats Facebook and Matt but this could certainly help them catch up if they can beef up their mobile components so would you say that a year ago ways would have even been on facebook's radar yeah I mean I it's hard to say because like if it wasn't for apples Maps being such a like horrendous disaster disaster then maybe Facebook wouldn't even notice that there was this mapping app because Google was so dominant in that in that field but Apple decided to go for it and and you know it really brought the really brought the rise of ways and that was about what six months ago last fall at some point well we'll see what happens Thank You Donna Tam I'm car tsuboi thanks for watching the inside scoop