I found waze pretty bad at directing you to your target and pretty amazing at locating jams. I stopped using it for directions when I visit Israel although many people there use it religiously. Google maps on the other hand was great at taking me there, but less so knowing about the road conditions. After the buyout I noticed Google maps gets a lot better at knowing if the road is blocked by traffic and how long a stretch of jammed Road takes to clear. I think that marriage worked well, at least for my driving experience.
Yes, Waze is a religion in Israel, perhaps because traffic conditions there are so unexpected. While on vacation there recently I downloaded the app, but found it unusable. The amount of noise in the UI - alerts, ads, IMs from other drivers - is unbearable.
I find that Google Maps is simple, clean, and quite accurate in predicting time to destination. Plus, now it displays traffic jams and incidents signaled by Waze users.
Ads are also a religion in Israel. But the last place I want to see them is when I'm driving. Turn right here to save 5 shekels on some lotion. No thanks, and now I've missed my turn...
