Welcome back to Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to name the greatest app of all time and we’re officially down to our Elite Eight! Calculator took Uber to school in yesterday’s tournament, garnering more than 73 percent of the vote and advancing to the next round. Today, we have the biggest encrypted messaging app going toe-to-toe with the undisputed champion of maps.
If you’re just tuning in, you can read all about our selection criteria for this historic contest right here. Check out the full bracket of contestants embedded below. And as always, if you think we missed your personal favorite app of all time, yell at us in the comments. Now, let’s get into today’s contestants.
Here’s what we had to say about WhatsApp in the first round:
Launched in 2009, WhatsApp started as an altruistic attempt at protecting users’ privacy with a barebones platform that was singularly focused on encryption. But its popularity exploded and the vultures of capital began to circle.
In 2014, Facebook scooped up the platform for a cool $19 billion and it wasn’t long until co-founder Jan Koum publicly admitted he’d sold his soul to the devil and his users’ privacy to Zuckerberg. Brian Acton, the other co-founder, went on to take a senior role at Signal where he hopes to keep the original dream of WhatsApp alive but that app hasn’t been able to get the same kind of foothold.
To be fair to Zuck, WhatsApp hasn’t changed at nearly the same rate as other Facebook acquisitions and it still doesn’t even include ads (they are coming though). In some ways, WhatsApp has achieved the original mission of Facebook: It’s a place for friends.
And here’s what we wrote about Google Maps:
Launched in 2005, Google Maps is one of the oldest candidates in the competition but has shown no signs of slowing down in its advanced age. If there is a mobile app that can be said to have made the world a better place, it’s hard to argue with this one. The days of printing out MapQuest directions officially ended when this bad boy hit the scene. And even Apple hasn’t been able to catch up.
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