Relatedly, I booked an Uber last night from within the Google Maps app on my phone, and the entire experience was in-app -- route selection, driver pick-up tracking, in-ride tracking, and drop-off confirmation. That's a whole lot tighter integration than I've seen in the past. The rumor-monger in me wants to read all sorts of acquisition talks into that level of product integration.

(Which is great for another reason -- I don't give Uber access to my location when I'm not using the app, and the Uber team has apparently decided to basically brick their own app for users like me. But hooray, Google Maps is now a functional replacement for the Uber client!)

You can book Lyft as well - both are pretty solid experiences.

No? That just links out to the Lyft app. Booking an Uber in Google Maps no longer leaves the app at all.

Apple Maps has the same functionality (with Lyft as well), so I wouldn't read into it too much.