Apple Buys Embark ⇥ jessicalessin.com

Jessica Lessin:

Apple Inc. keeps snapping up mapping companies.

The latest: Embark Inc., a small Silicon Valley upstart that builds free transit apps to help smartphone users navigate public transportation.

You may remember Embark from their catchy-ass promo video; I certainly did.

Between this and Apple’s acquisition of Hopstop, I’m probably wrong with regards to their prospects of adding transit directions to Maps. I didn’t think it was probable before, as Google spent years trying to get data deals with major cities; now, I think it’s extremely likely that public transit directions are coming to Maps.

With any luck, bicycle directions are next on the list, too.