When Google confirmed earlier this week that it had bought Waze for what we understand to be more than $1 billion, a senior exec in Google’s geo-location division talked about Waze’s community of users several times. He described it as the service’s “DNA.” This is because Waze’s core asset would be key to augmenting Google next big goal after mapping the web: mapping how we move. In a previously-unpublished interview with Forbes, at Waze’s Palo Alto office in January 2013, CEO Noam Bardin was already speaking highly of Google, the company that would later buy his navigation startup. He said Google was the best company positioned for a mobile world — waxing less impressed on Facebook and Apple — and hinting already that Waze might fit better with Google than any other suitor. “General navigation and maps, are really the ‘search’ for mobile,” Bardin said.