The daily commute is about to get a lot smarter with waze’s updated social media-integration.
Palo Alto, Calif. – July 1, 2010 – Waze, the world’s most popular social GPS application, today announced the launch of its new version, featuring updates to innovative Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare integrations that maximize real-time, user-generated information directly related to users’ daily commute. Combining the app’s own crowdsourced GPS data and user-generated traffic updates along with Twitter’s new extended geo-capabilities, among other new features, this version is sure to provide waze users with the most comprehensive and up-to-the-minute crowdsourced road information available anywhere.
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User-generated real-time traffic and road reporting has always been a central part of the waze service, but the app is about to take the provision of live information one step further, culling geo-located tweets from the wider Twitter community directly onto the waze map, ones that previously would never have been seen in real-time. This means that even if a non-waze user tweets that they’re stuck in traffic, it will appear almost immediately on the waze app with a road report pin (indicating the kind of report it is: traffic, police alert, hazard, etc.), along with a little `t’ icon to indicate that the report came from Twitter. Incorporating these tweets onto the waze map will expand the coverage of waze’s local driving communities tremendously, providing the most comprehensive picture of real-time traffic possible.
And for Twitter users who want to enable waze to more easily harvest their real-time road reporting tweets, all they have to do is to include the hashtag #wazelive to ensure that their tweet will appear immediately on the map. This integration also allows two-way communication all within the context of real-time road reporting, essentially turning waze into an on-the-go Twitter client. However, due to safety concerns, typing on the waze keyboard has been disabled while the car is in motion.
Facebook and Foursquare Integration
Waze’s integration with Facebook will allow users to see their nearby Facebook friends when they appear on the waze map, indicating them with a little `f’ icon next to their waze mood and an audio alert.
If they like, users also have the ability to post their whereabouts onto their Facebook wall as a status update, They can also stay on top of their progress on the Facebook tab of the waze scoreboard, to see how they stack up against their other wazing Facebook friends.
And to further facilitate access to real-time, social platforms in the car, waze also supports an integration with Foursquare where users can check in to locations right as they pull up to them in their cars. This also allows them to unlock coveted `Road Warrior’ badges by checking into Foursquare locations three times using waze.
"We’re excited about being able to harness the power of crowdsourced data, integrated with the new geolocation capabilities of social media," says Noam Bardin, waze’s CEO. "We believe that our integration with Twitter, particularly, will provide tremendous value to our users as a tweet that would otherwise be relegated to their PC will now be maximized in a useful, real-time context."
iOS4 Support
This updated version is also fully optimized for the iPhone’s new iOS 4 which allows apps to run in the background while giving users the ability to simultaneously conduct other important tasks, such as sending and receiving calls, all while still hearing turn-by-turn voice instructions. When waze goes into the background, smart algorithms are applied to detect whether or not the device is in motion. Following a long standstill, waze will automatically close itself when it determines that you are no longer using the app, avoiding needless data and battery consumption.
Waze is available for the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Symbian platforms. Users are invited to visit m.waze.com/download to download the new version.
About Waze
Waze is a free mobile navigation application that allows drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation to improve their daily commute. Waze also has a social element that gives drivers the ability to actively update one other on traffic, police traps, construction, speed cams and more – and because it’s 100% user-generated, the more people who use Waze, the better (and more fun) it gets!
Waze is available on the Apple AppStore and the Android Market Place and can be downloaded from the waze web site for Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. To learn more about waze online, visit www.waze.com or @waze on Twitter.