Waze Combines the Utilities of Social Media and GPS for the Benefit of Drivers
4 Comments By Jai on July 22nd, 2009 in Web 2.0
The latest application to hit smartphones is Waze, which is being touted as the Way to Go as it is a social media smartphone app allowing drivers to passively send GPS trace points to others in the community; thus helping other drivers not only receive information about the location and road maps, but also help fix problems and other such problems for others.
The driver’s speed is relayed to Waze servers and depending on the speed, the quality of traffic is judged. If the traffic is clogged, then that information could be given to other users. Waze takes social media to the next level: to driving. It allows the driver to reveal hazards, traffic jams, map errors and other such issues directly to the Waze community. Using GPS for smart phones had never been such fun!
If you run into roads that are not in the map, they just get added for you and others in the Waze community to use later. You could also visit their website and edit the maps if you think something can be modified. These facilities would certainly help the user to ascertain driving conditions, receive live help and support from the community, and also a sense of belonging to the community.
However, at the moment you can only use Waze in San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and Boston. This limits the potential of an otherwise amazing service. Nevertheless, the lucky ones who stay in these areas can send road tweets, learn routes, search for alternative routes and make driving an enjoyable experience. Waze has a huge potential to grow especially if it can be used in rural areas and also on national highways. However, one may need to be under Internet coverage for this to work.
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Related Tags: cool gps app, GPS, gps navigation smartphone, gps navigation system, smartphone GPS, smartphone gps app, smartphone traffic detail, Social Media gps, Social Networking app, Waze, waze app, waze gps
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:00 am
Waze looks great!! extremely useful how it adds new road data to maps and also notification of hazards and traffic jams is must! Well thought out – can’t wait till its in he UK.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
[...] Waze, the cool new Smartphone app which could be called as a cross between a social networking service and GPS or navigational service is now giving away free MyTouch 3G which runs on Google Android OS. In a contest that is going to stir the Internet community, Waze has announced that one in 100 customers would get a free MyTouch 3G Smartphone which comes with many features like Screen Individualization, Notification Pane, Search by Voice facility, personalized shells and designs, and of course many cool features that you would see in other Smartphones. [...]
July 24th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
[...] Waze, the cool new Smartphone app which could be called as a cross between a social networking service and GPS or navigational service is now giving away free MyTouch 3G which runs on Google Android OS. In a contest that is going to stir the Internet community, Waze has announced that one in 100 customers would get a free MyTouch 3G Smartphone which comes with many features like Screen Individualization, Notification Pane, Search by Voice facility, personalized shells and designs, and of course many cool features that you would see in other Smartphones. [...]
July 28th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Looks great, can’t wait for it to start shipping to the UK.