Waze Crowd-Sourced Mapping App
Posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Man the folks over at Waze have been pretty busy. What is Waze you ask? Well it’s a user-generated mapping application for the iPhone, Andriod phones, and even Windows Mobile phones. The interesting part is the social interaction in the app. Some very smart people have been enriching mapping content. The best part is the app is FREE.
The Waze team originates from Isreal. Where thier app created maps of the roads from their users driving. No base map was used. User data created all the roads. The value of crowd-sourced data is amazing. Di-Ann from Waze states that roads in Italy were mapped in only 10 days by users. Users are deemed Wazers.
As for features, there are turn-by-turn directions, traffic flow, speed traps, even a live ETA for your trip. Join in by reporting speed traps, accidents, and construction. Wazers driving on new roads can hit the record road button and upload new roads to the Waze database. Of course all this comes with the general caveat that Waze’s app is only as good as the data from all their Wazers. So join today and improve the experience for all.
What makes mapping even more fun? Games! Waze has gaming features built-in. wazers can munch pellets like Pacman and earn points. Other goodies including cherries and hammers appear on the map as well. Check out the Waze blog where you can earn prizes during special promotions: http://www.waze.com/blog/
Pros:
Don’t get stuck in traffic
GPS based for accuracy
Inaccuracies are reported and fixed by users
Typing is disabled while in motion for Safety
Makes driving fun with game integration
Side roads are added (anywhere Wazers go)
Cons:
GPS based so battery drain happens
For safest use the driver needs a passenger
Check out these videos for more information and take a look into the future of Waze:
Click “OK” to begin.
Waze is awesome! I have been using it for a bit now and the potential is astounding. Where I live, the street names don’t exist, but I have been spending my spare time inputting some here and there. The navigation is very accurate from my usage. It cam even direct me back home from places that do not have the street names yet.
Waze is FREE, community driven, fun, and most of all, it works. I love it.