Location based services (LBS) are a hot topic now, owing the success to the built-in GPS chips available in every mobile smartphone sold today. In Israel, every cellular provider (4) has its own GPS application, which costs extra $$ monthly to use, and users, like myself, decided to look for alternatives [HE review].
2 years ago I came across Waze, a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road. The idea is simple – waze provides the software, but the users are the driving force behind it: the more you drive, the better it gets. Each driver shares his location and road conditions with fellow ‘wazers’, alerting them of traffic jams, police, and accidents. Twitter and Foursquare integration are also available.
Waze is available for iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Blackberry (Beta). Simply point your phone’s browser to m.waze.com or follow the instructions here. The symbian version (officially) works with Nokia E66/71/72/75 and N82/85/95/95 8GB/96/97. Personally, I know it’s been used with Nokia 5800, N86, and E52.
Waze are doing an excellent work online with their community, sporting a company blog, users-blog, forums, wiki, hall of fame users (each report is worth points), recent map updates (by location), twitter (global and Israel) and much more.
Here’s what Scobleizer had to say about Waze, in a recent visit to Israel:
