Our users and the press seem to really like the ‘Road Goodie’ concept, as a game, and a way to expedite map building and updating. Users have reported going out of their way to munch on these.  The contest that ran in parralel and will end today. 3 Winners will be announced.

Here’s some of the coverage:

Scobelizer -  Robert Scoble “Dying career:  Traffic helicopter pilot”

Robert went out for a ride with the new version accompanied by Di-ann Eisnor, our Community Geographer. Here’s what he wrote:

“…..I’ve been using it and already I’ve found that the reports I’m getting are more complete than others (including the traffic reports in my 2010 Toyota Prius that I pay a lot of money every year to receive) and even include things like speed traps. Why? Because they are reported by other drivers on the ground. This system is even better than the Google Maps traffic on my Android phone (which is better than my iPhone).

This is a VERY disruptive company and one of my favorites to use. Get it now, it’ll save you a lot of time driving around. We’ll have to figure out something else for those traffic helicopter pilots and reporters to do, though….”

Gizmodo – John Herman - Waze turn-by-turn app lets you play with your car

“…Free, crowd-sourced turn-by-turn app Waze might not navigate quite as well as the Navigons and Telenavs of the world, but it’s got one killer feature that they don’t: cherries, to chomp with your car….”

ReadWriteWeb – Sarah Perez -  Navigation app waze makes crowdsourced map building a game.

“…Now, with Waze 2.0, the gaming elements have been enhanced even further. Users will now munch on other goodies like cherries, hammers, and small gift packages which generate bonus points. The extra goodies will be placed on locations where the map has issues with the higher-point items on maps with the most issues…”

Bitrebels  – Diana Adams -  iPhone GPS goes social gaming

What Waze has really done here with this new version of their already popular iPhone app is combined three of the hottest spaces online, social, gaming, and mobile GPS, into one fun and intuitive interface.

And there’s more….

Look at this… 9am PST!

The blog post below announces a ‘Holiday High Points Challenge’ for our users in the US and Canada, but we didn’t want to leave out all our new international friends! So…announcing our ‘International High Points Challenge’ between November 25-December 9, for all of you outside of the US, Canada and Israel. Israeli friends, fear not, we have a contest coming your way soon…

Here’s the deal: the top three users who rack up the most points from ‘road goodies’ during this timeframe will receive Amazon gift cards in the amounts of $500, $300 and $200, respectively, to help out with their holiday shopping. Wishing you guys luck, too…now get out there and get munchin’!

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

*  Find ‘road goodies ’in areas where the map needs improvement. (Make sure you’ve downloaded the newest waze version from the iPhone Appstore/Android Market or waze.com/download)

*  Munch (drive over) as many goodies as you can between November 25-December 9.

*  3 users who rack up the most goodie-related points during this time win!

***

The fine print:

1. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate in this campaign.
2. Must not be a resident of the US, Canada or Israel for this particular contest. See below blog posting for US/Canada contest and stay tuned to blog for upcoming Israeli contest.
   
3. The campaign begins on Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 6am GMT and ends on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, midnight GMT. Only ‘road goodie’ points munched  during such period shall be eligible.
4. Winner is responsible for any applicable taxes. Prize listed is subject to its general availability on the market. In the event of non-availability on the market, waze will provide a similar or equal compensation.
5. Waze reserves the right under its sole discretion, to cancel, suspend or modify the terms of this campaign, in whole or in part; and the right to disqualify any participant in the event of tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes which in Waze sole opinion corrupt or effect the fairness, integrity, legality or proper conduct of the campaign.

New Feature: ‘Road Goodies’

 Announcing waze’s brand new ‘road goodies’ – cherries, hammers and small gift packages worth extra bonus points!

You’ll find these ‘road goodies’  in locations where the waze has identified map problems, and as you drive around munching them, our system  automatically solve these issues. Here’s the breakdown:  Present – the most rare of the new ‘road goodies’, worth 500 extra points, Hammer – more common on the road and worth 250 bonus points & last but not least, Cherries – arguably the cutest ‘goodie’, pretty common and worth 100 extra points… (Hammer and Present points transposed in the video – oops!)

We think these ‘road goodies’ are a super fun way to help improve the map in your area, and hope you agree. Take a moment to watch the clip we prepared, annoucing ‘road goodies’, below…

Holiday High Points Challenge

In parallel to the launch of this new ‘road goodie’ version, we invite you to participate in a ‘Holiday High Points Challenge’ between November 25-30, just in time for your Thanksgiving driving.

The top three users in the US and Canada who rack up the most points from ‘road goodies’ during this timeframe will receive Amazon gift cards in the amounts of $500, $300 and $200, respectively, to help out with their holiday shopping. Wishing you luck…now get out there and get munchin’!

How to participate

*  Find ‘road goodies ’in areas where the map needs improvement. (Make sure you’ve downloaded the newest waze version from the iPhone Appstore/Android Market or waze.com/download)

*  Munch (drive over) as many goodies as you can between November 25-30.

*  3 users who rack up the most goodie-related points during this time win!

***

The fine print:

1. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate in this campaign.
2. Contest is open to residents of the US and Canada, only.
3. The campaign begins on Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 8am EST and ends on Monday, November 30, 2009, midnight PST. Only ‘road goodie’ points munched  during such period shall be eligible.
4. Winner is responsible for any applicable taxes. Prize listed is subject to its general availability on the market. In the event of non-availability on the market, waze will provide a similar or equal compensation.
5. Waze reserves the right under its sole discretion, to cancel, suspend or modify the terms of this campaign, in whole or in part; and the right to disqualify any participant in the event of tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes which in Waze sole opinion corrupt or effect the fairness, integrity, legality or proper conduct of the campaign.

We submitted a new version to the iPhone Appstore a couple of weeks ago. It should be approved and become available any day now and  includes a lot of great features and bug fixes – plus, there’s also a very cool surprise feature, especially for those of you addicted to road munching…. that’s all we can say at this point

Here are the main features coming out in this version:

*  Quick access to your iPod

*  Navigate to an address in your contact book

*  Landscape view

*  More control over what appears on the map

*  Bring up top bar on tap

*  Define which layers will appear on map

*   View nearest wazer & click on wazer to view their details (joining date, distance, points, rank)

*   Crowns for high scoring area managers and map editors

*   Ability to set preference for dotted routes

*   List view of driving directions

*  AND LASTLY… A SURPRISE FEATURE AND CONTEST FOR THE ROAD MUNCHING ADDICTS AMONG US!!!

Wazers nearby and wazer details screenshot, below…

In under a week, wazers in the Czech Republic have been working hard to build their map – in fact, they’ve logged 128,512 kilometers! It’s fascinating to see cities literally being put on the map. Stay tuned to your country’s Live Map to watch it happen…

Ignore the apprehensive look of the wazer on the screenshot of the live map below – Singapore’s on fire! In less than one week, map coverage is above 20%!

Italian wazers are on a roll! Check out these wazers wazing in Roma as the map comes into being…

In just five days, almost the entirety of beautiful Milano has been mapped by some very active Italian wazers. Big respect to y’all – keep up the great work!

One week from making waze available for international wazing and the numbers are amazing.

Users downlaoded the app in 7735 different cities worldwide, started editing the map in 250  countries and began recording roads in  902 cities…

TOP  COUNTRIES & CITIES

Very interesting to see how some users make a enormous contributions in their cities. kudos  on the great job this week!   Great to have you’ll on board!