We have a ton of news to share today, so lets take it step by step.

Social Driving is accelerating with more groups, more drivers and local media partners

Global Distribution of  Wazers: Social Driving Hotspots
People want to connect on the road – it’s no fun to be alone out there – and with waze, people are given a convenient way to share really useful road information with one another.

Made using GeoCommons the awesome open map making tool and data exchange!

1.5 Million Drivers!

User growth accelerates as driving becomes more social

• 1 year to reach 500,000 users
• 6 months to grow from 500,000 to 1,000,000
• 3 months to grow from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000

4199 Social Driving Groups in 1st 30 days!

• 1691 USA
• 2508 International
• 70% Social Commute (Fellow commuters along your route)
• 5% BRC (Caravan to BurningMan)
• Interest (Share conditions with other swimmers, bikers etc)
• Others: LIfestyle, Company, University, media and mood like Comcast employees, Firefighters, Filipinos and Sexy While Driving

Explore.

Types of Social Driving Groups by Number of Members. Explore.

Large groups around specific events
Long tail of specific commute routes

Social Driving Network by Group Type Explore.

The Next Logical Step- Custom Groups!

Groups have formed around specific media companies, car brands, smart-phones, music and destinations. We saw some of these brands even starting their own groups, so together we created Custom Groups. Our first two Custom Groups are for powerful local media brands; NBC2 and The Statesman. We teamed up with NBC2 in Southwest Florida and The Statesman in Austin to experiment with citizen traffic. Both companies have loyal followers who can benefit from sharing reports with one another and, as citizen traffic reporters, can help ensure they have the most up to date road reports. The special groups include branded icons, real-time group widget and more.

The Statesman is a large daily newspaper in Austin, TX who has already launched and is promoting their custom group. In a short time it has grown to over 100 users and is one of the largest groups.

NBC2 and The Statesman have been the perfect first partners. They are always looking for ways to innovate and we believe partnerships like these will fundamentally change the way in which traffic is reported, providing better coverage, plus a sense of community and participation – so if you’re in Southwest, FL or Austin, TX, come join the fun!

Just a few little quick fixes to make you aware of in this mini-version. Bug fixes include: Fixed connectivity issues, Fixed a crash when using third party streaming app (e.g. Pandora),  Privacy settings changed (now under “Profile”), Better iPad support, Show archived reports of groups in the alerts list, 3D is default view, “No route for user” bug fix and Overall improved performance.

And Android users – don’t fret – stay tuned to the blog for some big news coming next week… 

Listen up, Frenchies! Looking for cool new apps to play around with on your iPhone? Take a look at the top 20 iPhone apps in France, according to janvizage.com. For the francophones among you, here’s what they had to say about us:  

“Après cette loooooooooooooongue pause déjeuner, vous avez un rdv très important chez un client et vous avez cassé votre GPS ? Malheur ! Pas de panique, téléchargez simplement Waze le seul GPS actuellement gratuit et qui vous mènera à bon port. Waze, c’est un GPS mais pas uniquement, nous l’appellerons plutôt GPS “social”. En effet, avec waze, vous pouvez discuter avec vos amis wazer, vous pouvez voir tous ceux qui sont en train d’utiliser l’application aux alentours. Mais Waze est également une application participative ! Vous gagnez des points, vous signalez les embouteilles, les voitures de polices, les accidents…le tout, sur une interface ludique ! A utiliser d’urgence ”

One of the best things about working with a big community is that you NEVER know how your product is going to be used. What we didn’t know was that waze was going to be a tool for #strangedates but sure why not. We love it! Plus one of our users in Israel made us this video! We’re gleaning tons of insights into all that Social Driving means which we’ll share soon but in the meantime, pick up that hottie, turn on waze and feel the love.

Get ready Ecuadorian wazers, ’cause waze is about to get way more active your cities. We’re expecting this bump in usership thanks to the ‘Find what you need’ billboard campaign (featuring waze!) that Telefonica in Ecuador has started today all around the country. As you know, the more people who use waze, the better it gets, so veteran Ecuadorian wazers, make sure to welcome the new wazers in your area aboard!

You guys are a mighty creative group! We received dozens and dozens of ideas for new wazer moods, many of which were pretty great, but now that we’re actually getting ready to implement the new moods, there can be only…two.

It’s a bummer ’cause we wanted to add a whole bunch more, but weighing down the client with not 100% necessary graphics at this point isn’t the best move, so two’s what we’re working with – and we have all your ideas on file for the future, should we have the ability to add more then.

Anyhoo, we created a shortlist of 10 to choose from. Please visit this link to vote on the two that you’d like to see implemented on waze, and in a few weeks when our talented designers create the visual representations of the moods you’ve selected, we’ll announce the winners on the blog, so stay tuned!

Looking for a way to grow your waze group?  There are a lot of things you can do to pick up your numbers and get more and more people involved. Here are just a few ideas that crossed our mind to share with you…

Tell a friend. It may seem obvious at first, but have you done it already? Tell those closest to you about how much you enjoy wazing and about your group in specific – and invite them to join in on the conversation.

Tell a Facebook friend. Your Facebook circle probably includes some of the people in the above category, but then a whole lot more beyond that. Do a quick little post to make them aware of your group and let them know, in specific, how you think it can benefit them. Oh, and remember to click the ‘share’ button on the bottom left hand side of your page!

Tell a reporter. Know a journalist who’s looking for a good story? Tell them about the new kind of crowdsourced, social GPS that we’re working on over here at waze. And if you wanna be super proactive (nothing quite like seeing your name in print, cited as a group creator!), find out who the relevant reporters are at your local paper and go for the gold!

Tell a stranger.  When all else fails, Craigslist. Recruit the huddled masses by putting a post up on Craigslist.com. If you’re not familiar with craigslist, its a community bulletin board that’s organized by city and nearly every major city in the world has one.  Click here to find the Craigslist closest to you.