For those of you watching from the stands, cheering us on, a nice little moment that we wanted to share with you: we’ve been featured on the front page of the iPhone Appstore – and not only that, we’ve been selected as a ‘Staff Favorite’! Big thanks to the folks over at Apple for such a great opportunity. It’s quite the compliment, indeed…
Woo hoo! We’re happy to report that waze won the Community Award in Innovation at the Mobile Premiere Awards!
You can read a quick little overview that TechCrunch posted, naming all of the winners, here.
Nice recognition came yesterday in the form of us being chosen as a finalist in the Mobile Premier Awards, taking place as part of this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Delegates from 250 cities were vying for the chance to present in front of an influential crowd for the title of ‘Innovator of the Year’, and after being shortlisted with 59 other companies, we were chosen to present at the event as one of the 20 finalists. Wish us luck!
Big ups to dcaponera, a fantastic Italian wazer who’s taking time to seriously contribute to the driving community in his area. Basically, he started mapping one town (by driving it), then he edited his work back on the computer (adding names to the streets he paved, etc), and if that wasn’t enough, he’s moved on now to do even more towns nearby…
His approach is to map the main highways in the middle of these small cities, then some of the surrounding roads, so eventually everyone will be able to navigate using his mapping. Take a look at his mapping of Albano Laziale, Italia, below. He’s also in the process of working on Villini and Ariccia, south of Rome. Nice work!
Yesterday, bikers in Israel organized a strike to protest increased insurance rates on their population by clogging some of the countries main transportation arteries. Thanks to waze, the driving community was all over it, and navigation was routed around the problem areas. In fact, we saw this tweet from a user on Twitter who managed to circumvent the protests, getting to work in record time… 
Cue the trumpets! Waze has set up shop on Café Press and is open for business. We’re offering totebags and t-shirts, hats and mugs, magnets and hoodies, all emblazoned with Wazer, our cute little logo. Plus, we have three different bumper stickers for you to choose from to help spread the word to other drivers in your area. Check back to the store now and then, as we hope to expand the variety of designs available in the future…
Yeehaw! This week, waze won the overall iPhone category at the 2009 Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards in San Francisco. With more than 250 global nominees, judges deliberated between a diverse range of content to get to their opinion of the most exciting mobile apps out there.
Check out our company in the winner’s circle:
• Overall iPhone category winner: Waze
• Overall Mobile web category winner: Flirtomatic
• Overall Apps category winner: Aloqa
• Microsoft Phone category winner: SPB TV
• Motorola Android category winner: Aloqa
If you’re a fan of waze and want to help us reach more drivers out there on the road, take a moment and head over to Hollrr.com, a cool new site devoted to promoting products via word-of-mouth recommendations. Hollrr’s vision is to ‘liberate the world from advertising,’ and it’s a great way to tell others about stuff you’re into while also learning about new products from your friends. To get started, sign up and find your friends via your online address books or search. Once you’ve got everybody, Hollrr! Tell your friends about waze and ask them to check us out and Hollrr back! Note that you can sign in with your Facebook credentials on the top right of the page.
Another similar service, but more specific to the iPhone world, is Appsfire. Appsfire gives people a super easy way to share their favorite iPhone apps with their friends online. All you have to do is install and start the automated apps extractor, visit and bookmark your personal iPhone apps webpage then create a selection of favorite apps to share with your friends via your blog, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you’re interested in learning more about Appsfire, take a look at their demo video here.
We really appreciate your help!
Join us this Sunday October 11th 2009 at the Windy Hill Preserve. Help provide feedback on Waze and in exchange we’ll bring snacks (aiming for vegan tamales) and kid friendly drinks. Our plan is to meet at 2:00 PM, enjoy the park for a while and then try do a collaborative drive – to see how many Wazer’s we can get in one area.
Here’s information on the location:
http://www.bahiker.com/southbayhikes/windysausal.html
Here’s a bit more detail about the spot:
The east entrance is a parking lot (built in 1999) off Portola Road in Portola Valley. From I 280 in San Mateo County, exit Alpine Road (exit 22). Head west about 3 miles and turn right onto Portola Road. Drive about 1 mile and turn left into the parking lot. This is a good size parking lot (may get crowded on weekends). No entrance or parking fees. Wheelchair-accessible pit toilet, and two designated handicapped parking spots. Trails are wheelchair accessible, but you’ll probably need assistance, and won’t be able to go beyond the junction with Spring Ridge Trail. Maps available at information signboard.
Please feel free to contact us for more details! See you there!
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