As you might have already read, we did our official launch last week in France and Germany, and the French press have really caught on to waze. We received coverage in some of the top tech publications in the country and were received with a lot of enthusiasm. Here are just a few examples of what folks over there are saying about us…

• “Plus qu’un long discours, je vous invite vraiment à profiter de ce logiciel gratuit et prometteur qui vous permet de faire votre trajet d’une nouvelle façon. Enfin un GPS différent ! “ * “More than a thousand words, I truly invite you to enjoy this free promising software that allows you to make your commute in a new way. Finally, a different GPS “- Baptiste Provoost

• “Avant de lancer ça, je me suis dit… c’est mort, dans ma campagne ce sera le grand vide : que nenni ! Toutes les routes (même les chemins forestiers interdits à la circulation ) étaient présents autour. Du coup je l’ai adopté !…Une appli très prometteuse “ * “Before running it, I told myself … it’s dead in my area,  it will be a big fail: but no! All roads (even the forest roads forbidden for traffic) were present around me. So I adopted it! …A very promising application “ – android-software.fr

• “L’application ne pèse que 8 Mo, ce qui est bien entendu très inférieur aux concurrents que sont TomTom, Navigon et autres solutions de navigation routière iPhone déjà vues dans nos colonnes. “ * “The application weighs only 8 MB, which is, of course, much lower than the competitors such as TomTom, Navigon and other solutions for iPhone vehicle navigation already seen in our features.”- iphon.fr

• “Nous avons pris connaissance de cette application la semaine dernière, après quelques jours de test, le test est concluant. La communauté française est naissante, la cartographie s’améliore de jours en jours, les développeurs compte sur la communauté soudée du monde iphone, pour la parfaire. Soyez les premiers pionniers de cette application.” * “We were made aware of this application last week, after several days of testing, the test is conclusive… Be the first pioneer of this application. “ – IPHONE-FORUM.FR

Channel 5, out of Raleigh, North Carolina, did a nice little report on free traffic apps, featuring Derrick Burr, one of our top users in the area. Click on the image below to see the story – and big thanks, Derrick, for your support!

Recently, the BBC’s technology show, Click, did a nice little featurette on waze. Click the image below to watch the clip.

Robert Scoble is a well-respected tech blogger who, luckily for us, seems to have taken a real liking to waze as of late. In fact, today, Scoble posted his ‘Hot Startups to Watch in 2010′, and guess what cool little start up with a very cute logo made it on the list? Yeah, Boxee’s there, but so are we! (insert rimshot, here.) We’re super thrilled to be on this list, among other really neat start ups, doing really neat things. Click here to read a little more about the rest of the companies listed above.

We just found out that we were selected to be featured in Contagious Magazine’s newest issue. Contagious is a resource that covers topics such as branded content; mobile marketing; social networking; user-generated content; word of mouth; viral; interactive; blogs; video games; retail initiatives; design innovations and emerging technologies – and here’s what they had to say about us in issue 21 (page 29):

“Advanced as navigation technology has become, it isn’t all knowing, yet. Spotting local jams, overturned milk floats and burst water mains requires eyes on the ground. Step forward Waze, a free community-based mobile navigation app which automatically updates in real-time as users drive, detecting traffic levels which are constantly updated for other drivers to see. Users can share and report information such as accidents or road works, even upload photos. Development is completely dependent on the community, who update street names and correct errors as they go. Devised by Israeli software engineer Ehud Shabtai, Waze launched worldwide in November 2009.”

Nice shout out to Ehud, our co-Founder and CTO!