Every day we’re amazed at the stories we hear about how Waze came through in a crunch.

In the past several months, we’ve heard how Waze has guided women in labor to the hospital with the best route. Waze has also allowed parents to get to their children’s performances in time and even helped drivers avoid some big accidents in the nick of time. These stories make us feel pretty great and we want to hear more!

That’s why we’re announcing a new Waze initiative called Waze User Stories. Here’s how it works:

We want you to tell us your amazing Waze story here:  http://bit.ly/10B1dum

At the end of the month, we’ll pick a couple of stories we find particularly inspiring and feature them on our blog. We’ll even send the winners some swag for our favorite entries.

So how about it Wazers? Got a great story about how Waze helped you out on the road or in life? We wanna hear it! Also, feel free to send any accompanying pictures to stories@waze.com.

And now the fine print…

THE FINE PRINT: We are happy that you have decided to participate in the WAZE Writing Hub. This Writing Hub is intended to give you the opportunity to increase your Waze experience by sharing with Waze and with other Waze users your literary and/or other work describing your use of the Waze application (“Your Story” or “Story”). By submitting Your Story, You hereby represent, agree and warrant that (i) You agree and consent that your use of the Writing Hub and the Company’s use of Your Story are subject to the Company’s Terms of Use (at http://bit.ly/17lqks8 ) and privacy policy (at: http://bit.ly/10IIoZ2) which you have read, understood and agree to; (ii) you are over sixteen (16) years of age; (iii) and that You are not an employee, consultant or otherwise engaged with Waze mobile Ltd. (“the Company”), or any of its advertising and promotion agencies or the immediate family members or a person living in the same household of each; (iv) your Story as submitted to the Writing Hub is your original work, does not contain any third party materials, you are the sole rightful owner of all rights in and to your Story and that you have (and will continue to have) all the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions required to enable your use and to enable Company’s use of your Story; (v) your story does not infringe any third party rights (including privacy rights, copyrights and cet.) and does not contain any language which is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive and fraudulent or illegal, and Your Story shall be free of any descriptions of violence and/or sexual behavior and or any advertisements or solicitations of business, whether explicitly or implicitly; (vi) submitting your story does not and will not violate any other agreement to which you are bound or any law, rule, regulation, order or judgment to which you are subject; (vii) The information You have provided and will provide to the Company is full, complete and true; Any Story you submit to the Writing Hub shall remain your sole property. You hereby grant to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, unconditional, royalty-free, transferable, assignable, sub-licensable and worldwide license, to use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, make derivative works of, display, make available to the public and perform the Story via any media formats or channels whatsoever, whether known today or developed in the future. This license allows the Company to use the Story for private and commercial use. You agree and acknowledge that opportunity to submit Your Story to the Writing Hub and your enjoyment of the Writing Hub constitutes the sole and entire compensation regarding the license given by you to the Company with respect to Your Story and that this compensation constitutes sufficient compensation for any purpose under any jurisdiction. You further agree and understand that the very purpose of submitting Your Story to the Writing Hub is that it may be featured by WAZE publically including to other WAZE users, and thus you will not be entitled to prevent any transfer of any Story to any third party. Company shall not bear any liability for any use by any third party of the Story. You hereby irrevocably and unconditionally waive any of your moral right in relation to the Story and hereby agree not to assert against the Company, its affiliates, officers, employees, any claim or allegation in connection with moral right in relation to the Story. For information, questions or notification of errors, please contact us at: Stories@waze.com

The seal makes it official. Can’t wait to bring the trophy home!

The category of “Connected Product” is a special one for Waze. Simply put, a connected product is any tangible good that integrates the Web to work the best it can. The list of eligible candidates is huge! Our Webby win showcases what Wazers already know; Waze is more than just a GPS service. We’re built on the social graph, using the power of the driving community (and the Web) to help other local drivers and, at a larger scale, build maps around the world.

Tune in here and watch the Waze team accept our trophy at the Webby Awards ceremony on May 22, hosted by Patton Oswalt. Acceptance speeches are limited to exactly five words – what should we say?

With the extremely popular motor show Autosalon taking place in Bratislava, Slovakia, veteran Slovak Wazer Thomas (aka guri211) received an invitation to present Waze at the Zelena Vlna traffic broadcasting booth. Of course he didn’t think twice about accepting.

Armed with graphics from WazeHQ, Thomas put together flyers, stickers and t-shirts (all translated into the Slovak language) in order to help spread the Waze spirit throughout Slovakia.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Zelena Vlna for the invitation to present at their booth. In addition, thank you to Thomas, Peto (petk0), Suik and Pista (porubcan) for presenting Waze, being such great Waze ambassadors and for embodying the community spirit that epitomizes Waze.

Chalk up another win for the vibrant and thriving Waze community!

As you may know, we’re always looking for ways to thank our community, both at large and individually (yep, you too).

Today we wanted to say thanks to poet & rapper George Watsky, whose awesome new album Cardboard Castles debuted at #1 on the US iTunes Hip Hop Charts!

Though notoriously hesitant to endorse anything, check out his great video below where he talks about how we’re helping his fans find and get to his shows while he’s en-route on his Cardboard Castles tour.

Check him out here, or listen to his music here!

word.

-in community- 

These Wazers keep on amazin’ us.

When a snowy blizzard hit Hungary last weekend, temperatures dropped to record lows and snow crippled cars, with many drivers stranded in their cars overnight on the country’s major highways — just look at the pic above taken by a Hungarian Wazer.

Waze’s Hungarian community quickly mobilized to provide drivers with real-time traffic information. They did this both in the app itself and via the community’s Facebook page, which was used as a 24/7 traffic channel.

We caught up with Peter Zsak (“wroadd”),  Hungarian Country Manager and an active leader in the community,  to learn more about what transpired and how crowdsourcing played a role in keeping drivers safe.

5,700 cars were stranded on the roads, more than 8,000 people had to take refuge in government heated buildings and more than 100,000 people lost electricity. Where were you when this storm hit?

I was at home in Szeged, in southeast Hungary. We had a 3-day weekend for a national holiday so a lot of people were travelling, including members of the Waze map editing community living in the affected areas. The storm affected the whole country, but the areas of western Hungary were hit the worst. The emergency response teams, the military, police and the firefighters worked continuously for 48 hours to help those in need, but their coordination was awful.

The biggest help came from Austria, whose government sent snow sweepers and the Austrian RedCross to help feed and keep people warm.

What role did the community play in alerting drivers of traffic conditions?

We used Feed The Waze, a tool that helps add long term road closures to the Waze map. The app and Facebook were both used to report problems and communicate with the people stuck in their cars. The community also helped find volunteers.

Two of our fellow Wazers, Szikra and SivatagiSas, were out all night on the motorways bringing hot drinks and food to all those stranded in their cars and in “safehouses”. So many Wazers volunteered, not to mention those who posted their offerings (accommodation, food, etc.) in the app.

What features of Waze did you and the community use?

We mainly used the Map Chat feature to communicate.

Has anyone shared with you stories of how Waze saved them during the blizzard?

One user, Kaszast, guided his wife through the storm using information posted in Waze Map Chats, eventually leading her to the nearest “safehouse”.

How would you recommend Wazers around the world deal with the next big weather crisis in their region?

Waze is a real-time solution for these events. If the local community can cooperate with the emergency response officials, the possibilities are infinite.

Boy, do we love meetups!

Earlier this month, a group of new and veteran map editors convened in Palo Alto to do what they do best — discuss how to create the best and most efficient community mapping initiative possible.

In attendance were special guests from Waze HQ: Co-Founder Ehud Shabtai and Community, Support and Product team members Shirli, Jonathan and Ohad.

The agenda featured wide-ranging talks that were mostly technical in nature. Everything from modifications to gas stations, turn restrictions, intersections, service roads and more map editor features and tweaks were discussed.

Highlights included a talk by CEO Noam Bardin and presentations by top map editors ‘skbun,’ ‘bgodette’ and ‘AndyPoms.’

Major accomplishments in 2012 were discussed, as well as goals for 2013.

“We still have a lot more to do. It’s not going to get boring,” Noam said in his talk.

Here at Waze, we like the internet. FACT. We like videos. FACT. We especially like funny videos. FACT.

Don’t you?

So when we worked with Veed.me for a week to create this clip, we thought you’d like it too! We think it really captures the humor of driving to the same place, together. [With Waze of course].

Be sure and check out the Veed.me team out on their Facebook page. Tell ‘em we sent you!

FYI: We hear they’re interested in doing similar work for other amazing companies. You can thank us later.

-in community-

Help . . . Zombies are taking over the map in droves!

Since launching Waze 3.6, we’ve discovered that one of our newest moods — a zombie — has rapidly grown in popularity.

The chart below illustrates the number of Wazers to change moods over a 7-day period since our new version was released.

Zombies are by far the most popular of the newest moods, which also include a cat, dog and sunflower.

Before the update, the most used moods were the “cool” Wazer and the popular ninja Wazer.

What’s your favorite ‘mood’?