Here’s a look at the city of Quito this morning.  Users seem happy. Quito is known for being constantly jammed.  So far we’ve launched on iPhone, Android and Nokia, but many Ecuadorians are still waiting for the Blackberry version, since nearly 70% of Ecuador smartphones are BlackBerry.  The Black Berry is in Beta and will be released within a week or two so we should expect to see many more wazers cruising in Ecuador very soon.

(There will be a slight delay until we can make Blackberry available to users of other places in the world as it requires building a specific re-build of tiles specifically for BB)

Ecuadorian wazers, let us know what you think!

Here’s one posted yesterday by a newbie wazer nicknamed rtwolfe:

Thank you thank you. You saved me today!

“I added Waze to my iphone last weekend and already it helped me out of a big problem. I had to be at my daughter’s school, about 35 miles from my work today. I was going to be travelling over the noon hour and traffic is usually light. Nevertheless, I left early and gave myself an extra 20 minutes to get there, just in case the traffic was unusually slow. You can guess where this is going.

My work is on the east side of St Paul and as I was driving past the state capitol, I saw, on the freeway overhead message board, that there was an accident near the University of Minnesota and the freeway was limited to one lane, instead of the usual 4 lanes. Ought Oh… The sign didn’t say which side of the freeway was open and I thought I had extra time so I just drove my usual route.

I was about 4 miles from the U of M, the traffic slowed to a crawl and then stopped. Of course, I was in the left most lane. Trying to be helpful to others, I told Waze about to the Traffic jam and, when I was stopped, even sent a comment that ‘people should take an alternative route’ and ‘that the left lanes were slowest’. But, as I watched the time ticking away, it became clearer that I was not going to make it, if I stayed on the freeway. It was cool to watch I-94 turn from Yellow to Red, underneath my car icon, but….. And there must have been another Wazer ahead of me because I could see it was still Red and getting Redder ahead of me. So, with this real time knowledge about road conditions from Waze, I ‘made my move’.

I cut right and kept moving through the rightmost lanes until I was in the faster rightmost lane. I knew staying on the freeway was futile, so I exited at a midtown exit that is near the U of M. I graduated from the U so I had a vague idea of the neighborhood but I could see that I was not the only ’smart guy’ who was ‘making a move’. The backup of traffic leading to the stoplight on University Avenue, the main local road, was horrendous. But I had my Waze!

The area where I exited was an older industrial area. Warehouses, trailer yards, pretty lousy potholed ‘roads’ used by the truckers…. but the Waze on line map showed me a ‘road’ that cut left and ran parallel to University Ave. Well, I could lose 15 minutes waiting to get to the stoplight or ‘go for it’. Yep, I got out of the long line for the stoplight, zoomed up the left side to the turn lane for the ‘trucker road’. No one else was taking this route! I cut onto the trucker road. Blasted down the side streets, with Waze showing me the way. Waze showed me the name of a street 4 blocks ahead of me, that would lead me to a road I knew.

And here’s the amazing part. 2 block ahead there was a Waze Cupcake! that I had to drive through. So, ate the cupcake, *(love the sound), found my road, zoomed to the freeway entrance that I believed would be clear of the trafffic jam. Blasted back on the freeway and, I was right, the roadway was clear.

Bottom Line. I made it to Lucy’s school with 1 minute to spare. I left 20 minutes early but without Waze I’m sure I would have been 20 minutes late.

I was on time. Lucy got to hear her dad read the Jackie Robinson story Teammates to her 1st grade classmates. Joy!

Thank you! A new loyal Waze user.”

Though fledgling driving communities have already developed in both Germany and France, today, we’re happy to announce our official launch in these countries. Bonjour and Guten tag, friends!

German and French wazers can now benefit from:

• a brand new road grid
• UI and voice prompts in their own languages
• a road full of ‘goodies’ to help new users rack up points as they help improve the navigability of the map in their areas
• AND…treasure chests that may contain Amazon giftcards!

Road grids that will quickly become navigable maps

Up until recently, users in these areas needed to record roads entirely from scratch, however, we’ve received access to a comprehensive set of German and French road grids, which we’ll merge with data that local users have already contributed on their own, and – poof! – these communities will be off to a fantastic start. All that’s missing in order to turn the grid into a fully functioning map is for local wazers to validate road directions by driving on the roads themselves, and to add road names via waze’s online map editor.

Road goodies and virtual treasure chests for extra points and prizes!

Starting today, French and German users will find that most roads will be marked with plenty of ‘road munching’ dots – GPS points that, when driven over, set the road’s direction, helping to increase map quality and navigability, while providing them with tons of extra points. The process of validation is incredibly quick – within just a couple of weeks, these maps will be fully navigable and highly accurate. We’ll also be adding candy and cupcake ‘road goodies’ – small icons worth 3 and 5 bonus points, respectively – to the map in areas where the system needs validation.

…And don’t forget the best part: waze’ll be distributing VIRTUAL TREASURE CHESTS (!) on the roads that, when driven over, have the potential to reward users with an Amazon gift card – so French and German wazers, get out there and find ‘em!

What’s to come?

Stay tuned to the waze blog for the official launch of driving communities in other areas…we’re working on a bunch of stuff that you’re gonna want to know about…

Shiny, happy waze users' blog bloggers holding hands...

We had a bit of a SNAFU on the waze userblog a few weeks ago, and we have yet to amp up to the level of activity we had prior to said SNAFU, so a quick blog post to let you all know that once again, we’re recruiting writers!

Take the chance to tell other wazers about your experiences on the road, post pictures or videos of yourself wazing, offer tips on map editing, etc. There’s no commitment, you can blog as little or as much as you like, and all on-topic submissions are welcome. If you’re interested in getting going on the blog, send a quick email with your preferred username and password to alli@waze.com with the subject: ‘users’ blog’ and we’ll set you up with an account ASAP…

Looking forward to your posts!

Sagi Hed  

Role/team at waze: Merger Team (Map Algorithms Team)

A bit about what you do here: 0. Or 1. You can choose. 

How long have you been with the company: 7 months. 

What you like most about working here: (1) You (the interviewer) (2) Kicking Dror’s a** in B-ball. 

What you think the coolest part of waze (the product) is: The endless possibilities for expanding the core idea.

Dream phone: Modu (have one). It’s the tiniest **** ever. 

Favorite app, aside from waze: Last dialed calls.

Personal motto: Health issues aside, anything good or bad, is good, cause you can always laugh at your misfortune. The only thing really bad is being mediocre. 

*   

Alli Magidsohn 

Role/team at waze: MarCom Director 

A bit about what you do here: I’m part of a team that helps push the message out to the world about how groovy our product is. 

How long you’ve been working at waze: Approaching 9 months. I think it’s getting serious… 

What you like most about working here: I like working in service of a product that exists, essentially,  in order to help people. 

What you think the coolest part of waze (the product) is: I just really like the concept – it shows how powerful collaboration can actually be…

Dream phone: It would probably be nice to have a pillowphone.

Favorite app, aside from waze: Quadphoto is fun. 

Personal motto: Everything is matter, and everything matters. 

* 

Adrián Singer 

Role/team at waze: Waze in Spanish and Portuguese Staff Member 

A bit about what you do here: I manage the accounts of waze in Spanish and Portuguese – Twitter (@waze_es, @waze_br, follow me!), Facebook, blog and forums. 

How long have you been with the company: 3 months 

What you like most about working here: The real time communication with users… and playing xbox 

What you think the coolest part of waze (the product) is: Power to the people! 

Dream phone: BlackBerry 

Favorite app, aside from waze: Project Natal, but they should release the console first I guess 

Personal motto: Power to the people! 

*