Waze is a 100% free turn-by-turn GPS navigation application that provides real-time traffic updates, plus all kinds of cool social and geo-gaming elements that actually make commuting fun. Wazers can actively update one another on traffic, police traps, construction, speedcams and more - and because it's user-generated, the more people who use it, the better (and more addicting) it gets!

The idea for waze originated years ago, when Ehud Shabtai, a software engineer with a degree in Philosophy and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, was given a PDA with an external GPS device pre-installed with navigation software. Ehud's initial excitement quickly gave way to disappointment - the product didn't reflect the dynamic changes that characterize real conditions on the road.

An experienced open-source developer with deep experience of Web 2.0 applications, Ehud took matters into his own hands and started to build the first dynamic traffic platform which combined GPS, open-source software and a community of drivers. His goal? To accurately reflect the road system, state of traffic and all the information relevant to drivers at any given moment.

Roads are dynamic and change at every minute, yet today's maps and GPS devices fail to reflect this, leaving drivers in the dark as to what's really happening on the road at any given moment. Waze takes an innovative approach to address this problem, providing drivers with real-time road intelligence and the best possible route to their destination.

By simply driving around with the waze client installed on their smart phones, users share real-time information that translates into traffic conditions and road structure. Drivers using waze can also actively report to the community on traffic, accidents, police traps, blocked roads and more. This information is collected and immediately analyzed to provide waze drivers with the most optimal route to their destination, 24 hours a day.

Some of the waze community members with a passion for maps also take an active role in editing and updating the waze map, itself. Most of the editing work is done on the waze Web site, but some parts, such as the naming of streets, can be done through the application directly.

In terms of the gaming bits, keep your eyes open for treasure chests and other 'road goodies' on the streets you travel for the change to earn extra points or to win cool real-world prizes. You can also complete a few actions, found on the 'me' tab of the waze scoreboard, to unlock bonus point candies that have the potential to take you to the next rank level - and even all the way up to waze royalty!

The social side of waze has a lot going on, too. You can create or join all kinds of local driving groups to benefit from the wisdom of the crowd and you can also enjoy some of our groovy integrations with Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook. 'Check in' to locations on Foursquare to earn waze's 'Road Warrior' badge, use Twitter to tweet your activities on waze to your followers and connect to Facebook to see all of your waze-using Facebook friends around you on the map - it's all a whole lot of fun!

While drivers may be alone in their cars, they're often a part of a broader group of drivers that drive to the same destination, share the same challenges or have a common interest. They can be commuters, professional drivers or a group of families on their way to a weekend destination. Waze lets these drivers easily create, or join, groups that allow members to view each other on the map and better communicate with one another while on the road. More information can be found here.

Yes. Map data is already available (on the client) and can be used for non-commercial purposes. Developers can contact us to receive access to our real-time APIs. In the future we plan on opening APIs in a broader respect. Stay tuned for more information!

Yes, waze is absolutely free. Since it's based on user contributions, it's only natural that waze will be free for those who build it. The navigable data market is a huge market and our current business model involves selling our data set (maps, traffic, etc.) to relevant third parties while keeping the service free for individual users.

Waze enables the use of the service in almost total anonymity. We do not require personal details - apart from an email address - for registering or for using the service. We do not collect phone numbers or any information other than what is voluntarily provided by the user.

Commuters usually have more than one route to their destination, and the eternal question when you get into their car is 'which route is the best for me right now?' Once you enter your home and work addresses, and drive 3-4 times along each of these routes, waze will collect information and learn your optional routes, answering the question each morning as to which route will be fastest.

Unlike Dash, waze is free and runs on any GPS-enabled smartphone. It doesn't require buying a dedicated device

Connectivity is required to allow waze to both receive and deliver real-time road information relating to your preferred route. Additionally, your connectivity allows waze to immediately re-route you as conditions on the road change.

A GPS-enabled smartphone and a data plan (we recommend an unlimited data plan).

We support the following platforms:

• Android
• iPhone
• Symbian
• Windows Mobile
• J2ME (RIM)

A data plan to enable the sharing and consuming of the real time information during commuting. We recommend an unlimited data plan.

Waze has the technology to create dynamic maps from consumer driving relatively quickly. This is how we created the map in Israel, but when we planned on making our app available on the US market, we decided to use an existing map as a base, rather than start the map building from scratch, and considered various map providers including OSM and TIGER.

We are committed to keeping waze free for our end users who help build the system, yet we're a commercial company who's looking to generate revenue down the line. When looking at the OSM licensing terms, we felt that they might limit us from certain business models in the future, and, therefore, we decided to use TIGER maps. This may change in the future, however, and we are open to potential cooperation with OSM, and other, similar, services.