Hi,

Am I the only to think the group feature needs a revamp? The idea is neat but the current benefits are small. I know the idea behind this is to regroup people following the same route to work. It's to restrictive IMHO.

I've browsed tens of forums. Usually one member of the forum would let the others know about Waze and create a group to let the others join. Since these forums draw people from all over a country or the world because they share a common interest about 4x4s or canvas painting, they never manage to regroup since it seems the feature is location based. If someone creates a group, it'll only be visible to the people living close to him.

Since Waze is putting the emphasis on social networks it would be great to revamp the group feature so that it could get the best out of it, like;

-make joining a group independent from the location of the user (a Reggae fan from Northern Italy could invite wazers from Naples to join the group). That means we need a decent sorting system or search engine for groups.
-let the group owner have a mini webpage/blog readable within the app
-have a tweaked meet-up functionality for groups, in case they have a convention or else. People could sign up in advance to an event and get a reminder from Waze.

Plus that could fit into the new location based advertising system; restaurants/bars could offer discounts for a group booking.