It’s after 5 pm on a Friday and as soon as you hear the
click of your door locking behind you, you bound down the stairs from your
office, your dorm room, your apartment. The second you see your parked car, the anticipation of the weekend and
getting to your destination almost seems to eat up the ground behind you. Hopping
in, you see your packed bags are snug behind you in the second row and your
killer playlist is just a fired ignition and aux cord away from pumping you up for what is ahead. Now it is time to grab your phone and punch in your destination.
The navigation app loads and you’re in luck: traffic doesn’t
seem too bad. A minor accident on the pike, but it doesn’t seem too threatening,
and it will probably clear up by the time you make it to that point.
So, you’re good, and you’re off. No fender bender is going
to stand in your way.
Or will it?
Well I hate to break it to you, but in the 30 minutes
it took you to get to the pike that “fender bender” turned into a massive pile
up. And, of course, by the time this becomes painfully clear (is
that an upside down oil tanker?), you have passed all other exit options. So now
you are stuck. There is no way out short of making a run (on foot) for it. It’s
only you and your growing resentment and frustration over every other person on
the road.
 |
| Picture Source:Cloudfront |
Built as a social community-based sharing navigation app
extraordinaire, Waze was designed to help you avoid this all too familiar scenario and
so many more. Packaged as a social app hybrid of navigation and
community sharing, Waze has become the worlds largest social navigation app. Utilizing
the power of social conversation, Waze utilizes input from real drivers in
real-time to streamline how we commute from point A to point B
With Waze, users can share information immediately about
route issues, gas prices (so you don’t have to play the how-many-gas-stations–can-I-check-before–I-end-up-stranded-on-the-road game), keep other users informed
about your arrival time, and can even share where police traps are.
To add the cherry on top, users can take both a directly
active role (by reporting) or can keep a more passive role by simply using the
app and leaving it open, as the app only needs to be active to report information to the app (for more info Itunes Store).
Ahh-mazed? See below:
With a total of 4.6/5.0 stars on Google Play and close to 5.9 million reviews, users have been largely impressed by the real-time notifications, accuracy of alternative routes, functionality, and the ability for others to monitor your route. The only major areas of greviences, were the lag in showing the user alternantive routes, updates in recently added areas/locations, and the desire for beter speed notifications (Google Play). Four sample reviews below from Google Play:
While Google Maps has a spot in navigation app royalty, Google Maps lacks that social component that todays
users love and live on--and perhaps that is why Google acquired the company in 2013 for over 1 billion (Acquisition By Google). We don’t just want to know that there is an accident,
we want other drivers who are up close to the chaos to tell us if its big or small
and what the emergency services presence looks like.
 |
| Graph source:Blogspot |
We devour information in this age of technology, and our increasing use of social media supports the notion that we don't just love being in the know, we also love connecting with one another.
We love being members of a community and learning and sharing from
that community. The makers of Waze
struck gold when they recognized and capitalized on that baseline human social need. Now, even
navigation can be an outlet for community and conversation.
What are your thoughts? Would you make (or have made) the switch? Additionally, why do you think Google has not intergrated the two platforms?
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteGreat take on a solid app! I remember downloading Waze on my phone a long time ago but never really using it that often. I feel like it would definitely be worth another look considering all the issues that can arise on long distance trips with accidents, speed traps, and gas prices. For myself I would probably take a more passive approach while using Waze rather than an active role in doing the reporting of traffic conditions. The reason being that I wouldn't want to operate my phone that much while driving. I'm not sure if this has ever been a criticism of the app or not but maybe its one of the reasons Google has not integrated the two platforms. Some people may only want directions from point A to point B without anything else. However, I think the real-time notifications are outstanding and the quick ability to find alternative routes definitely can come in handy when avoiding traffic.
Rachel! I love that you picked Waze to talk about. I think it's an app that people who have it love, but many people are unaware of it! I use Waze whenever I am going somewhere new, or even somewhere far just to make sure I can get there the fastest. I like how you mentioned the sharing of information between other Waze users. Waze is a community, if you see a cop up ahead, you can add it so other Waze users are aware. I wonder if Google has not integrated the two platforms, not because it does not want to, but maybe because it can't. Waze is a community, and if Google bought it, the community would cease to exist, and Waze would be letting its users down.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I love this piece. I was not sure where I was going when you had me put my bags in the car but boy I was excited. I personally have not used Wazes before, but I was a passenger in a car driven by a Waze fanatic. I think google has attempted to incorporate it into its Google Maps app which I use a lot. I have recently noticed pop-ups recommending a faster route during my drives. However, that faster route turns out to be not that much faster and on certain occasions, actually slower. Thank you for the joy ride.
ReplyDelete