Waze: Community GPS Navigation

When it's time to get from point A to B, there are all sorts of map and navigation applications to choose from--including Google's own Maps and Navigation apps. However, I keep finding myself coming back to Waze for around-town navigation. The name of the game here is crowdsourcing, as Waze's maps are built from the ground up using data generated by every driver running the app on a handset. In theory, as millions of data points are fed into Waze's database daily, the already good maps should continue get even better over time.

However, Waze's best use of this user-generated data is in its free traffic service, which provides incident and flow data for any street that enough of its users are driving on. Not only does this help me avoid traffic jams, but it also helps me to avoid road hazards--users can also report traffic and red-light cameras and police speed traps. I also like the scoreboard system that gives the most active contributors a bit of recognition.

Price: Free

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