Waze Finds Means

Waze, the social networking traffic and navigation app that adds user updates in real time on traffic and road conditions to the typical turn-by-turn directions of a navigation system, got another $25 million venture capital boost yesterday.

Ultimately, this is another location-based marketing play, in which advertising based on proximity will be pushed to users as they roll by the location.  CEO Noam Bardin noted that "location is all about relevancy, and what’s more relevant than showing you coupons around the routes you drive and what’s available at your destination when you arrive?"

What is fascinating here is indeed the routes perspective, marketing to commuters not on the basis of where they live, not on the basis of where they work, and not on the basis of how these relate to the work and home locations of friends - but based on their dynamic location on routes they travel each day, and how these interconnect with those of friends, family, clients and colleagues. 

Whether Waze can improve upon and differentiate from established players in this regard remains to be seen.  But if they can somehow entice users with games, geocaches and other content and build upon their 2.2 million user base, they might build this into something that will be useful for traffic counts as well as social networking and location based marketing.