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Waze (pronounced ''ways),'' formerly "Freemap", is a GPS-based geographical navigation application program for smartphones with GPS support and display screens which provides turn-by-turn information and user-submitted travel times and route details, downloading location-dependent information over mobile networks. Waze was developed in Israel, funded by early-stage American venture capital firm Bluerun Ventures, and was acquired by Google in 2013. Waze won the Best Overall Mobile App award at the 2013 Mobile World Congress, beating Dropbox, Flipboard and others. On June 11, 2013, Google completed the acquisition of Waze for a reported US$1.3 billion.〔Chan, Edwin. ("Google buys Israel’s Waze to protect mobile maps lead." ) ''Jewish Journal''. June 11, 2013. June 11, 2013.〕 As part of the deal signed, each of Waze's 100 employees will receive an average of about $1.2 million, which represents the largest payout to employees in the history of Israeli high tech. Waze supports Android, iPhone, Symbian, BlackBerry 10 (except BlackBerry Q10),〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Waze FAQs )〕 Windows Phone 8 and Windows Mobile from version 5.〔(Waze Support, Quick Help. ) Type "Windows mobile" in search box. Shows "How to install Waze" with download for WM5-6 on device from https://m.waze.com. Also Symbian and old Blackberry.〕 In July 2013 Waze said that they were planning to support both iPhone and Android, and would consider supporting new platforms. As older platforms (Symbian, WM, BlackBerry) do not support either a full native UI or other application programming interfaces they rely on, they could not support them, although existing versions would continue to work.〔(Waze Support, Quick Help. ) Type "Future Waze versions" in search box. Shows "Future Waze versions and operating systems". States that current versions for WM, BB and Symbian will continue to be available.〕 Currently, the Windows Mobile version is no longer working, as it is unable to connect to the routing server. == History == During 2006, a community project was founded by Ehud Shabtai - "FreeMap Israel". The aim of the project was to create, by the community users, a free digital database of the map of Israel, and to ensure its free content, update and distribution, for non-commercial usage, as convenient as possible. During 2008, the project website stated: “We have a new name and address. From now on, we are called Waze”. Parallelly, LinQmap was founded in Israel by Uri Levine, software engineer Ehud Shabtai, and Amir Shinar. During 2009, the company name was changed to Waze Mobile Ltd. In December 2011, Waze employed 80 people, composed of 70 at Ra'anana, Israel and 10 in Palo Alto, California.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=58203778 )〕 In 2010, the company raised $25 million in the second round of funding.〔(Waze revs up crowdsourced driving app with $25M ). Venturebeat. December 7, 2010〕 In 2011, the company, which planned to monetize through location based advertising and to expand into Asia, raised an additional $30 million in financing.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Waze」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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