Waze 3.0 brings Yelp, Foursquare integration

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Waze this morning has taken the wraps off Version 3.0, which brings Foursquare and Yelp integration to the Android navigation app. It's also bringing a new minimal user interface, and social location stack, meaning more community-currated information than ever.

We've got the full press release and download links after the break.

Waze, the World’s Fastest-Growing Driving Community Launches v3.0 for Android; Crowd Goes Wild

Foursquare & Yelp Integration Brings Social Layer to Android Navigation

(Palo Alto, Ca.) January 31, 2012 -- Waze, the now 12 million-strong community of traffic resistors is happy to announce the newest tool in the battle against traffic: version 3.0 for Android. The latest iteration of the app features a complete overhaul from the ground up, including a new minimalist graphic interface as well as Foursquare and Yelp POI integration to make it the most powerful local search navigation system on the market.

New Minimalist UI

The new graphic redesign takes full advantage of Android phones’ screen size by minimizing the Waze interface to display only 2 large buttons on a full screen map. In addition, a new display of traffic and events en route helps drivers makes the smartest travel choices before they leave. The guidance system has also been amplified with large fonts and complete text-to-speech capabilities for optimized hands-free navigation -- plus the new aesthetic gives the app a little more swagger and style.

The New Social Location Stack

Traditional GPS systems are built on static, old world maps and points of interest, which never reflect real-time information about new businesses, pop-up shops, or live local events. The new social eco-system provides a combination of consumer-generated data from people driving, checking in, and reviewing locations in real-time. This layer of social location information is now available to drivers in a navigation setting. With community-curated data from Waze, Foursquare, and Yelp, drivers can now search for real-time events as easily as they would find their local Walmart.

#1 Transportation App With 87,000 Reviews & 4 ½ Stars

The Waze Android community sure is passionate about outsmarting traffic together. Waze is consistently number one in the free transportation apps in the Android Marketplace, maintaining a steady 4 ½ star rating from nearly 87,000 reviews; nearly 5 times the count of the next most popular app.

Waze is available for free in the Android Marketplace or at http://m.waze.com.

About Waze

Waze is a social traffic & navigation app based on the world's largest community of drivers sharing real time road info and contributing to the “common good” out there on the road. By simply driving around with Waze open users passively contribute traffic and other road data. Users can take a more active role by sharing road reports on accidents, police traps, or any other hazards along the way, helping to give other users in the area a 'heads-up' about what's to come– and because it’s 100% user-generated, the more people who use Waze, the better (and more fun) it gets!

Phil Nickinson