I’ve signed up for Plazes (rcadden) and will be playing with it as much as possible over the next few days. However, frankly, I’m not really sure what it’s for, and why I would want to use Plazes over the similar services I’m already using. Luckily, I managed to find this walkthrough video, created by Felix, the dude in charge over there.
I do have a few thoughts already, though. For one, Plazes seems to be mainly a desktop-use service. There are downloadable clients for Windows and OSX (Sorry Linux users), but no mobile client. Ironically, there is also a Plazes client for the Nokia Internet Tablets, though I believe it’s a user-created tool, not an official application. Instead, the company seems to rely on SMS to update, which I find rather frustrating. As Duncan Sample points out on Jaiku, it’s not that difficult to setup a mobile-friendly site, even just with limited functionality.The only thing that I can think of is that Plazes seems to be able to pinpoint your location based on the WiFi you’re connected to, which might be something to incorporate into Nokia Maps. However, I can’t believe that’s the only reason Nokia would purchase an entire company, so who knows.
What do you think? Are you an active Plazes user already? Do you see something in this purchase that I’m missing?
Dear Guru, there are several reasons why a company like Nokia would buy Plazes. We may simply say that both are “connecting people” The importance and success of location based services is also incontrovertible and Plazes was one of the first out there.
I think that time will show us the power that lies beside this acquisition: Plazes is the Platform meticulously built in the last few years and continuously improving but Plazes is also the People behind it, who made all this possible and who have the perfect knowledge of the “social web to go”.
Well I’ve had a plazes badge on my blog for the last couple of years. I can’t see any great synergies between Nokia and Plazes as is; as an acquisition it does make a statement of intent with regards to direction, and as Giuseppe remarks, they get the people behind it.
Giuseppe - Thanks for chiming in. I’m still exploring Plazes, so there’s likely something I’ve missed. Hopefully you didn’t take offense, I’m only just checking it out, so it’s likely I haven’t found that ‘killer use’ yet.
In any case, congratulations on the Nokia deal, I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.
You’re all missing the point — Plazes is the first system like it that’s built on locations. Every Twitter-like update is connected to a physical location, and when I SMS in my status, it’s designed to parse out a location after an @ sign.
So far all that can be done with it is to SMS in the command “contacts?” and receive an SMS back listing which of my friends are near me. But obviously Nokia can clean up the interface, tie it in with GPS, and create the first true mobile location-based presence system.
So wait and see — given a social network and presence system that appears to be built for locations, Nokia can fix up the interface and app layers.
Dear Guru, there are several reasons why a company like Nokia would buy Plazes. We may simply say that both are “connecting people”
The importance and success of location based services is also incontrovertible and Plazes was one of the first out there.
I think that time will show us the power that lies beside this acquisition: Plazes is the Platform meticulously built in the last few years and continuously improving but Plazes is also the People behind it, who made all this possible and who have the perfect knowledge of the “social web to go”.
Well I’ve had a plazes badge on my blog for the last couple of years. I can’t see any great synergies between Nokia and Plazes as is; as an acquisition it does make a statement of intent with regards to direction, and as Giuseppe remarks, they get the people behind it.
Giuseppe - Thanks for chiming in. I’m still exploring Plazes, so there’s likely something I’ve missed. Hopefully you didn’t take offense, I’m only just checking it out, so it’s likely I haven’t found that ‘killer use’ yet.
In any case, congratulations on the Nokia deal, I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.
You’re all missing the point — Plazes is the first system like it that’s built on locations. Every Twitter-like update is connected to a physical location, and when I SMS in my status, it’s designed to parse out a location after an @ sign.
So far all that can be done with it is to SMS in the command “contacts?” and receive an SMS back listing which of my friends are near me. But obviously Nokia can clean up the interface, tie it in with GPS, and create the first true mobile location-based presence system.
So wait and see — given a social network and presence system that appears to be built for locations, Nokia can fix up the interface and app layers.