Symbian in Motion

Nokia Plazes - Is it Going Anywhere?

by Abul at 6:03 am | July 29th, 2008 | Category: Social Networking / Microblogging

It’s been a just over  a month since I brought you the news that Nokia had acquired Plazes. Eager to see what it was all about and how it worked I quickly began to test it out by signing up and using the service. Having tried for a week or two it seemed nothing special but did what it was built to do all though it was slightly slow and got lost when entering a post code in London, something I find silly as that is what it was designed to do! Get people together to socialise!

Having lost interest in the service I gave up after a week, it wasn’t ready for my  needs yet. Moving forward a month I’m back because someone had added me on Plazes as a contact / friend, fine I logged in and accepted. As it happens I’ve got 2 social events happening (there are more but for the sake of argument, I’m highlighting these two) a colleague’s leaving do and Mobile Geeks of London IV.  So here I am entering the details and such just in case someone wanted to know what I was doing or might want to join me, Mobile Geeks of London entered - fine, Leaving do location entered using Post Code - fine, or so I thought! Looking at my Radar I see that the leaving do has been marked on the Map somewhere near Embankment (see picture below, which is half way across the City. Now this isn’t something new, this was already a problem before, Plazes failed to recognise my Post Code for my office and put me again - across town somewhere. So here’s my problem - Plazes isn’t doing what it’s essentially designed to do - get people together, how can people get together if Plazes tells me my friends are somewhere they are clearly not? How can Plazes function if it cannot recognise something simple like Post Codes and place them on a map? Google Maps has no problem (see picture below) and from what I can see Plazes is using Google Maps to place where you are - so how is this possible!?

Plazes - FAIL!
Plazes

Google Maps - Pass
The Habit

Looking at the site, the website has had a facelift and the menu’s etc have been moved around, but yet there are issues with the site not working (see picture below) which I can understand, but essentially not being able to do something simple as putting a post code on a map? Plazes Right Place, Right Time - FAIL!
Error 500

Viewing 7 Comments

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    This is a sorry excuse for an app. I tried it too and wasn't very pleased with it. Even if it worked I would have no friends who would use it. Why use yet an other chat app just because it has location sharing? You can do that with Google maps already! Having it integrated in a chat app is great, but It should be an add-on to the already existing chat apps, and not a whole new one. Oh yeah and it should WORK!
    Nokia should concentrate on getting their browser up to date not venture off and create stuff that is already there IMHO.
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    Unfortunately our servers are currently overloaded and we are trying to fix the problem as soon as possible without affecting any functionality of the site.
    On the other hand please notice that even if we use Google to design our maps, we get the geo-coordinates from another provider. We are trying anyway to give a closer look to your problem and deliver a better service. In particular, if you don't provide both street address and post code, our algorithm locate the Plaze you define in the default location close to Embankment you are writing of...
    We feel and share your disappointment and frustration but we are trying to do our best and your critics are exactly what let us improve.
    I'm sure you are going to experience a Plazes with better performance very soon.

    @kozjegyzo: Plazes is not a chat app. It's an application that let you share your location, let friends know where you're at and make upcoming plans, see who's crossing your path and what's happening nearby. Although I agree that there are several services like this, more or less similar, Plazes has been the first one and it's definitively not "just a map".
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    Guiseppe, Thanks for dropping by with an answer. I just find it strange that a location can't be obtained and placed on a map with a Post Code. I'm not sure what system you guys are using but clearly it's not 100% efficient. In future I'll try putting in the street name in combination with the Post Code, I just hope there will be progression made in using the service, as essentially getting the location right is the key aspect with Plazes.
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    I've been testing different scenarios today to reproduce your problem and I already informed my colleagues: I'm sure they are going to fix it very soon.
    Thanks anyway for trying out Plazes.
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    Hi Abul, we finally found the problem :-) Apparently our provider, Maporama, finds correctly the postcode EC3N 2DD only if the city is not specified. Because on Plazes the city is a mandatory field, we deliver to Maporama the information "EC3N 2DD + London" and we get the wrong location back :-( If you specify also the street address, everything should work fine again.
    I know this is disappointing... We really feel the same and we are definitively going to report this to Maporama and find a solution.
    If you prefer to show only the postcode of a Plaze and not the full street address you can just edit the Plaze and manually move the pin to correct the wrong position delivered.
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    Thanks for the update, hope you guys get this sorted out.
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    It takes 12 to 18 months after an acquistion of this sort to show any fruit unless the technologies were already very closely aligned. While Nokia can do what it can to keep the service running as it is, the truth of the matter is that Plazes staff is busy learning Nokia's tech and way of doing things, while getting little to no time to keep up the tech they invented.

    So relax; things will happen in time. In the meantime, submit a trouble ticket to Plazes and Nokia, and continue to use what you can.

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