Plazes AG was a Berlin, Germany-based
geosocial networking
Geosocial networking is a type of social networking in which geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enable additional social dynamics. site. Plazes allowed users to post their location and current activities and share this information with other Plazes users via computers or mobile telephones. On 23 June 2008,
Nokia Corporation
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
announced plans to acquire Plazes. Plazes was subsequently integrated to Nokia Maps which itself was integrated to HERE Maps.
History
Plazes AG introduced the beta version of the Plazes service on 16 August 2004. The service was continually updated and began to attract attention on technology blogs. In October 2004, Plazes introduced two
APIs: a Web-based API that advised users of the current location of other Plazes users; and a launcher API that allowed users to create their own Plazes launchers. In January 2005, Plazes introduced a
Movable Type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation m ...
plugin that allowed users to automatically include or add their location to blog postings. In June 2005, Plazes created an API that allowed users to access photos from their
Flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...
accounts and to add those photos to their Plazes accounts. A Flickr group of Plazes users quickly sprang up. In 2006, Plazes was awarded the LeadAward in Bronze in the Category "WebLeader 2006″.
Notable features
Web interface
The Plazes Web interface allows users to post a location, the time of day they will be at the location and the activity they will be engaged in at the location. This information can be shared with people selected by the user, Plazes contacts or all members of the Plazes community. In addition to the Web interface, users can update their location using Plazer (see below), via
text message
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...
or vi
m.plazes.com the mobile Plazes Web site. Plazes users are able to publish their Plazes location on
Fire Eagle
Fire Eagle was a Yahoo! owned service that stores a user's location and shares it with other authorized services. It was created at Yahoo! Brickhouse by a team which included among others Evan Henshaw-Plath, Tom Coates, Simon Willison, Jeannie H. ...
, Twitter,
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
, MySpace and on the user's blog.
The Web interface allows users to invite others to join Plazes. Plazes can search a user's
Gmail
Gmail is a free email service provided by Google. As of 2019, it had 1.5 billion active users worldwide. A user typically accesses Gmail in a web browser or the official mobile app. Google also supports the use of email clients via the POP and ...
,
Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
or
Hotmail
Outlook.com is a webmail service that is part of the Microsoft 365 product family. It offers mail, Calendaring software, calendaring, Address book, contacts, and Task management, tasks services.
Founded in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smit ...
or
Microsoft Outlook contacts and send invitations to these contacts.
Plazes allows users to create groups or to join an existing group of Plazes users. Under the Groups tab, Plazes suggests groups that the user may wish to join, as well as offer the user the opportunity to search for existing groups. If the user wants to create a group, the user will need to select a group name and a draft a brief description of the group. The user may add an image to the group to help differentiate it from other groups.
Plazes has a radar function that allows users to discover other Plazes users that are located near the user's current location. The Plazes Radar generates a list of the locations close to the user's current location and lists the number of Plazes users that have previously stated they were at that location. When the user clicks on the location name, information about the user that was at that location is displayed along with a description of the user's activity at the location.
Plazes Launcher/Plazer
The Plazes Launcher was a client application that allowed Plazes users to update their location and current activities without having to log onto plazes.com. The launcher would detect the
MAC address
A media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment. This use is common in most IEEE 802 networking tec ...
of the user's current router, and query the Plazes database to see if the router already had a "plaze" associated with it. If no existing plaze was found, the user would be prompted to enter details about the plaze, including a name and its physical location.
In March 2006, the Plazes Launcher was rebranded as Plazer. Plazer is integrated with Skype; Skype users are able to publish their location on Skype via Plazer. Plazer is available for Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone and iPod touch, and Symbian. There was also a third-party Plazer available for Nokia's
Maemo
Maemo is a software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and SDK. Maemo played a key role in Nokia's strategy to c ...
devices.
Acquisition by Nokia
In August 2007, Nokia announced that it was moving into the services field with the introduction of
Ovi. Nokia Maps became part of the Ovi service offering. On 23 June 2008, Nokia Corporation announced plans to acquire Plazes. As part of the acquisition, Plazes gained access to the millions of users that own a Nokia device. At the same time, Nokia gained technology and a research team that was on the cutting edge of the
geosocial networking
Geosocial networking is a type of social networking in which geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enable additional social dynamics. trend.
The acquisition closed on 15 July 2008.
Post acquisition, Plazes became part of Nokia's Services business unit.
Closure
On 4 May 2012 the Plazes team sent an email message for their users informing that on the next week will go out of service. Users could export their Plazes history to Nokia Maps which itself was integrated to HERE Maps.
See also
*
Geosocial networking
Geosocial networking is a type of social networking in which geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enable additional social dynamics.
*
Location-based service
A location-based service (LBS) is a general term denoting software services which use geographic data and information to provide services or information to users. LBS can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, indoor object search, en ...
*
Nokia Corporation
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
*
List of acquisitions by Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation, founded in 1865. It is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki. Nokia is engaged in the manufacturing of mobile devices and in co ...
References
External links
www.plazes.comblog.plazes.comm.plazes.commaps.ovi.com
{{Nokia
Internet properties established in 2004
Geosocial networking
Wireless locating
Nokia services