Nokia buys Plazes location-aware social network
Nokia has bought the German web startup Plazes, a location-aware social network which lets users find out where their friends are and what they’re doing — a sort of “Twitter meets Google Maps” mashup.
It’s not yet known exactly how much Nokia paid for the service, or what they intend to do with it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a part of Nokia’s Ovi service, pushing the company further into mobile services as well as simply making handsets.
Though, according to Plazes’ blog, the service will eventually be ported to the iPhone 3G, it’s expected that Nokia’s acquisition could be a tactical move ahead of a rush of location-aware services expected to descend upon the GPS-enabled iPhone 3G come July.
Plazes is still in closed beta phase, and it will be interesting to see whether Nokia opens up the service and perhaps links it in with other applications.
Plazes (via Mashable)
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