Plazes

I've had a spin around Plazes - a European based social networking site. The basic idea is for people to share places they like. Simple enough. Some nice features makes for a good foundation. However, the BETA product has some critical limitations.

For once, it's not clear why "I have to use this." I mean, there's a lot of sites out there, such as Yelp, that gives me useful information on interesting places, cafes, bars, car-repair shops. What's is the unique value in Plazes? It's possible that there is something truly unique in the combination of features, but the value is not clear upon entry and that could turn off many prospective users.

earchFurthermore, the User Experience leaves much to be desired. For example, I would think one primary action existing users would want to take is to 1) "Login, and 2) "Add a new place" to my list. That should be really simple, right? Well, it's not and that turned me off.

Yes, I realize that there are tools for users to integrate SMS/Mobile features and what seems to be useful plugins. In my experience, people won't monkey around with download and installing features unless the value proposition is super clear.

I think there is potential here. Make it simple, clarify the "one thing Plazes does best" and this might get off the ground.