smaps.co.nz closing Dec 1?

Forums › Off topic › smaps.co.nz closing Dec 1?

3g

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#28241 23-Nov-2008 20:58

It's been a crazy time both @ work and @ home lately, so maybe I missed the discussion - but I logged into smaps.co.nz tonight and see that it's permanently closing Dec 1?
Anybody enlighten me as to why? (link / information / opinion)??
Nigel H.

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#179715 23-Nov-2008 21:13

i guess google maps has taken all the business?

sbiddle

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#179716 23-Nov-2008 21:22

Trademe are moving all their mapping to Google rather than focussing on their own system.

I liked Smaps but it lacks many of the features that are available through Google so they have made the decision to move rather than enhance their own product.. A shame really - I loved Smaps as well.

NZtechfreak

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#179723 23-Nov-2008 21:29

Ah, what a shame.

I see the sense in it, but still would like to see kiwi-produced services out there...

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freitasm

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#179727 23-Nov-2008 21:40

Hmmm. The story is probably a bit different guys.

Smaps was a Trade Me service, but using ProjectX technology - the same used by Zoomin. ProjectX is now a Google maps enterprise reseller. It seems their original geo information supplier did something in terms of pricing making it inviable to continue on that path.

So I guess the smaps closure is cosequence of that - I don't know exactly what's going on, but the technology was never "Trade Me" I think.

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#179745 23-Nov-2008 22:15

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4768678a28.html

hellonearthisman

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#179749 23-Nov-2008 22:26

It was mentioned here. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4768678a28.html [snap]

Quote: TradeMe business manager Mike O'Donnell said while they had received a great amount of positive feedback from users, they had decided to concentrate on areas where they had an advantage.
“At the end of the day doing mapping well is about innovating and moving quickly.

“We’ve got a few other businesses that are doing quite well as well and we decided to focus on our core businesses and pretty much just accept that we were unlikely to beat Google at this game,” he said."

And they learned to do some pretty cool stuff along the way.

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ryank

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#180043 24-Nov-2008 19:58

It was always kinda dumb how most people don't put the address of the property they're offering on there, so the map is fairly useless anyway. But that's not really anything to do with smaps, just a pet peeve of mine. :)

munchkin

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#180084 24-Nov-2008 22:24

IMO, Google Maps was always better.

tonyhughes

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#180087 24-Nov-2008 22:27

Smaps.

Quick. Easy. Simple.

RIP.

Google Maps.

Also pretty darn good.

wigsgiw

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#180548 26-Nov-2008 22:21

I have always prefered smaps over Google Maps. Why?

1) New Zealand based.

2) Ajax auto-complete search. Hawt.

2) Well it is the ultimate in web geekery, but the URL structure.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1+grove+st,+st+kilda,+dunedin&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.726391,62.402344&ie=UTF8&ll=-45.898745,170.505044&spn=0.007885,0.015235&z=16&g=1+grove+st,+st+kilda,+dunedin&iwloc=addr

vs

http://smaps.co.nz/nz/dunedin/st+kilda/grove+street/1/

No comparison.

RIP smaps - I will miss you dearly and will hate sending addresses using Google Maps with a passion, just for you. Or I'll use http://schmap.me for everything.

JimmyLizar

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#180552 26-Nov-2008 22:33

I also loved smaps. So simple and very good autocomplete

Looks like its Google Maps + Tiny URL from now on. :-(

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gza

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#180635 27-Nov-2008 11:10

Why don't they sell smaps.co.nz instead of closing it down?
Surely it has some value to someone.?

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154,00 visitors a month.

If you were to throw some AdSense code on there it would make a profit.

I agree Google maps is a far superior product with many more advanced features, however smaps has easy usability.

RedJungle

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#180640 27-Nov-2008 11:26

They possibly don't "own" the mapping data - there is usually an on-going licensing cost in using and keeping up to date with the latest spacial datasets - and it's usually not cheap.

Remember, as Mauricio pointed out - Project X themselves moved to google because of licensing issues with data providers.

gza

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#180954 28-Nov-2008 17:21

Yes, I understand that they do not own the technology.

I am saying that the url still has value, they should put it up for sale on tradme, $1 reserve.

hellonearthisman

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#180970 28-Nov-2008 19:09

gza: Yes, I understand that they do not own the technology.

I am saying that the url still has value, they should put it up for sale on tradme, $1 reserve.

It took a but if hardware as well to feed all the map views, so selling it would be hard, plus the intellectual property would be worth more than the auction would get.

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