Places.ae, the cool Dubai location based directory, previously reviewed here, have released a new interesting feature called “Places Answering Machine (PAM)”, which acts as an interface for Places.ae with other communication channels on the internet, thereby enabling users to ask Places.ae for places directly through these channels without having to visit the website.
They’ve currently launched with Google Talk and Twitter support, and more channels should be added soon.
For Google Talk users, all you have to do is add places.ae@gmail.com in your contact list then ask PAM to find you something by sending a message in the following format:
find me <something> in <area> (e.g. find me pizza in jumeirah).
You can also use a search term without an area, using find me <something>.
If you’re using Twitter, you’ll have to start following the user places_ae, and once it starts following you back, you can send it a direct message to search for a place:
d places_ae <something> in <area> (e.g. d places_ae pizza in jumeirah).
PAM is still in the beta stage, and more work is currently being put into it’s communication skills and the layout of the sent answers. But it’s still a really nice feature, worth checking out and using for quick searches.
Hi Mohamed,
Thanks for the post, it was, and is, a fun project.
Keep up the great work.
-m1ke
Hi Mohamed,
Thanks for the post, it was, and is, a fun project.
Keep up the great work.
-m1ke
the idea is very cool, but i have the following comments:
1. since the targeted audience seems to be dubais population, MSN messenger might bd a better choice because of its populariy.
2. twitter is blocked in the UAE, how will dubai people search for stuff in dubai through twitter?
the idea is very cool, but i have the following comments:
1. since the targeted audience seems to be dubais population, MSN messenger might bd a better choice because of its populariy.
2. twitter is blocked in the UAE, how will dubai people search for stuff in dubai through twitter?
Hi Murshed,
Good point! You’re right about Twitter, but we try to see places.?? (maybe not only .ae forever) in the bigger picture and mashing it up with Twitter was a fun coding challenge (definitely not finished yet). That’s why we’ll focus on adding additional channels like Windows Live Messenger.
Actually we used the Twitter implementation mainly through Twitter’s UK SMS number to check out mobile usage. Because we’re very close to launching an SMS service with a local UAE number.
Thanks for your comments! And shouts to Mohamed for blogging about us!
Regards,
Michael
Hi Murshed,
Good point! You’re right about Twitter, but we try to see places.?? (maybe not only .ae forever) in the bigger picture and mashing it up with Twitter was a fun coding challenge (definitely not finished yet). That’s why we’ll focus on adding additional channels like Windows Live Messenger.
Actually we used the Twitter implementation mainly through Twitter’s UK SMS number to check out mobile usage. Because we’re very close to launching an SMS service with a local UAE number.
Thanks for your comments! And shouts to Mohamed for blogging about us!
Regards,
Michael