Paktive – a flop landmarking portal
I recently got a link to Paktive – a Google maps based land marking site. The portal basically lists all the important landmarks, parks, restaurants, services and businesses. Although we can find all these listings on Wikimapia but the site has gone a step ahead.
They have divided the cities (currently catering to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi)into geographical zones and have also listed the important places in sidebars. This makes easy for an average Joe to find a particular landmark.
The site, overall, is a total flop. We need ventures like Naqsha and other routing portals and not semi rip-offs of Wikimapia.
Reasons for this ‘conclusion’ and how they can improve it
I reached that rather ‘acerbic’ conclusion because the site has practically nothing to offer as such. Wikimapia is a great place to search for landmarks and I found nothing extraordinary on this portal. Why go for this when you get ample info on other portals?
Having said that, they can still improve the outlook of this site. Street mapping or using pictures/descriptions about the places listed. Another way of expanding this site is to make it a city directory with maps, reviews and discussion boards – a full package. If they can do these updates and create some buzz then this portal can be a hit. What do you guys think?
5:58 pm
After visiting the Paktive, I would agree. But just saying it’s a flop without saying how or why comes short of a good review. I’m sure you can do better, Saad.
7:31 pm
My take is in detail on my blog. But in two lines here is what i think:
They are flop because they are not solving the core problem. They are just trying to put together a few tools that only nerds will use.
7:53 am
Looks fine to me, still better than other unfinished c*** I see coming out of.
9:04 am
Saad,
I think more explanation is needed on why you think its a flop, plus some suggestions on what would have made it a lot better / more relevant to pakistan’s unique challenges.
9:48 am
Criticising is the easiest thing to do, secondly while writing a review you need to think beyond your own self. If you so firmly believe it is a flop. Create a poll and let people decide then just like someone writing a piece in a very bad mood call it outright flop.
4:01 am
Only map points are not enough. Atleast they should provide complete route to the destination.
8:59 am
We assume simple site is simpler. Take example of map quest you see few pages, you assume it is 3 person company.
Map Quest beside having cartographic software have scouts who drive around doing checks of each routes. Providing complete route is a challenge for a small market Pakistan has.
I seriously doubt anyone would put that amount of resources for this site.
It is not a flop cos I see potential and hard work in it. Good work.