A group of tech companies, including Meta, Microsoft, TomTom, and Amazon Web Services, is releasing a dataset of map data that could be used to create new mapping products that take on Apple Maps and Google Maps. The dataset includes 59 million points of interest, such as restaurants and landmarks, and was collected and donated by Meta and Microsoft.
The Overture Maps Foundation, which was established late last year, captured 59 million “points of interest,” such as restaurants, landmarks, streets and regional borders. The data has been cleaned and formatted so it can be used for free as the base layer for a new map application.
Meta and Microsoft collected and donated the data to Overture, according to Marc Prioleau, executive director of the OMF. Data on places is often difficult to collect and license, and building map data requires lots of time and staff to gather and clean it, he told CNBC in an interview.
For many companies, Google’s and Apple’s maps aren’t ideal, because they don’t provide access to the underlying data. Instead, those companies allow app makers to use their maps as a service and, in many cases, charge each time the underlying map is accessed.
For example, app makers pay per thousand Google Maps lookups through an application programming interface (API). Apple allows access to Apple Maps for free for native app developers, but web app developers need to pay.
Overture is only offering the underlying map data, leaving it up to companies to build their own software on top of it.
MacDailyNews Take: OpenStreetMap redux – and likely to be about as successful.
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If they can create something comparable, it would be a definite winner and compelling to potential users if they avoid displaying ads in the results the way Apple does. That’s definitely not a win for user experience.
With Meta and Amazon involved, expect the ads to be much worse.
Likely Amazon and Meta wanting to monetize this data with location based advertising. Huge opportunity for them.