Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and TomTom, a mapping provider, are developing an initiative to compete with Google Maps and Apple Maps. After establishing the Overture Maps Foundation last year with the intention of developing interoperable map solutions, the four firms have now made available their first open map dataset.
For developers who prefer not to use Apple or Google Maps, the new free resource may be an attractive alternative.
The data will enable third-party developers to compete with Google Maps and Apple Maps by creating their own global mapping or navigation product. Overture claims that the release contains information on over 59 million points of interest, in addition to information on buildings, transportation networks, and administrative areas.
According to Overture, the data layers have been prepared so that developers may “ingest and use map data in a standard, documented way and will be interoperable.” The data is useful for developers creating mapping applications or other location-based services. You can find the Overture dataset on its site.
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A free innovation for developers
“The Places dataset in particular represents a major, previously unavailable open dataset,” says Marc Prioleau, Overture’s executive director, in a statement. “It has the potential to map everything from new businesses big and small to pop-up street markets located anywhere in the world.” “Overture intends to establish extensive cooperation that can construct and sustain an extensive and updated database of POIs” (points of interest).
The Overture Maps Foundation was established only last year, but it already poses a serious challenge to the dominance of Google and Apple in the mapping market. Having the data readily accessible could render it simpler — and considerably less expensive — for developers to develop applications. The Google Maps API currently has a developer fee, while Apple has comparable rates for developers creating non-native applications.
Using this open-source tool, developers may create their own navigation and mapping experiences without relying on (and in many instances paying for) services like Google Maps or Apple Maps. As a matter of fact, one of the Overture Maps Foundation’s missions is to encourage developers to “avoid depending on closed-source or proprietary tools and technologies.”
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The new open-source mapping resource from the Overture Maps Foundation leverages the features of the Overture Data Schema, which was created with the intention of being “easy for developers to quickly understand and use in building map products.” The team says it “intends to release open map data on a regular cadence in the future, the date of subsequent releases has not been established yet.”
The first release from the Overture Maps Foundation is