The companies include Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and TomTom, which together could facilitate a new wave of geolocation apps:
Some of Google's biggest rivals are coming together in a kind of rogues gallery with the hopes of creating new open source services to knock Google Maps from its mapping throne.
On Thursday, the nonprofit Linux Foundation announced its own open project that's meant to collate new map projects through available datasets. And several other major companies have come out of the woodwork to support it in what seems like a bid to finally end Google's domineering geolocation reign. Those companies include Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and none other than Dutch geolocation company TomTom.
This Overture Maps Foundation is essentially an open source program for curating and collating map data across the globe from multiple different data sources. So in essence, the project promises it will use the massive amount of global data housed by these various companies and from outside to build up-to-date maps that developers can then use. Linux also promised this new project will essentially level the playing field for anybody looking to develop up-to-date geolocation services or maps without breaking the bank on expensive commercial data that may not even be accurate.
[...] TomTom's CEO Harold Goddijn, said in a release "Overture's standardization and interoperable base map is fundamental to bringing geospatial information from the world together."
Previously: Why You Should Stop Using GPS Navigation
Related Stories
Take off the training wheels once in a while:
Turn-by-turn navigation on phones and dedicated GPS devices has made it much easier to travel. However, the reliance on GPS navigation comes at a cost—you never actually learn how to get anywhere. That's a problem.
My world changed when my HTC Eris received an update to enable turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps. I have always been comically bad at navigating. Even places I've been to dozens of times can escape my memory. So having a GPS device in my pocket gave me a lot of confidence to travel.
[...] Recently, I've made a concerted effort to rely less on GPS navigation. Sometimes I will literally just start driving and see what happens. Other times I'll look up my destination in Google Maps first to create a mental map in my head. If I get lost, I can pull out my phone to find my way. I've noticed an improvement in my navigation skills, but why is that?
[...] While some people are naturally better at navigating, it's like a lot of things in life—you just need practice. GPS is like training wheels on a bike. They certainly make it easier to ride the bike, but you don't have to practice balancing. When the training wheels come off, you go down.
If you never navigate without the help of GPS, you're building up a reliance on it. The more you use it, the more you need it. That's why it's important to ditch the GPS from time to time and navigate on your own terms. Maybe you get lost more often, but even that is a great learning experience.
Related journal article:
L. Dahmani, V.D. Bohbot. Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation [open]. Sci Rep 10, 6310 (2020). https://doi.org/10.11598-020-62877-0
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Saturday December 17 2022, @07:38PM (3 children)
How is it different to openstreetmap?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2022, @07:42PM (1 child)
I was thinking the same thing and could come up with only two reasons why they want to not use OSM:
- Not Invented Here syndrome
- They cannot control/corrupt OSM
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday December 18 2022, @01:00PM
On the other hand - it will not be under the sole control of Google who want to suck every bit of data from my web browsing.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Adam on Saturday December 17 2022, @07:58PM
via ArsTechnica:
One of the Overture site FAQs asks about OpenStreetMap and its relationship to Overture: "Overture is a data-centric map project, not a community of individual map editors. Therefore, Overture is intended to be complementary to OSM. We combine OSM with other sources to produce new open map data sets. Overture data will be available for use by the OpenStreetMap community under compatible open data licenses. Overture members are encouraged to contribute to OSM directly."
[...]
All this data and interoperability talk makes this project seem aimed more at the Google Maps API rather than the consumer-level navigation app. All of Google's mapping data is in the consumer app, but it's also up for grabs to developers via the Google Maps API. The API lets them embed a map into a project and draw a UI around it, or they can query the Google Maps database for specific info. For services like rideshares, shippers, food delivery services, and flight tracking, they often just want to show a map without having to worry about mapping the entire world and keeping it up to date. The Google Maps API lets any developer embed the world-class Google Maps dataset into their app, provided they're willing to pay a hefty price.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday December 17 2022, @07:57PM (2 children)
With
in the mix, it basically punts the ball down the road without solving anything. It just hands the vendor lock in token to a new owner.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday December 17 2022, @08:17PM
Correct. It's just the slow invisible hand doing its thing... slowly.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday December 17 2022, @09:12PM
Well, with a bit of luck, they are successful enough to be a serious competition to Google, but not successful enough to replace them. Which would lead to real competition i that area, which should be beneficial to the users.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Snotnose on Saturday December 17 2022, @10:50PM (2 children)
To shut y'all up, I'm using wireless to mean "no WiFi, using cell phone protocols to access the series of tubes"
I was with Virgin for years, I could get internet via wireless no issue. About a year or two ago T-Moble took over Virgin. I can no longer get internet via wireless. Instead I get "no WiFi available".
Sucks ass when I'm trying to use Google Maps to find my way away from home. Sucks when I have my map at home, but get on the road and the app, instead of using what is already loaded, decides to reload and give the "no Wifi available". I haz an idea. If you try to reload the map, but can't, mebbe y'all can just save the one that worked from home? Okay? We good?
Same price, less service, just what everyone outside of the government predicted when this buyout went through.
This actually needs go to the ars technica forum "things that piss me off".
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday December 18 2022, @02:16AM
Go to "Settings" on your phone. Select "Mobile Networks". Select "Network operators" Turn on "Select automatically" (unless you want to manually choose network---in that case Select "Access Point Names")
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2022, @06:28AM
That is why I changed from using Google maps to OSM - https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmand.plus/ [f-droid.org] - specifically the FDroid app. It Just Works (tm) offline when you have downloaded the latest maps. Install, connect to wifi, download maps, load, done.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BlueCoffee on Saturday December 17 2022, @11:03PM (2 children)
It would be nice if maps app designers picked more colors than just white for all of the roads and slightly offwhite for the background. Maybe they can copy paper maps from 30 years ago. Sometimes it's hard to see white on almost-white on bright days.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2022, @11:19PM
Use design schemes that have evolved and been optimized for their utility vs. color schemes and layout determined by a focus group?'
That's crazy talk, man.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday December 18 2022, @01:20AM
Google maps used to have a sane color scheme when it first came out. I remember being able to print pages as-is, without having to first load them in to a paint program and fudging with the contrast. But at the time there was some dumb trend in mobile shit to make everything visually washed down and they followed it. It's bad enough now, sometimes I even have to use a paint program on map images just to see things on the screen.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday December 18 2022, @04:33AM (3 children)
"The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend"
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Hyper on Sunday December 18 2022, @02:18PM (2 children)
https://schlockmercenary.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries [fandom.com]
29. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday December 18 2022, @08:02PM (1 child)
Rule of Acquisition 76: [fandom.com]
"Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies. "
Thank you for the link to the Maxims. The bookmark to it now resides right next to the link to
The Very Complete, Very Extended, Printer Friendly, Evil Overlord List (plus other evil stuff) [worldconquer.org] :D
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Tuesday December 20 2022, @05:22AM
That link is like showing someone TV Tropes [tvtropes.org] for the first time.
I like that rule, and have used it myself. It really does confuse people to just stop fighting. I wonder if Google will take this onboard some time and just be nice