Overture Maps Emerge to Compete with Google

 Nice to see Competitive Geographical mapping, been using Google for some time.   Google has done a great job,  but want to see yet more creative things.   Open Source I see.   Note the number of participants. 

Linux, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft want to break the Google Maps monopoly

Overture Maps Foundation wants to end the oppressive rule of the Google Maps API.   By Ron Amadeo - 12/16/2022, 

Google Maps is getting some competition. The Linux Foundation has announced Overture Maps, a "new collaborative effort to develop interoperable open map data as a shared asset that can strengthen mapping services worldwide." It's an open source mapping effort that includes a list of heavy hitters: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, Microsoft, and TomTom, with the foundation adding that the project is "open to all communities with a common interest in building open map data."

The Linux Foundation has a press release about the project and a new website for the Overture Maps Foundation. The press release outlined the scope of the project, which aims to deliver:

Collaborative Map Building: Overture aims to incorporate data from multiple sources including Overture Members, civic organizations, and open data sources.

Global Entity Reference System: Overture will simplify interoperability with a system that links entities from different data sets to the same real-world entities.

Quality Assurance Processes: Overture data will undergo validation to detect map errors, breakage, and vandalism to help ensure that map data can be used in production systems.

Structured Data Schema: Overture will define and drive adoption of a common, structured, and documented data schema to create an easy-to-use ecosystem of map data.

If you're saying, "Wait! isn't there already an open source map community out there?"  There is, and it's called "OpenStreetMap," the Wikipedia of maps that anyone can edit. The Overture press release says, "The project will seek to integrate with existing open map data from projects such as OpenStreetMap and city planning departments, along with new map data contributed by members and built using computer vision and AI/ML techniques to create a living digital record of the physical world."

Redefining What a map Can be With New Information and AI

Google re-defining mapping.   Very nicely done.   Started with Google maps, and the ability to link in data as needed for usage contexts.   And AI being used to look for patterns in data.

Redefining what a map can be with new information and AI

By Dane Glasgow,  VP of Product, Google Maps, Published Mar 30, 2021

Sixteen years ago, many of us held a printout of directions in one hand and the steering wheel in the other to get around— without information about the traffic along your route or details about when your favorite restaurant was open. Since then, we’ve been pushing the boundaries of what a map can do, propelled by the latest machine learning. This year, we’re on track to bring over 100 AI-powered improvements to Google Maps so you can get the most accurate, up-to-date information about the world, exactly when you need it. Here's a snapshot of how we're using AI to make Maps work better for you with a number of updates coming this year.

Navigate indoors with Live View

We all know that awkward moment when you're walking in the opposite direction of where you want to go — Live View uses AR cues to avoid just that. Live View is powered by a technology called global localization, which uses AI to scan tens of billions of Street View images to understand your orientation. Thanks to new advancements that help us understand the precise altitude and placement of objects inside a building, we’re now able to bring Live View to some of the trickiest-to-navigate places indoors: airports, transit stations and malls. 

If you’re catching a plane or train, Live View can help you find the nearest elevator and escalators, your gate, platform, baggage claim, check-in counters, ticket office, restrooms, ATMs and more. Arrows and accompanying directions will point you the right way. And if you need to pick something up from the mall, use Live View to see what floor a store is on and how to get there so you can get in and out in a snap. Indoor Live View is live now on Android and iOS in a number of malls in Chicago, Long Island, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. It starts rolling out in the coming months in select airports, malls, and transit stations in Tokyo and Zurich, with more cities on the way. ....  '

Google Maps Getting Lots more Detail

Makes Google Maps more powerful yet as a 'geography' experiment.   Sort of like tracing with your fingers on a globe. A truly interactive means of exploring at so many levels of detail.

Google Maps is getting a lot more detail  In TheVerge
Making natural features easier to see and streets easier to navigate

By Jon Porter@JonPorty
Google Maps is being redesigned to make it easier to distinguish between natural features in the environment, whether they’re mountainous ice caps, deserts, beaches, or dense forests. Google says the new maps will be available in the 220 countries and territories currently supported by Google Maps, “from the biggest metropolitan areas to small, rural towns.” Google says that street maps are also getting more detailed in select cities.

Google says it used satellite imagery as the basis for its redesigned maps and that this has had a “new color-mapping algorithmic technique” applied to it. The end result does a much better job of showing off the differences between natural features, such as between snowy peaks and dense forests or green fields and sandy beaches.   ...   (Many map examples below).

Google Earth: 15 Years and Still Mapping

Been a fan since the very beginning.  Used it at work.  It has replaced very messy geography.  The ability to answer geographic questions visually very quickly.      Here some good examples of use:

Here’s to you: 15 years of Google Earth stories
Rebecca Moore  in the Google Blog
Director, Google Earth, Earth Engine & Outreach
Published Jul 9, 2020

We’ve always said that if Google Maps is about finding your way, Google Earth is about getting lost. With Google Earth, you can see our planet like an astronaut from space, then travel anywhere on it in seconds with a click or tap. Even after an entire afternoon exploring cities, landscapes and stories on Google Earth, you'll have barely scratched the surface.

Now 15 years old, Google Earth is still the world’s biggest publicly accessible repository of geographic imagery. It combines aerial photography, satellite imagery, 3D topography, geographic data, and Street View into a tapestry you can explore. But Google Earth is much more than a 3D digital globe. The underlying technology has democratized mapmaking allowing anyone to better understand our world, and take action to create positive change.

Of the billions of people who have used Google Earth over the years, here are 15 stories that have inspired us:

1. Responding to natural disasters. Two months after Google Earth launched, we quickly realized that people were not just using it to plan their vacations. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, and the Google Earth team quickly worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to make updated imagery available to first responders on the ground to support rescue efforts, relief operations and understand the hurricane’s impact.  .... "  

Using Google Earth on More Browsers

In its earlier days we built some training systems that used Google Earth as a hack for backgrounds to show how we manufactured, shipped and sold goods worldwide.  But they would only run on some  browsers.  Google has expanded the range of possibilities for such application.  I consider Google Earth to be an amazing thing for geography understanding.

It took Google three years to add Firefox, Edge and Opera support to Google Earth    by Martin Brinkmann in gHacks

When Google unveiled the new Google Earth back in 2017, it switched Google Earth from being a desktop application to a web application. The company made Google Earth Chrome-exclusive at the time stating that the company's own Chrome browser was the only browser to support Native Client (NaCl) technology at the time and that the technology "was the only we [Google] could make sure that Earth would work well on the web".

The emergence of new web standards, WebAssembly in particular, allowed Google to switch to the standard supported by other browsers. The company launched a beta of Google Earth for browsers that support WebAssembly, Firefox, Edge and Opera are mentioned specifically six months ago.

Today, Google revealed that it has made Google Earth available officially for the web browsers Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based), and Opera. ... "

GIS and Big Data

We were early users of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) when we helped manage Alberta Pine forests.   True it predated 'Big Data', but emerged at about the same time as optimization analytics, which we used to great value.  Nice to see a piece to that see how its still valued and is evolving.

Benefits of Pairing Big Data with GIS Technology

GIS technology is driving the discovery of big data.
by Rehan Ijaz  via Gib Bassett  in SmartDataCollective

GIS is a remarkable technology that has changed our world in unimaginable ways. Its roots can be traced back to 1962, when Roger Tomlinson invented this breakthrough technology for the Canada Land Inventory, which means that GIS predates big data by about 50 years.

Nevertheless, big data is having a tremendous impact on future of GIS. The relationship is a two-way street, because GIS technology is driving the discovery of big data as well.

Here are some of the fascinating ways that big data and GIS technology are playing off of each other

Tapping customer demographic information for market growth

Every brand needs to understand the demographics of its customers. Before the advent of big data, companies were forced to make educated guesses about their clientele.

Portland State University has found that GIS is the future of small business marketing. Local businesses can collect data on customers in their region. This data can be incorporated into heat maps, so that they can formulate a better marketing strategy. They can even break their data down by neighborhood, so they can target their advertisements to each neighborhood based on whether or not customer is living there meet their customer profile. .... " 

Geospatial Services Everywhere

Continue to be amazed by the advances of geospatial capabilities.  Geography must be much easier to teach these days,  curiosity can be fed so easily with freely available Apps.   In the Google blog,  an article on the economic impact of geospatial services.  No reason not to be adept at geography and location these days, and now also good arguments for considering their economic impact