Tuesday, March 6. 2007

Who's Tops in Geo? Paid studies point the way...

In the last two weeks two geo companies have touted studies (that they paid for, so far as I can tell) that highlight how good their geodata (Tele Atlas) and their traffic data (Inrix) are. Now, folks are always looking for "objective" data on what's best or what's most used and the like. We get e-mails on that, and on every conceivable geo topic, at Directions Media.

So, what do these studies say?

Tele Atlas announced the study in a PR, then alluded to it in other PRs (BMW, for example), and later without announcing the company who did the study (JD Edwards was noted in the announcing PR...) offered just a tease on the conclusions. I'm working with the company to learn more, but here's what has been released thus far:

....Tele Atlas maps establish a very credible benchmark for accuracy, with near perfect scores in the areas of address availability and route guidance, and the largest percentage of POIs found.

Inrix announced its study today (PR). Apparently it was also done by JD Powers, though that's in a different press release. (Why? Some weird JD Powers rule it'd guess.) What does that study, "designed and conducted by a leading independent global marketing information firm," find? That Inrix offerings:

- enables a better customer experience than NAVTEQ/Traffic.com in the tested markets by reporting accurate traffic flow on many more of the routes tested on major roads
- provides highly accurate and statistically comparable accuracy rates of traffic speed information
- has significantly broader traffic flow information coverage in many more markets across the country than NAVTEQ/Traffic.com

[Disclosure: I am a contractor for Tele Atlas.]