|
November '09 |
|
||||
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | ||||||
planetgs.com (75)
www.thegisforum.com (67)
www.spatialsciences.org.au (32)
manomano.livejournal.com (28)
|
Tuesday, November 17. 2009
|
 |
NY Times on User Generated Map Content
In an roundup the paper looks at editing Google's business and POI listings, Google's use of user generated contents, OpenStreetMap and the challenges of managing the politics inherent in mapmaking. Quote of note from Michael Goodchild: "As far as we can tell so far, these new sources are as accurate as the traditional ones." Also, a Tele Atlas spokesperson note the importance of "due diligence and quality" for its customers, something not available from community-based contributions.
Posted by Adena Schutzberg
in Tele Atlas
at
06:31
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
|
|
|
Friday, November 6. 2009
|
|
Podcast: A Hallway Conversation with Maarten Oldenhof
Adena Schutzberg interviewed Automotive Navigation Data (AND) CEO Maarten Odelhof about the state of commercial geodata, the licensing challenges and the role the community can play in keeping data up-to-date. This is the third in a series of interviews with geospatial insiders and outsiders.
Subscribe to Podcast RSS
Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")
Read the show notes
Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index.
|
Posted by Adena Schutzberg
in Open Source, Geospatial Business, Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ, Data, Hallway Conversations
at
10:39
| Comment (1)
| Trackbacks (0)
|
|
|
Tuesday, November 3. 2009
|
|
Podcast: With Geodata, Developers, not Consumers Rule
If consumers think of geodata as a commodity, what does that say for its future? What are the key data relationships? And what, if anything, will differentiate one offering from another? Our editors ponder these questions in light of evidence that consumers know and care little about who makes, manages and updates basemaps.
Subscribe to Podcast RSS
Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")
Read the show notes
Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index.
|
Posted by Adena Schutzberg
in Google, Open Source, Directions on the News Podcast, Satellite Navigation, Navigation, Social Networking, Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ, TomTom
at
06:00
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
|
|
|
Thursday, October 29. 2009
|
|
My Thoughts on Google Navigation Beta
Last I looked there some 300 news articles about Google announcement yesterday of the beta of Google Navigation for the Android (and perhaps other) platforms. Stocks of PND players like TomTom and Garmin were down (though there were other reasons for the slipping stock prices, too). Mostly, though the sentiment was "Google will be killing off another industry." Perhaps.
After a day of watching I have just a few thoughts.
Back when Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ were acquired by TomTom and Nokia the general sentiment was that no one could possibly challenge "the big two." Why? Collecting and confirming mapping datasets for the large areas they already cover (with very good, if not perfect, accuracy) was too hard and costly and they had such a big headstart. Smaller players, like AND and Germany's United Maps, have toughed it out, working to state their differentiations (better licensing for the former and feet on the ground to fill in the holes for the latter). Neither has taken on the big two, but my sense after speaking to senior company reps recently is that they are doing fine, thank you. No, no one seemed to think that Google, the company that wants to organize the world's information, was going to work to collect and conflate and update geodata. But, apparently, we were not thinking like Google. Sure Google still licenses some data (parcels and imagery and even some road data) but clearly, they've taken on the big two, the two that now have no only a headstart with data, but also a headstart in cell phone hardware and navigation, when paired with their larger owners.
My other thought as the errors in Google's dataset become the butt of James Fee's jokes and real concern by those in Canton, Ohio, is that most people are doing just fine with the data. I'm one of them. Even though we at Directions Media were the ones to contact Tele Atlas to confirm Google was using its own data in the U.S. a few weeks back, I use Google Maps exactly as I have in the past. In fact, two weeks ago I routed myself to, then printed out Google Maps of key areas in a marathon my friends were running north of Boston. No issues. In fact, until I returned home from the event, it didn't occur to me that maybe, just maybe that was not such a great choice. For most people, for most things, Google Maps seems to work fine. And, as many are pointing out, online navigation services that use NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas data have errors and sometimes route "oddly." Google has an edge that will likely get their quirks fixed better and faster: the "report a problem" button. I've written time and time again how the Yahoo and MapQuest and Ask.com (and other services) don't provide direct ways to report errors. Nor do NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas. Oh, the websites are out there (and TomTom does have MapShare). The number of people using those tools can't possibly compare to those using Google's in app "report a problem." The tools never got the buzz that Google Maps is getting, either.
Finally, on the day Google rolled out the new app NAVTEQ reported on a survey (which I guess it financed, though it was not stated in the press release) that showed that 72% of users of nav tools it powers are "ok" with ads in the apps and some 19% click on the ads. Another 6% actually visit the businesses. So, it seems Google's business model (advertising) is a good one.
|
Posted by Adena Schutzberg
in Google, Satellite Navigation, Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ
at
06:49
| Comments (8)
| Trackbacks (0)
|
|
|
Tuesday, October 13. 2009
|
|
Podcast: Google Maps Changes US Base Data, Adds Parcels and Crowdsourcing
This past week Google prompted a flurry of discussion by announcing some changes to its data and functionality in Google Maps. There’s new data and new feedback tools and some anxiety in the geospatial world. Our editors separate fact from fiction and offer our take on the implications of these changes.
Subscribe to Podcast RSS
Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")
Read the show notes
Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index.
|
Posted by Adena Schutzberg
in Google, Open Source, Databases, Traffic, Directions on the News Podcast, Geospatial Business, Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ
at
01:00
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
|
|
|
Wednesday, October 7. 2009
|
|
Google Resets its Data Providers
A Tele Atlas spokesperson provides this statement on some rumors floating around the Location Intelligence Conference.
"Tele Atlas confirms that Google has decided to stop using Tele Atlas map data for the U.S. Google will now use its own map data. Our relationship with Google for map coverage continues outside of the U.S. in dozens of geographies."
|
Posted by Adena Schutzberg
in Google, Tele Atlas
at
15:45
| Comments (0)
| Trackbacks (0)
|
|
Archives
November 23
Make sure and check the terms of these [...]
Briantist about Seen During Geography Awareness Week IV
November 21
Perhaps there should be an on-screen [...]
SMR about Seen During Geography Awareness Week IV
November 20
This is very funny. Google Earth has [...]
Claudio Schapsis about Twitter Geo API Available
November 20
Location on Twitter is not new. There [...]
Kirk Kuykendall about Why I got an e-mail from Wolfram Research
November 19
It's also worth watching Wolfram Alpha. [...]
Adena Schutzberg about Why I got an e-mail from Wolfram Research
November 19
You are correct! [...]
Archie Belaney about Update 5: AT&T Sues Verizon over "Map for That" Map Ads
November 19
If you're advertising 3g coverage is [...]