Amazon, Microsoft And Others join Hands Against Google Maps

Google dominates the online maps market, while competitors like Apple are trying to get a foothold, albeit with limited success. Now a merger of several well-known IT companies together with the Linux Foundation is trying to change that.

Many of us use Google Maps almost every day and can hardly imagine life without this mapping service. But no matter how practical Google Maps may be: The company from Mountain Views, California, has a de facto monopoly here, which, despite offers such as Apple Maps or OpenStreetMap, does not even begin to falter.

Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, TomTom, and the Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation wants to change that and has teamed up with numerous Google competitors to develop interoperable and open map data. As TechCrunch reports, the new initiative is called the Overture Maps Foundation and, in addition to the Linux Foundation, has four central members: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Facebook parent Meta, Microsoft, and the Dutch navigation specialist TomTom.

On your new foundation explains its goals website: “Obtaining and preparing high-quality, up-to-date and comprehensive map data from disparate sources is difficult and expensive. Overture strives to incorporate map data from a variety of sources, including Overture members, civil society organizations, and open data sources .”

The Linux Foundation writes in a press release that Overture members will pool their resources to create map data that is complete, accurate, and updated as the physical world changes. The data is made publicly available under an open license.

“Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as it grows and changes is an enormously complex challenge that no single organization can tackle. The industry must come together to do this for the benefit of all,” said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation. “We’re excited to foster this open collaboration between leading technology companies to develop high-quality, open map data that will enable unprecedented innovations that benefit people, businesses, and communities.”