Map Maker Tele Atlas and Google Renew and Broaden Deal

[ganeshbala]

Map Maker Tele Atlas and Google Renew and Broaden Deal



Belgium-based digital maps company Tele Atlas and search engine leader Google have renewed their contract, which allows for the latter to keep getting the Tele Atlas map data which powers Google Maps. The deal is very wide-ranging, including 200 countries and multiple delivery platforms such as Google Earth and various mobile applications, some of which will be running on the Google-backed Android operating system.

Tele Atlas, which runs out of Ghent, Belgium but has its corporate HQ in Netherlands, was founded in 1984 and was acquired last year, following a bidding war, by navigation system maker TomTom for €2.9 billion ($4.6 billion). Bidding rival Garmin lost and had to secure a content agreement with Tele Atlas rival Navteq. The deal with TomTom closed this month after it was cleared by the European Commissioner for Competition in May.

Tele Atlas is one of the two providers of digital map data for Google's mapping services. The other is rival Navteq, which was snatched up by Nokia for $8 billion in a deal which has not fully finalized yet.

The new deal between Google and Tele Atlas will benefit the latter more than in the past. Not only will the map maker be paid for its data, but it will also benefit from user feedback from Google Maps, which consists of correction of errors in maps or information or adding additional data. The new contract will cover the next five years.

John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Google Maps, said his company appreciates the quality of maps provided by Tele Atlas, as well as the company's innovative approach to business.

The deal will make use of the recently released Google Map Maker, a new tool which enables users of Google Maps to quickly add information to an uncharted area. For example, with Map Maker, users can rapidly draw roads, lakes, parks, points of interest, businesses, cities and localities. The maps are updated instantly after the information was submitted.

The feature targets especially countries for which digital map data is not very accurate, such as Cyprus, Iceland, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Caribbean nations of: Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago.

Google Map Maker is similar to Mapplets, an application unveiled by Google last year that let users gather and add data from multiple sources to Google Maps.