Digital Location Management Inc.
I was looking through the Google Maps terms of service and legal notices yesterday to see if we could use Google Maps for a project and uncovered a few things of potential interest.
First, the geo encoding is performed by Navteq in case anyone was wondering.
Second, besides the usual suspects of Navteq and TeleAtlas, I was surprised at the number of other map related resources that are working together behind the scenes to power Google Maps… many not so well known names such as Euro Geographics, Top Map and GeoNext.
Third, also interesting to note that the foundation of business POI data seems to be from infoUSA and Acxiom… but Google of course adds to this through both business listings submitted via the Google Local Business Center and its patent on scraping address data from web pages.
I guess with all these different sources, I shouldn’t find it surprising that I can often more reliably find a local retail businesses location through a search on Google Maps than through the retailers own web store locator.
For anyone looking for a new business to start, I can see this area of Digital Location Management developing into a full blown cottage industry, as we’ve seen with search engine optimization (SEO).
As the digital world turns more and more to finding things via maps, whether on the web, a PND or mobile phone, the reliable representation of retailers on those digital maps will become increasingly important and a consultancy/management market will need to be created to help anyone with a retail presence in the bricks and mortar world to ensure that their locations are properly reflected in all the various digital map data sources for such information, and to ensure that retail location information is accurate and updated.
What do you think?
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