Linux, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft want to break the Google Maps monopoly

Enlarge / The Overture Maps logo. Overture Maps Foundation

Google Maps competes. The Linux Foundation announced Overture Maps, a "new collaborative effort to develop open, interoperable map data as a shared asset that can empower map services worldwide." It's an open-source mapping effort that includes a list of heavyweights: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, Microsoft, and TomTom, with the foundation adding that the project is "open to all communities with a common interest to create open map data". ."

The Linux Foundation released a press release about the project and a new website for the Overture Maps Foundation. The press release outlined the scope of the project, which aims to provide:

Collaborative Mapping: Overture aims to incorporate data from multiple sources, including Overture members, civic organizations, and open data sources. Global Entity Reference System: Overture will simplify interoperability with a system that links entities from different datasets to the same entities in the real world. Quality Assurance Process: Overture data will undergo validation for map errors, breakage, and vandalism to ensure the map data can be used in production systems. Structured Data Schema: Overture will define and drive the adoption of a common, structured, and documented data schema to create an easy-to-use map data ecosystem.

If you say, "Wait! Isn't there an open source map community already?" There is, and it's called "OpenStreetMap", the Wikipedia of maps that anyone can edit. Overture's press release states: "The project will seek to integrate with existing open map data from projects such as OpenStreetMap and city planning departments, as well as new map data provided by members and built at the using computer vision and AI/ML techniques to create a living digital record of the physical world."

One of the FAQs on the Overture site asks about OpenStreetMap and its relationship to Overture: "Overture is a data-centric map project, not a community of individual map editors. Therefore, Overture is intended to be complementary to OSM. We combine OSM with other sources to produce new open map datasets. Data from Overture will be available for use by the OpenStreetMap community under compatible open data licenses. Members of Overture 'Overture are encouraged to contribute directly to OSM."

Looks like the Overture Foundation isn't happy with OpenStreetMap's data structure and wants to clean up, saying, "Open map data may lack the structure needed to easily create map products. Overture define and promote the adoption of a common, well-structured and documented data schema to create an easy-to-use map data ecosystem."

Breaking the shackles of the Google Maps API

All of this data and interoperability talk makes it seem like this project is more about the Google Maps API than the consumer navigation app. All of Google's map data is in the consumer app, but it's also available to developers through the Google Maps API. The API allows them to embed a map into a project and draw a user interface around it, or they can query the Google Maps database for specific information. For services like rideshares, shippers, food delivery services, and flight tracking, they often just want to show a map without having to worry about mapping the entire world and keeping it up to date. The Google Maps API allows any developer to integrate the world-class Google Maps dataset into their application, as long as they are willing to pay full price.

The Maps API started out as a low-cost service that enticed companies to start a business on top of Google's API, but since Google's rise to map dominance, it's put the screw on the developers with anti-competitive terms and rising prices. In 2018, Google Maps increased the price by more than 1400% and many developers were forced to stop using Goo...