Meta, Microsoft, and others launched their open-source mapping project

A campaign to compete with Google Maps and Apple Maps has been started by Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and TomTom. The Overture Maps Foundation, which the four firms established last year with the aim of developing interoperable map products, has just made available its first open map dataset.

With the help of this information, third-party developers can make their own global mapping or navigation products that can compete with Google Maps and Apple Maps. Overture claims that the release includes information on more than 59 million points of interest, as well as information on structures, transit systems, and administrative boundaries.

The data layers have been prepared, according to Overture, so that developers may "ingest and use map data in a standard, documented way and will be interoperable." Then, developers can utilize this data to create a mapping app or any other service that depends on navigation. On the Overture website, the dataset is accessible.

According to Marc Prioleau, executive director of Overture, "The Places dataset, in particular, represents a significant, previously unavailable open dataset, with the potential to map everything from new businesses, both large and small, to pop-up street markets located anywhere in the world." In order to create and maintain a current, comprehensive database of POIs (places of interest), Overture plans to create a large-scale collaboration.

The Overture Maps Foundation, which was established last year, may pose a threat to Apple's and Google's dominance in the mapping industry. Making apps could be simpler and far less expensive if the data was easily available. Currently, access to the Google Maps API is paid-for, and Apple also charges those who create non-native apps.