Overture Maps

2024: Product Announcement

On July 24, 2024, participants in the Overture Maps Foundation project, organized on the basis of the Linux Foundation, announced the release of the first open sets of map data. The aim of the initiative is to undermine Google's dominance of online mapping.

The Overture Maps project is supported by Amazon, Microsoft and Meta (recognized as an extremist organization; activities on the territory of the Russian Federation are prohibited). The steering committee also includes TomTom, a geolocation technology company. Other participants include Esri, Hyundai, Niantic and Tripadvisor.

Overture Maps are various layers of data that can be combined for use in certain applications. At the time of the announcement, four layers are available: Buildings (the base contains approximately 2.3 billion building contours around the world), Places (about 54 million attractions), Borders (borders of countries, regions, cities and districts are available) and Basic Data (land and water objects such as physical infrastructure, for example, communication towers, piers and bridges). As a preliminary version, a database containing 200 million addresses in 14 countries is also offered. In the future, it is planned to add a transport layer (road signs, complete information on railway and ferry routes, etc.). Maps and open datasets are available via the link.

When building layers, project participants use a variety of data sources, including open sets (such as OpenStreetMap), government databases, and their own information. In addition, some Google data has been added, which is not involved in the project. Despite the fact that the bulk of Google's mapping information belongs to the company, some sets were released under an open license, including Open Buildings in 2021.^[1]

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