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back to article Nokia, Indian upstart square up to Google's mighty mapping empire

Google's assumed dominance in online maps is being challenged in India by Nokia's efforts and separately an upstart service in the country. And the outcome of this battle could send tremors throughout the world. First, the local competition: WoNoBo, launched by mapping operation Genesys, presents 360-degree panoramas of the …

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  1. Dave 52

    Google Wikipedia layer

    Google ditched its Wikipedia layer in Maps a few months ago, for no apparent reason. If an established player like Bing or Mapquest just added it to there service it would be a kick in the nuts to Google.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Google Wikipedia layer

      "Google's mighty mapping empire" ?!

      Surely Nokia / Navtec are much bigger than Google in that space? Can't see I have ever seen a navigation device with Google maps, but Navtec was in every car I ever had....

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      1. tootsnoot
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        Mightiness of Google's mapping empire

        One or more Audi models use Google Earth; search for it on youtube.

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  2. poopypants

    That's a lot of effort to go to

    to compete with a product that is free, and available everywhere. What's the payoff?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: That's a lot of effort to go to

      Nokia Here is free on Nokia phones I think.

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      1. sandman
        Reply Icon

        Re: That's a lot of effort to go to

        Free on all Windows phones - although the maps aren't sometimes as detailed as Google's splendid offering. The fact that you can download individual country maps and use them offline with GPS is a real bonus for driving (and sometimes hiking) abroad or when there ain't no signal in this country.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Anonymous Coward

          Re: That's a lot of effort to go to

          "although the maps aren't sometimes as detailed as Google's splendid offering"

          Well in the UK, Nokia's maps are more detailed and more accurate...So not sure where you are from, but Nokia's maps are generally considered the best that there is....

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    2. RyokuMas
      Reply Icon

      Re: That's a lot of effort to go to

      ... being seen as the "good guy" when Google maps becomes increasingly flooded with advertising?

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  3. Frederic Bloggs
    Unhappy

    Does the Indian Government know about this?

    I only ask because the Indian Government has, historically, been extremely paranoid^Hreticent about making available the exact lat/longs of stuff that it considers important or just "useful to an enemy" (read: any of India's neighbours).

    One of the standard tests of "competence" they apply to (probably non-Indian) prospective mapping companies, that supply to organs of the Indian state, is whether that company can discover the nature and size of the offset that is routinely applied to mapping data v WGS84 coordinates. One won't get this information from any official source, one has to divine it oneself. Not that this is in any way difficult - it's just annoying.

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