If you want to see what it looks like, try this: http://www.yell.com/map/

Only a few locations in the UK were commissioned... the cost is high so we aimed at the large cities to start with. It's really good stuff so long as you stay away from trees that are near buildings ;)

The dataset is enormous though. Going to be interesting to see that go mobile.

C3 basically took a FPS game map approach (poly data and textures) and overlaid that with a tiled map approach. So each tile downloads the poly and then lays the texture for that tile over the poly.

I currently work for Yell (multi-national, been around for ever).

But, I have been working on a startup in my spare time for which I've now (as of last week) quit my day job to fully commit to.

The startup has no money and will be the definition of frugal until we turn profit, Yell has less (they may make tons from sales and be profitable quarter to quarter, but they're saddled with amazing levels of debt).

[1] Yellow Pages started 1954 in the UK

EDIT: Here is a video from Saab showing the process of acquiring map data and it's military applications: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNemPTHOKWg

Tjena, Martin, förresten. :)

It seems like a relatively easy way to replicate the real world into a game map.

Edit: Of course they will do it Apple way, which means excellent execution and integration.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110419007396/en/C3-T...

[edit: its their work as well]

The built-in integrated-into-almost-everything Google Nav functionality is the killer feature that trumps all other killer features in phones for me. Obviously YMMV and for some people this feature isn't as big a deal, but it is a huge deal for me and it is what stops me from seriously considering anything that isn't an Android phone these days.

For the record, I do realize there are quite a few GPS turn by turn solutions for the iPhone, but suggesting they are a true replacement for Google's Nav stuff is like suggesting Google Voice Search is a replacement for Siri.

Well not all non-Android handsets - Nokia maps has free turn-by-turn directions as well as downloadable maps (not just pre-caching a route, you can download maps of the entire USA if you want). As I tend to travel a lot to areas with spotty or non-existant cellphone coverage, this is the primary reason I'm sticking with Symbian for the time being.

So does WP7.

I think iPhone with Tom-Tom is fine. It costs $60 dollars but you can share it with 4 other devices which means you can spread the cost.

Sorry but the GPS solutions on the iPhone just aren't the same (btw, direction recalculation is a no brainer and of course Google Nav does that, and a whole lot more like local data polling from other Google Nav users to determine realtime road speeds for path redirection)

Anyway, it is the full OS integration that is key. Basically anything on the phone that displays an address (web browser, Google Maps, apps like Yelp, etc) displays it as a clickable link letting me instantly pull up directions and switch into nav mode. This sort of integration is huge but sadly the sort of thing people tend to gloss over unless they've actually experienced it, which is why I tried to preempt that with the (also flawed) comparison between Google Voice Search and Siri.

This is in iOS too. Of course you don't get turn-by-turn, just directions, but if Apple is eventually going to add turn by turn you'll find it there.

I have never used turn-by-turn navigation that couldn't do this.

I'll be more than happy when Apple builds it in, but until then, I've more than happy, and it's certainly not enough to make me look at switching to Android, even if it never happened.

http://www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=en-US&gl=US#phonelo...

How do you think it is better than conventional navigation devices/apps? Do you have a link to a demo video or a review that shows the coolest features? The only distinguishing feature I can see is Street View integration.

Come on in, the water's fine: http://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/ios-navigation/id6010

The ones that do use a GPS drag around a Garmin, the rest just try and work with Google maps as best they can.

A couple did switch to Android recently, but assumed it too didn't have turn-by-turn and kept muddling through with Google Maps until I showed them how to do it.

I don't know why that is exactly, but it's weird and gives me a strange impression that this is a seriously omission from the platform. This acquisition is no doubt part of a larger strategy to bring this capability (probably in a wonderfully Apple-y way) to their mobile platforms.

I agree with a previous commentator, this omission has been overblown. Yes, it will be nice when iOS comes with a turn by turn app that integrates with the whole iPhone. But if you want one now, you can buy one that works great.