Big Improvements Coming to Google Maps & Mobile Searches – Google signs deal with Tele Atlas

google maps signs deal with tele atlas tomtom Google has signed a major deal with Tele Atlas , a subsidiary of TomTom. In the deal, Tele Atlas will provide content to Google for the next 5 years in over 200 countries.

The Google-Tele Atlas agreement covers Google’s map-based services and navigation offerings in the mobile, online, and desktop universes, including Google Maps and Google Earth services and some mobile applications like Google Maps for Mobile.

Tele Atlas N.V. is a Dutch company engaged in the development, production and sale of geographic databases. The Company provides maps of 73 countries around the world, covering 27 million kilometers of roads.

The Tele Atlas maps include detailed street-level and interconnecting road networks, allowing application developers and device manufacturers to create solutions to guide users to their destinations.

In addition, Tele Atlas Connect provides basic mapping and routing functionalities for the digital map coverage of more than 200 countries and territories worldwide and more than 28 million points-of-interest, including landmarks and monuments, restaurants, gas stations and entertainment options, as well as three dimensional (3D) city maps of major cities in Europe and the United States.

The press release of Tele – Atlas & Google executives points that Google Maps™ and Google Earth™ services and mobile applications such as Google Maps for Mobile™ could be further enhanced with geo-spatial data provided by Tele Atlas.

Analysts think that Google & Android Open Handset Alliance will put Google in stronger competition with Nokia (which acquired Chicago based Navteq for $8.1 billion dollar in September 2007 to integrate location and mapping technology into Nokia devices).