Indian Action: Microsoft Chooses NAVTEQ For Maps, Yahoo Invests In 411 Provider

Dec 19, 2008 at 10:25am ET by Greg Sterling

India is something of a parallel universe in terms of search and internet activity. It’s a massive and incredibly dynamic market but distinct from the US and Europe in important ways. All the major engines are competing there and it’s also often a testing ground for new products. For example Yahoo’s “Glue Pages” were released and tried there before coming to the US. Now Yahoo has bought a 30 percent stake in a local information database and directory assistance provider in the market: Info Network Management Company, which runs the Call Ezee service. Seen as a way to secure local data and provide a “voice search” (mobile) capability in the Indian market it makes sense.

Separately, Microsoft has chosen Nokia-owned NAVTEQ to provide the underlying data for its Live Seach Maps offering in India.

Microsoft also works with NAVTEQ in the US and Europe. Yahoo also gets its mapping data from NAVTEQ. Google, for its part, is now only working with TomTom-owned TeleAtlas.

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, and writes a personal blog Screenwerk, examining the broader world of media and advertising. He also posts at a Local Mobile Search, which is focused on the mobile Internet.

See more articles by Greg Sterling >

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