U.K. Internet company
whereonearth.com announced
Tuesday it has teamed with Yahoo!
in a deal that will integrate its unique spatial information system
into all of Yahoo!’s sites worldwide.
The service offered by whereonearth.com uses GeoLocata technology
to perform searches that bring back information organized by
location and proximity. In effect it uses what the company
calls “the first digital map of the world,” a database of
more than three million place names, postal areas and points of interest.
Steve Packard, chief executive officer, whereonearth.com, said
the deal showed that Yahoo! understands the importance of
local services — and sees that the world cannot be treated
as one homogenous mass.
“Users want to search for information, order goods and services,
whether they are in Acapulco, Atlanta or Antwerp. But the key
to these services is location, location, and location,” said
Packard.
Packard went on to say that location is even more critical
on the Wireless Internet because users are on the move,
requesting information specific to where they are at anytime,
anywhere.
Arthine Van Duyne, senior producer, Yahoo!, said that working
with whereonearth.com would help to enhance and personalize
the Yahoo! experience for consumers around the world.
During March this year, Steve Packard at whereonearth.com
was named “Innovator of the Year” by the association for
U.K. software and IT service companies, the CSSA.
With its innovative technology, whereonearth.com enables
the creation of spatial indexes from datasets containing
postal addresses. Once indexed, the information is very
useful for answering questions along the lines of
“Where’s my nearest…?”
In turn, Yahoo! will be able to leverage its advertising
services by offering a more localized delivery throughout
its global networks.
