Overture Maps introduces novel approach to updating business data
Overture uses data from user interactions with locations to compute a signal indicating whether a business is still operating and update its business data.
Albi Wiedersberg on the Overture Maps blog:
Instead of relying solely on user feedback or web scraping, we leverage real-world data from Overture members who regularly interact with businesses. Meta, TomTom, Tripadvisor, and Uber currently contribute the aggregated, anonymized “heartbeat” signals behind our monthly updates — and because each one sees the world differently, together they catch changes that any individual company would miss.
These signals come from securely combined, anonymized data: foot traffic at business locations, online and offline interactions, and similar activity. A pulse of activity means a business is alive and operating. Collaborating on this mechanism means we can reduce redundant efforts to keep track of this basic but highly volatile data set.
I’d love to see a more technical breakdown of how this works, what data flows in and how they compute the signal.