Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Google Makes Further Inroads Into GPS Navigation

Search engine giant Google is making life unpleasant for GPS navigation manufacturers, saying today that it has rolled out a free, turn-by-turn, navigation application that runs on Android. The move further bolsters the firm's inroads into the area, and shortly follows the addition of more detailed traffic by Google to its maps in August---going head to head Kirkland-based Inrix, a provider of real time traffic data to many of the GPS navigation firms threated by Google's latest moves. Inrix provides its traffic data to such firms as TomTom, which saw its stock plunge 21 percent today after the announcement by Google.