I didn't say Google did everything themselves. That would be ludicrous and, AFAIK, no one does that. I said that gathering more data yourself can be easier than

I didn't say Google did everything themselves. That would be ludicrous and, AFAIK, no one does that. I said that gathering more data yourself can be easier than integrating disparate data sources. In other words, direct data gathering is an important part of the story and fixings things isn't as simple as "MOAR DATA"! > And sorry but Google doesn't own any POI data either. Some of Google's recent acquisitions would beg to differ: http://www.wired.com/business/2011/09/google-buys-zagat/ http://www.wired.com/business/2011/09/google-buys-zagat/ http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/13/technology/google-frommers/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/13/technology/google-frommers/i... And, unless you know differently, I'm pretty sure Google owns Google Places...