Like many cars these days, my Lexus RS350 has a built in GPS which offers the ability to search for points of interest like restaurants and pubs. It’s a great feature for searching as long the restaurants update their information.  Apart from each listing having the exact address for your restaurant, they also include the phone and fax numbers.  As my mobile phone is connected via Bluetooth into the car, it’s easy to find a restaurant, press the call button and make a reservation.

When I first got the car the DVD map data was only a year and a half out of date, however many restaurants which have been opened for years were not listed.  Even after upgrading to the latest 2008 Whereis version, there were still restaurants not listed in the system, I wondered where this restaurant data comes from. So I began hunting around online.

In Australia this data is provided by Whereis who also publish the Yellow Pages, so a great deal of the data is cross populated, but they still maintain an independent database for Whereis. In the USA and other parts of the world the major provider for mapping data comes from Navteq.  Navteq supply data to a number of portable GPS companies like TomTom.

So apart from in car GPS mapping, it got me thinking about other mapping places online where you could list your restaurant. Most of the mapping systems / websites offer free inclusion of your restaurant and you’d be crazy not to spend 10 minutes on this indirect, but essential marketing exercise.

So here is a list of the popular mapping websites where you can add or edit your restaurant listing on these services. It might take a few weeks to a couple of months for your restaurant’s information to be present, but it only takes a couple of minutes to submit your information.

International

Google Maps
http://www.google.com/local/add

Australia

Whereis
http://www.whereis.com/products/report-a-map-error

Yahoo Australia
http://au.local.yahoo.com/submit.html

USA

Navteq
http://mapreporter.navteq.com

Yahoo
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php

MSN Live Maps
http://g.live.com/0HE_TRACKSTAR_ENUS9/118037

If you know of any submission pages for mapping websites or for those companies that supply mapping data to GPS companies, please let me know and I’ll update the list.