Google, the internet search giant with interests in areas ranging from word-processing software to mobile telephony, intends to conquer yet another new territory — the car.

TomTom, the largest satellite navigation group, with ten million users, said that it was to allow them to download details from Google’s online mapping to their cars’ sat-nav systems.

Google Maps, the market leader, includes the locations of tens of thousands of retailers, restaurants and other enterprises throughout the UK on a database that it says is growing by the hour. Businesses can either pay to advertise their location on the system or input data free.

Google, which says that its mission is to “organise the world’s information and make it universally useful”, said that the tie-up with TomTom was an important step in making Google Maps a “one-stop-shop for finding all the local information and directions that people need”.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. A spokesman for TomTom said that the group had considered collecting the information for itself but had opted against “spending millions” in favour of “using the information that is out there already”.

TomTom’s balance sheet has came under pressure — and investor scrutiny — after the company was forced to raise its bid for Tele Atlas, the digital map supplier, to about € 2.9 billion (£2.1 billion) last month. The price of the acquisition escalated sharply after Garmin, its American rival, stepped in with a € 2.3 billion counter-offer, trumping TomTom's original ¤had fallen<NO>fell sharply on Tuesday after it announced an equity issue to help to fund the Tele Atlas deal. The stock closed nearly 4 per cent higher yesterday in Amsterdam.

Both the Tele Atlas acquisition and the Google partnership are designed to bolster a central plank of TomTom’s strategy — that of tailoring maps to individuals. Personalised information is seen as key if TomTom is to maintain its lead over rivals offering lower-cost systems.

Through the Tele Atlas deal, first announced in July, TomTom said that it hoped to transform its users into an army of automated surveyors that will continuously improve and update maps and allow new features such as daily map updates and “intelligent routing” services.

TomTom said that it would explore “partnerships with third parties to expand the personalisation options and to increase the ease of use of navigation”. It already has a partnership with Enjoy England, the domestic marketing arm of VisitBritain, the national tourist office for Britain.

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