The most ubiquitous geospatial format is the Esri shapefile. The geospatial software company known as Esri released the shapefile format specification as an open format in 1998 (http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf). Esri developed it as a format for their ArcView software, designed as a lower-end GIS option to complement their high-end professional package, ArcInfo, formerly called ARC/INFO. However, the open specification, efficiency, and simplicity of the format turned it into an unofficial GIS standard that is still extremely popular over 15 years later.
Virtually, every piece of the software labeled as geospatial software supports shapefiles because the shapefile format is so common. For this reason, ...
