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Google Maps' Moat

justinobeirne.com

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Re: Google Maps' Moat

#501

Post by pouetpouet »

skate22 wrote: post #399
aluhut wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No love for OpenStreetMaps here? In Germany it is often superior to everything out there. Especially due to the mappers/updaters motivation and nice gamification tools like StreetComplete or more professional tools like Vespucci. https://github.com/westnordost/StreetComplete http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Vespucci

OSM data is highly variable in quality. Features like building footprint geometries will be great in some areas and completely missing in others. This is not easily detectable, and when you pull open a google map, they often have those features.

in some country they could import cadaster data. The licence, policy and quality of these differs from one country to another.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#502

Post by Splines »

tatersolid wrote: post #200
Splines wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they understood the economics of depending on an external source for a core part of their business. Much like Netflix, they understood that the way forward was to generate their own content.

Then why is Netflix depending on AWS for the core of their business (their delivery platform)? Prime video is their main competitor. It’s like UPS renting its trucks from fedEx.

The reason why AWS isn't a threat is that AWS is a platform and doesn't have any screws to turn against Netflix - they can't raise prices to fight against Netflix because AWS hosts many other customers, and Netflix has a lot of choices when it comes to infrastructure.

On the other hand, Netflix's partnerships with movie studios is very one-sided one for them - there is no substitute for a blockbuster movie, so movie studios have a lot of leverage when talking to Netflix. Generally speaking, in this kind of relationship, the content providers will raise their prices to squeeze all profit out of the transaction with the customer. See also the difficulty with music streaming - the record industry has done the exact same thing already, the video industry is only a few years behind. Netflix saw the writing on the wall quite some time ago.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#503

Post by maxerickson »

sandworm101 wrote: post #481
iNerdier wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To go with the comparison mentioned in the article though, Apple maps doesn’t even have an option to cycle at the moment. I never use it in London for just that reason. They’ve decided that it’s more important to add ride sharing as an option before cycling in what I can only assume is a product of their being in suburban America.

>> is a product of their being in suburban America. Close, but imho is has more to do with liability, a fear common at all american companies. Car drivers are licensed. They can be expected to obey traffic laws. So when google sends them down the wrong way on a one-way road, nobody blames google. They blame the adult who listened to their phone rather than the signs. But bicyclists are not licensed. If google says th…

On my phone, Google's bike routing happily sends me down a 35 MPH, 4 lane highway, crossing under a rail bridge where there is no shoulder.

It also presents an alternate route, but the traffic environment here isn't such that the route under the viaduct makes any sense.

(this is in small town usa)

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#504

Post by notahacker »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #325
erdbeerkuchen wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible. I'm a big fan of google maps but the map of my neighborhood is much much clearer on openstreetmaps than on google maps.

Google Maps actually has the shape of the buildings in my neighborhood incorrect because earlier it was blocked by huge trees, shrouding the shape of the building.

It seems to really struggle with single storey extensions and garages in my area, even when they're nearly as large as the main house floorpan and the Google car drove right past them. I think there's probably human intelligence as well as higher resolution imagery in getting those cathedral and space needle details right...

And it doesn't have any buildings at all in my friends' neighbourhood, because it was fields when their aerial images were taken under construction when their StreetView cars passed through 4 or so years ago. OpenStreetMap has accurate buildings. Apple Maps doesn't, but you've got a complete street layout and can overlay its more recent aerial imagery to see the buildings. Google Maps has no buildings, no aerial imagery from the last seven or more years, gets the street layout wrong and mislabels some of the few streets it actually shows. It's fun taking a 3D drive through the first roads when they were still lined by bare earth and areas about to start construction, but I got lost using their map...

Any mapping service's "moat" depends more on whether it's remotely adequate for the areas an individual cares most about than its ability to superbly render famous features of priority US cities.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#505

Post by rkuykendall-com »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #2

It sure is nice having Justin O'Bierne writing publically about maps again. His old 41Latitude blog was phenomenal and then got blackholed when he went to work at Apple Maps. Then he left Apple and is back in the free world and doing phenomenal analysis of digital mapping like this article. I can't wait for him to finish his book.

> he went to work at Apple Maps

??? He writes a lot of this article like he's trying to guess from press and outside observation what Apple is doing / planning. If he was JUST working there, wouldn't he know all this? Should his 'outside observations' be considered to be him fitting outside information to what he already knows?

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#506

Post by rmc »

Brakenshire wrote: post #474
pronik wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right when it comes to streets and bicycle lanes and such. When talking about usability, display quality and search, not so much. I realize the value lies in the data, but for the casual map user there is a long way for OSM to go. Besides, I don't see any reason why Google can't add OpenStreetMap as an additional data source in some or all areas (right in the spirit of the article). It will be interesting to…

OSM has a GPL-like data license. You cannot combine it with another data source without releasing the combined data source.

ish. You can generate a map image of it, and combine that with other data and that only requires attribution

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#507

Post by rmc »

pronik wrote: post #422
aluhut wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No love for OpenStreetMaps here? In Germany it is often superior to everything out there. Especially due to the mappers/updaters motivation and nice gamification tools like StreetComplete or more professional tools like Vespucci. https://github.com/westnordost/StreetComplete http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Vespucci

You are right when it comes to streets and bicycle lanes and such. When talking about usability, display quality and search, not so much. I realize the value lies in the data, but for the casual map user there is a long way for OSM to go. Besides, I don't see any reason why Google can't add OpenStreetMap as an additional data source in some or all areas (right in the spirit of the article). It will be interesting to…

> I don't see any reason why Google can't add OpenStreetMap as an additional data source in some or all areas (right in the spirit of the article).

The OSM licence requires that if you merge another database with it, you need to release the other database under the same licence as OSM.

I can't see Google doing that.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#508

Post by cjensen »

anc84 wrote: post #415
cjensen wrote: post #120

Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Bing Maps will all try to murder you if you ask for directions from Santa Maria, CA to Ventura, CA. The obvious route is to follow the freeway that was built on the best route between the two cities. Instead, all three really enjoy routing you onto a two-lane twisty mountain road that is five minutes shorter if you are driving a sports car and all the lights are green. Heaven help you if…

Do you mean you would prefer the 101 route? That's what both Google, Bing as well as all OSM routers I tried suggested. https://i.imgur.com/vIWC5ti.png

Yep. Normally they prefer the side route. I'm sure if traffic is bad on the side route they will adapt and take the sensible route instead.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#509

Post by scooter_de »

saagarjha wrote: post #223
scooter_de wrote: post #126

The problem of "under addressed" places in the world is addressed (no pun intended) by several companies. Eg. What3Words (w3w.co) has created a grit of 3mx3m squares which cover the entire planet. Each of this squares is identified by three words. Post/Mail organizations in several countries already accept those addresses. Google also has the OLC (Open Location Code) to address an area of adjustable size on earth. I…

While the concept is interesting, the issue I have with What3Words is that they force you to use their service to figure out what an address actually means . In other words, you can't use it at all without being bound to their whims. Kind of a big deal when working with something as open and public and universal as addresses.

I don't understand your "what it means" statement. Can you elaborate a little bit plz?

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#510

Post by pouetpouet »

staticelf wrote: post #371

Google Maps is also unbelievable when finding trains and such in other countries with a strange language. When I was in Japan I heavily used Google Maps because I could search using the latin (?) alphabet and get the correct kanji in return. Without Google Maps, I would have been lost a lot more. With Google Maps I easily could find bus rides and stuff that otherwise would have been impossible.

I used Hyperdia.com while in Japan
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