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Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

openstreetmap.org

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Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#81

Post by wtallis »

criley2 wrote: post #57
wtallis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are gaps in cell coverage really that obscure a use case? Sure, if you're only using the maps to route you around traffic jams in your home town, offline maps aren't going to offer you any benefit. But I think most users also want their maps to continue to be reliable when heading out of town on a road trip. Google has improved the behavior of their maps app when data connectivity is interrupted, but it's still a sub…

Google makes it trivial to download maps for offline use, I have multiple states downloaded in Maps. Google Maps experience with offline downloaded maps is 100% quality and absolutely not "sub-par" or "frustrating".

> Google Maps experience with offline downloaded maps is 100% quality and absolutely not "sub-par" or "frustrating".

Selecting areas to download is more of a hassle than with OSMAnd, and the map data requires more storage space. I've also frequently experienced severe degradation in the detail of the voice prompts for turn by turn navigation when the phone doesn't have a data connection, where the phone only saying "in a quarter mile, turn right" without giving me a street name or exit number, let alone lane information.

Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#83

Post by [deleted] »

1996 wrote: post #13

And if you can't use OSM, try Here maps. They are easy to download for offline use. Following the suggestion of friends, I have repurposed an old phone as a "travel phone" with maps of the whole world (or at least the parts I can download!) Not perfect, but when I catch a plane, I don't have to worry about local networks. Fun story: recently in Europe, Google Maps stuttered. Now and then, there was a networking issue…

[deleted]

Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#84

Post by qznc »

hellojason wrote: post #74

what if they decide to draw the border between countries wherever they want This seems a bit tin foil hat to me. Has Google been caught doing something like this before with malicious intent?

I would not call it "malicious intent" but for example the borders of Tibet are very controversial: https://qz.com/224821/see-how-borders-change-on-google-maps-...

Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#85

Post by eigenvector »

brewrwe wrote: post #71
propogandist wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by trivial, you mean logged into a google account where all 'offline' activity is synced and mapped to your account once connectivity is restored. I also find it hard to believe that Google maps offline can't give voice navigation (reverts to beeps) and that requires constant data connectivity... the app is constantly phoning home too.

Google Maps is pretty bad without fast, reliable data, I remember trying it on Sprint, no joy unless I could pull at least a megabit a second.

The problem is that there is no user-settable 'offline mode', so as soon as Google detects an Internet connection (even a very slow one) it starts trying to behave as if it's on a 100Mbps LTE connection. This makes many Google apps totally unusable on low-bandwidth networks.

When you open apps like Hangouts, Google Maps, etc. on low-bandwidth connections, they immediately try to sync an onslaught of data before making the UI responsive based on the existing offline state. Data that could take hours to sync at 5kb/s.

There's no reason I haven't have a text-only messaging conversation perfectly well on a 2G network. Except when Google tries to sync 50MB of pictures from a conversation I haven't even selected yet, and all of my 500 contacts' profile photos, before I can do anything else.

Incidentally, this is why everyone outside of North America uses WhatsApp.

Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#86

Post by eigenvector »

marcosdumay wrote: post #76
dev_dull wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your anecdote falls into the trap I see often when comparing OSS software vs proprietary. You’ve found a obscure, uncommon use case where OSM works better. However, the opposite needs to be true for adoption. OSM needs to work better for 80% of the use cases, not the other 20.

Working without a network is niche now? Anywhere you go far from a city will lack a network.

Or working on a slow, spotty network, which is par for the course for 'the next billion users' that tech execs keep talking about.

Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#87

Post by eigenvector »

brewrwe wrote: post #67
themodelplumber wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OSS's greatest leverage points have always been in the niches, the cases where _if_ it's useful in your situation, you are a very lucky person indeed. Having read the article I think it's using a great little leverage point: Do you have a website with a map? Does the map not work anymore? ("Yikes, will my map stop working," people think) OSS doesn't have to win big popularity battles; the little cases here and there…

More like anywhere vaugely rural, Google Maps seems to fail. Going out to the San Juans? Have fun with missing business listings, incorrect road traces and names, or worse. Just in the past decade Kitsap County (just across the water from Seattle) has renumbered 300k addresses. Google Maps is buying their address database from a vendor that rarely pulls this publicly posted data, thus leaving Google a few years behin…

Entire countries and continents are far more detailed on OSM than Google. There's a feedback cycle where having lots of active users to passively harvest data or receive user-submitted corrections from improves your map quality. Well, Google Maps is a really bloated app that can barely open on the budget Android phones people use in most developing countries (hell, GMaps pegs the CPU on a 2-year old flagship for several seconds just starting the app).

When nobody uses Google Maps, Google Maps will never have good street/address data. In developing countries there's no official government office to get this data from, just user data.

Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#88

Post by puzzle »

criley2 wrote: post #57
wtallis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are gaps in cell coverage really that obscure a use case? Sure, if you're only using the maps to route you around traffic jams in your home town, offline maps aren't going to offer you any benefit. But I think most users also want their maps to continue to be reliable when heading out of town on a road trip. Google has improved the behavior of their maps app when data connectivity is interrupted, but it's still a sub…

Google makes it trivial to download maps for offline use, I have multiple states downloaded in Maps. Google Maps experience with offline downloaded maps is 100% quality and absolutely not "sub-par" or "frustrating".

At some point, there was also this undocumented feature where it fetches not just the directions, but a little extra data so it can reroute you on the device if you miss a turn and your phone has gone offline. It only works for small detours, does not take traffic into account, etc.

Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#89

Post by brewrwe »

eigenvector wrote: post #85
brewrwe wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps is pretty bad without fast, reliable data, I remember trying it on Sprint, no joy unless I could pull at least a megabit a second.

The problem is that there is no user-settable 'offline mode', so as soon as Google detects an Internet connection (even a very slow one) it starts trying to behave as if it's on a 100Mbps LTE connection. This makes many Google apps totally unusable on low-bandwidth networks. When you open apps like Hangouts, Google Maps, etc. on low-bandwidth connections, they immediately try to sync an onslaught of data before makin…

Heh, I'm an avid Signal User due to that, not terribly much message syncing going on as the message database is stored on your device :3

Re: Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps?

#90

Post by sho_hn »

eigenvector wrote: post #87
brewrwe wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like anywhere vaugely rural, Google Maps seems to fail. Going out to the San Juans? Have fun with missing business listings, incorrect road traces and names, or worse. Just in the past decade Kitsap County (just across the water from Seattle) has renumbered 300k addresses. Google Maps is buying their address database from a vendor that rarely pulls this publicly posted data, thus leaving Google a few years behin…

Entire countries and continents are far more detailed on OSM than Google. There's a feedback cycle where having lots of active users to passively harvest data or receive user-submitted corrections from improves your map quality. Well, Google Maps is a really bloated app that can barely open on the budget Android phones people use in most developing countries (hell, GMaps pegs the CPU on a 2-year old flagship for seve…

It strikes me as obvious that what Google should do is support OSM upstream and use OSM data in their product, just as what they do with Wikipedia.
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