221–230 of 705 posts
It's inflammatory, but this website is worse. There's some video playing of a stranger eating mustard skittles taking up the bottom quarter of the screen.
You say: > In the perennial battle between mapping services, there are two main competitors: Google Maps and Apple Maps. Sorry but for me there is only one: https://www.openstreetmap.org/ And this is my app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.psyberia.o...
I’m an iPhone user and I’d pay good money for an OSM based app with these features: - Hard focus on “general mapping” like Google Maps, so not outdoor trails or sailing or… - Maps are streamed to my device, also when I zoom in to street level - no requirement to download offline maps first - Search is working and good enough - Routing is working and good enough - Big plus if it does turn by turn navigation, or can ki…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only case I can think of where google is the best is traffic updates. I use OSM primarily, osmand particularly for navigation, and I've tried going back to google a few times, every time I try it it's worse than the last time. You may be willing to pay €50 a month for it, but most people can't afford that and wouldn't pay it.
Google Maps has its pitfalls, but it's by far the most up to date in the cities I've used it. OSM lacks a lot of details that completely change how you'd move from point A to point B (I was missing overpass bridges and crossable paths in residential neighboorhoods), and point to point navigation is also not great. Then it completely lacks all the more commercial features Google has built on top of Maps (store details…
Interesting – personally I find Maps absolutely horrible for usage as an actual map for orienting myself (as opposed to just serving as a vague geographical background for displaying POIs or navigation information).
When you zoom out, it often doesn't really distinguish between forests and other open spaces (admittedly OSM's coverage in that regard varies regionally, though at least in Europe it seems quite comprehensive and definitively better than Google's).
Then, when you zoom in everything just turns into a featureless grey-on-grey with no distinction between built-up areas and everything else (only "parks" get shown, but e.g. in France that apparently even covers large scale "natural parks" covering hundreds or even thousands of square kilometres, so in that case everything, including any towns happening to lie in that area, just gets shown with a green background, which is equally useless), and buildings are only shown when you start zooming in really closely.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If google can't make money with maps, why isn't map taken out of google into a charity/non-profit backed thing. There's OpenStreetMap, and Wikipedia wouldn't mind having a Map I guess. Assuming maps still loses a good chunk of money, how would it survive as a charity or non-profit? Where would the money come from? Who would donate to the charity?
Without donations OpenStreetMap would also lose money. But obviously people (and companies) are much more willing to donate to a project when it's a charity/non-profit, instead of the product of one of the biggest companies in the world.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Monetization was a dismal failure. Aren't they charging big money for the API?
Depends. Basically, the API is free if all you do is display a map, keep the Google branding at the bottom, and add a few of those pins. Make one of those pins move because it's actually a car, and suddenly your cheeks are getting clapped with 6+-figure bills.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently watched this show on netflix called "The Billion Dollar Code" that went into the details about maps beginnings and other companies claim to the idea. It was pretty interesting.
I can also recommend "Never Lost Again: The Google Mapping Revolution That Sparked New Industries and Augmented Our Reality" ( https://amzn.com/0062673041 ) about the evolution of Google Earth, Maps, and Street View. Written by one of the founders of Keyhole (the company that built what became Google Earth), the book is mostly about the founding of Keyhole and its mapping technology, but has some insider info about t…
Probably not a popular opinion here, but I like Google Maps. Sure there's some clutter, but it's pretty good at navigation, public transit and searching for places. I don't know any better alternative.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How can google maps monetize when openstreetmaps exists?
Interesting to know that OSM lists businesses, but GMaps contains more information, which can sometimes be crucial. (E.g. opening days and hours.)