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How Google Builds Its Maps

theatlantic.com

51–60 of 113 posts

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#51
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not Apple doing it, it's http://www.openstreetmap.org/ .

Actually Apple does have a big part in it. They bring together all the data from Tom Tom, Waze, OSM etc as well as the two teams they purchased: C3 and Placebase into one coherent product. It's amazing that Apple has nearly matched Google in some parts (maps, directions) and far exceeded them in others (3D).

I'll take transit navigation and street view before slightly improved 3D any day.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#52
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they built the same kind of tools as what GT uses, maybe they could make better use of the thousand of volunteers?

After seeing tons of videos detailing the tools Google uses for their maps and using Google Map Maker, the OSM tools are much better at empowering the mapper to create map data. OSM might not have the computer vision tools or the Street View imagery, but there's still plenty of work to do with the existing tools and data.

Google's map makers are full time experts. I haven't seen the videos you have, but it sounded from the article tht the tools are complicated but powerful. OSM needs to focus on easy to get contributions.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#53
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not Apple doing it, it's http://www.openstreetmap.org/ .

Actually Apple does have a big part in it. They bring together all the data from Tom Tom, Waze, OSM etc as well as the two teams they purchased: C3 and Placebase into one coherent product. It's amazing that Apple has nearly matched Google in some parts (maps, directions) and far exceeded them in others (3D).

Apple has not "nearly matched" google, not at all. Maybe in the US they have, but in New Zealand, where google is as good as any of the local street maps/directories, if not better normally, the new ios maps is atrocious. The places are now even worse too, because they're relying on Yelp, who don't have a presence here at all.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#54
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they built the same kind of tools as what GT uses, maybe they could make better use of the thousand of volunteers?

After seeing tons of videos detailing the tools Google uses for their maps and using Google Map Maker, the OSM tools are much better at empowering the mapper to create map data. OSM might not have the computer vision tools or the Street View imagery, but there's still plenty of work to do with the existing tools and data.

I'd anticipate that OSM will get machine vision in the future. Consider that that a typical phone/tablet now has a GPS, camera and decent computing resources. It's begging for a machine vision application, which records video and automatically extracts mapping information, ready for uploading to OSM. Begging to the point, where I think it's just a matter of time.

As an aside, are there any efforts afoot to decentralise OSM? It seems well suited to a geographically distributed database, with each country/area looking after it's own map, and the whole being drawn together by a common markup language. Assembling a global map would be a matter of crawling a network of servers, rather than downloading from a single source.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#55
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So I have no clue why on earth Apple created such a neutered mapping app for a mobile device. The terms of the license agreement with Google for maps data likely didn't include the ability to perform turn-by-turn navigation. Another reason why they moved to their own maps backend for iOS 6.

Does that mean by the time Google had decided to work on the iPhone-like Android interface, they had been planning to work on a turn-by-turn navigation system using Google Maps for Android as well?

Android has had turn-by-turn navigation at least since 2010. Having a GPS is irrelevant if you've got an Android.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually Apple does have a big part in it. They bring together all the data from Tom Tom, Waze, OSM etc as well as the two teams they purchased: C3 and Placebase into one coherent product. It's amazing that Apple has nearly matched Google in some parts (maps, directions) and far exceeded them in others (3D).

Apple has not "nearly matched" google, not at all. Maybe in the US they have, but in New Zealand, where google is as good as any of the local street maps/directories, if not better normally, the new ios maps is atrocious. The places are now even worse too, because they're relying on Yelp, who don't have a presence here at all.

Maybe he works for Apple, they're his main client or owns lots of stock or something.

The Apple worship is truly mind-boggling.

OpenStreetMap is where the crucial data comes from. And if I'm not mistaken it's submitted by volunteers.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#57
post #2

A lot of people under estimate the investment Google has made in their maps product. That we've got two companies doing that (Apple and Google) is a bit mind boggling.

It is funny how much effort google is putting into their maps and yet their interface to the maps (maps.google.com) could still use basic improvements like how 99 out of 100 times I want directions it is to or from my house and yet I have to type in almost my entire address before it appears in the drop down. Considering I am logged into google, have confirmed my address and type in the same address over and over you would think their would be a Home button or at least have recent destinations appear in the drop down initially or whatnot.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#58
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So I have no clue why on earth Apple created such a neutered mapping app for a mobile device. The terms of the license agreement with Google for maps data likely didn't include the ability to perform turn-by-turn navigation. Another reason why they moved to their own maps backend for iOS 6.

Does that mean by the time Google had decided to work on the iPhone-like Android interface, they had been planning to work on a turn-by-turn navigation system using Google Maps for Android as well?

[deleted]

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#59
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So I have no clue why on earth Apple created such a neutered mapping app for a mobile device. The terms of the license agreement with Google for maps data likely didn't include the ability to perform turn-by-turn navigation. Another reason why they moved to their own maps backend for iOS 6.

Does that mean by the time Google had decided to work on the iPhone-like Android interface, they had been planning to work on a turn-by-turn navigation system using Google Maps for Android as well?

Could well be the case.

It's pretty clear that Google deliberately withheld the data needed for Apple to implement turn by turn/3D in order to give a competitive advantage to Android.

Apple purchased Placebase in July 2009 which should give an indication of when they decided to build their own map platform.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#60
post #35
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Nasa, Digital Globe, Astrium, CNES, Spot Image, to name a few.

And Navteq, Tele Atlas, TomTom, and a few more... They don't have the marketing skills of Apple and Google, but they don't need it because they are not consumer-focused companies.

TomTom owns Tele Atlas and Nokia owns Navteq, just FYI.
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