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FWIW, where I live and where I travel OSM maps are much better than Google Maps. Google Maps just lack the data. OSM: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/48.2

• CaptainSwing 13y ago
  This is interesting. Do you have any ideas why? Did google simply deem it not profitable enough to send their camera-vans round bratislava, or are there particular reasons that make it more expensive there (regulations of some kind, a fuck-tonne of bureaucracy to get permission?)
  • davidw 13y ago
    Bratislava? Clicking on his link, I get something that looks like a suburb of Vienna.
  • rmc 13y ago
    Welcome to "Not-the-USA". You may find the big US tech companies don't care nearly as much about here.
    • oscargrouch 13y ago
      It's the modern version of the Roman/Barbarian dichotomy
    • sirkneeland 13y ago
      Evidently you've never been to China then...
  • cromwellian 13y ago
    Ever notice why you don't see Street View in China, or some Euro-areas? Some of it is probably regulation. Apple was recently denied overflight rights on some areas in Germany IIRC to do 3D mapping.
    • Vik1ng 13y ago
      http://searchengineland.com/google-has-stopped-street-view-photography-germany-72368 http://searchengineland.com/google-has-stopped-street-view-p...
• Vik1ng 13y ago
  http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=15&lat=48.25459&lon=16.27698&layers=B000TFFFFFFF http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=15&lat=48.25459&lon=16.27698&la... Use the slider at the top.
  • 4ad 13y ago
    Thanks!
• lettergram 13y ago
  Seems to me like Google simply can't or couldn't get the data.
  • agildehaus 13y ago
    Which begs the question: Why doesn't Google supplement their maps with OSM data?
    • parfe 13y ago
      The minute Google took open street map data hacker news would explode with submissions chastising google for taking without contributing back.
      • pbhjpbhj 13y ago
        No-one said they should take the data and not contribute back anything. Except OSM in their license of course, http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright (well it's attribution anyway). Either a bit a fraction of a percent of a days profit or some data for OSM, sure either would be most acceptable.
    • pja 13y ago
      They can't, unless they're willing to free their own datasets as well: "You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt our data, as long as you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors. If you alter or build upon our data, you may distribute the result only under the same licence. The full legal code explains your rights and responsibilities."
      • jervisfm 13y ago
        Does that "build-upon" clause also apply for the case where a provider is mixing OSM data with other third-party licensed map data ? For example, it is mentioned/known that Apple makes some use of OSM data[1] to improve their maps in some places. Are they then legally obliged to release the full data behind their maps for those regions? If so, that's very nice but I am not sure that's what is actually happening: the third-party source whom they are licensing data from is unlikely to be happy with a scenario where their data ends up in the public domain as this considerably reduces the commercial value of their map data. [1] - https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2012/10/02/apple-maps/ https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2012/10/02/apple-maps/
• pja 13y ago
  Google Maps is generally terrible once you go off-road.
  • ekr 13y ago
    I usually plan my mountain-bike routes with a combination of Google Satellite and OSM. On the go, I only use the OSM, as it contains actual path data, but I haven't yet found an alternative to Google's Satellite View. There used to be tools which would scrape an area for you and use them offline, but they haven't been updated and I don't have the time do it myself.
    • dublinben 13y ago
      OpenStreetMap includes satellite view imagery from Microsoft.
      • hnha 13y ago
        osm is allowed to use Bing imagery as background reference when editing. The aireal imagery is not part of osm in any way!
    • erjiang 13y ago
      If you want both OpenStreetMap and satellite imagery, check out MapQuest Open[0]. They provide OSM tiles and satellite imagery for anyone to use for free.[1] [0] http://open.mapquest.com/ http://open.mapquest.com/ [1] Well, check the terms at http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/open/map http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/open/map
    • c0nsumer 13y ago
      I've done a lot of mapping of local mountain bike trails, followed up by making official PDFs of the trails for many local land managers. OSM is a great, great, great way to go with this, but you're right... Lacking the aerial imagery that Google provides makes things more complicated. EDIT: That said, I have great luck with using something like OSMAnd+ to have offline sets of data that I'd contributed to. It works very nicely for electronic mapping of MTB trails.
• hawkharris 13y ago
  If you live in an area where Google Maps is lacking, you can take the initiative to improve them — no coding required! Most people think that Google Maps is based only on camera-equipped vehicles and satellite imagery. In fact, the service relies heavily on crowdsourcing. People who live in remote regions can use Google Maps' community tools to describe how roads, trails, etc., have changed. For example, when the post office in my small town moved, I edited Google Maps to reflect that change. You can also change the position of roads, trails and other geographic elements.
  • unfamiliar 13y ago
    Why should I donate my time and effort to improving a proprietary service?
    • hawkharris 13y ago
      For your own benefit. Millions of people regularly improve Google Maps because doing so makes it easier for them to commute and find local resources.
      • cscurmudgeon 13y ago
        Won't it make more sense to improve openstreetmap since it seems to be already better. It is also open.
        • GFischer 13y ago
          I usually add to both :) .
      • javajosh 13y ago
        Right. Now go back to 1994 and s/Google Maps/CDDB/g [1] The lesson was clear: you contribute to proprietary databases at your great peril. People access Google Maps at the whim of Google. They could decide tomorrow to deny access, and you'd have no say in the matter. So, contribute to Open Street Maps instead! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDB
• yrochat 13y ago
  Is that a joke ? The coordinates you use are not the same. your OSM url : 48.2509 x 16.2533 your GM url : 48.256541 x 16.269420
• RestlessMind 13y ago
  I actually disagree. Google maps has a link to Google Earth in the bottom left corner, which immediately gives a satellite view of the place without having me navigate elsewhere. I tried various layers on OSM (transport map layer is cool, btw) but no layer was as informative to me as what Google Earth showed. YMMV.
• cromwellian 13y ago
  You can always find anecdotal areas where each do a better job (e.g. Rangali Island, Maldives http://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=rangali%20island#map=17/3.61757/72.72230 http://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=rangali%20island#m... https://www.google.com/maps/search/Conrad+Maldives+Rangali+Island,+2034,+Rangali+Island,+Maldives+Islands,+Maldives/@3.6181351,72.7233551,17z/data=!3m1!4b1 https://www.google.com/maps/search/Conrad+Maldives+Rangali+I...) Or compare Northstar Ski Resort (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Northstar+California+Resort/@39.2521409,-120.1262465,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x809962691d00f31b:0xf108bd9d35c51642 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Northstar+California+Resor...) (http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2635559519#map=15/39.2599/-120.1182 http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2635559519#map=15/39.2599/...) Sure, they have dotted lines for the trails, but they're missing names and color coding for difficulty. The real issue is geocoding and business listings. That's the primary user interface to getting your mapping endpoints for most people, and frankly, Google Maps is far and above most other services in this regard. Street View is indispensable for many tasks. I often use it to get a visual cue of the place I'm looking for, especially if it's a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, or to map out where I'm going to park if it's in a city.
  • Vik1ng 13y ago
    I don't think it is missing that many business listings, after all foursquare is for example using OSM. What it lacks is a service that extracts the data, makes it searchable and has ratings etc.
    • maxerickson 13y ago
      In much of the U.S. there basically aren't any businesses mapped at all.
      • _delirium 13y ago
        Yeah, there's a big U.S./European difference here. In many European cities, OSM has better business listings than Google. OSM is especially better about not continuing to list restaurants that closed 3 years ago, as Google likes to do. But in the U.S., Google is much better. The UK is maybe the best case for OSM, unsurprisingly since it started there and has the most concentrated community there. There is barely any stone unmapped in the country, and stones that move get updated within days. France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are also very well covered.
• mslider 13y ago
  Geofabrik has a really cool tool that lets you compare various OSM providers, Google, Bing, etc. side-by-side. Check it out[0] - it's pretty cool! [0] http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/ http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/