
MAPS.ME users now can edit OpenStreetMap by themselves - chippy
http://blog.maps.me/2016/04/lets-make-most-detailed-map-together.html
======
okso
MAPS.ME is an awesome product, and probably the best alternative to Google
Maps: great performances, free and open source and not trying to track you
everywhere.

Allowing user to contribute back to OSM makes it even greater.

~~~
tohaji
The fact that start and endpoints of calculated routes are uploaded to a
server (and until recently unencrypted[1]) doesn't inspire confidence. The app
also collects analytic statistics and serves ads by default. If you're
interested in a maps application that is not "trying to track you everywhere",
OsmAnd[2] is a better choice.

Also, Maps.me is owned by mail.ru which has a similar business model to Google
with arguably more lax security practices.

[1][https://github.com/mapsme/omim/issues/1073](https://github.com/mapsme/omim/issues/1073)
[2][http://osmand.net](http://osmand.net)

~~~
langseth
From the issue referenced it seems like this is only done when the regions
needed for routing are not already downloaded to the device. They do admit
that the source/destination is sent to the server rather than just the
regions, that might have been a reasonable balance. I was able to create a
route from my current location to a new location, one I have never search for
before going into airplane mode, across multiple regions already on my device.

The app statistics and ad delivery can be easily turned off.

OsmAnd looks pretty nice too.

~~~
sohkamyung
I use OsmAnd and am currently evaluating Maps.Me.

One thing OsmAnd can do is to set multiple waypoints before the destination
then plan a route that hits the waypoints before the destination. This is good
for planning routes from A to B to C, etc.

I don't think Maps.Me can do this yet.

------
maxerickson
This is great news for OpenStreetMap. It makes it easy for millions of people
to make fixes and additions that will quickly show up in the mapping system
that they are using day to day.

------
Roritharr
Maps.me saved my trip to Okinawa where Here and Google had no offline maps
available. I would have donated if there were a button.

------
donquichotte
This is a gamechanger, not being able to make changes to OSM easily (and if
it's not easy, I don't do it, like the lazy fuck that I am) was the only thing
that bugged me about maps.me. Actually it could be fun now to start mapping
expeditions to not-so-well covered areas like rural Mongolia.

~~~
dublinben
If you are interested in making large contributions to OSM, I still recommend
the dedicated tools like JOSM. I think you'll find that significant editing
will become very tedious on a mobile device.

------
bisby
How long does it usually take for [http://maps.me/apk/](http://maps.me/apk/)
to update?

I like to avoid major app stores when possible, especially for open source
apps (I'm not quite ready to build for myself for all the apps I use though),
so I've been getting the app direct from the source for previous releases.

For me, this has been one of the key apps in migrating from Google apps to
open source.

~~~
orblivion
Check out the discussion here:

[https://github.com/mapsme/omim/issues/85](https://github.com/mapsme/omim/issues/85)

In summary, Maps.me includes a few binary blob analytics libraries. The
F-Droid fork removed them, but they have to sort out how to make sure the fork
plays nice with their data servers, or they have to host it on their own.

~~~
thrilleratplay
relan, who created the Fdroid fork, unfortunately deleted that fork.

------
paulnasca
I like very much the Maps.me and I have recomanded it to several people. I
would like to know if it's possible to search in London by the postcode or how
could I add myself the postcode database (into to my phone).

~~~
dublinben
The UK postcode data is not freely available.[0]

[0][http://www.freethepostcode.org/](http://www.freethepostcode.org/)

~~~
Doctor_Fegg
Postcode centroids have been freely available since 2010. freethepostcode was
set up before then (as was npemap, a similar site I was involved with:
[http://www.npemap.org.uk/FAQ.html#whatIsIt](http://www.npemap.org.uk/FAQ.html#whatIsIt)
).

Postcode boundaries, however, are still not available openly.

~~~
arjie
I wonder how much absolute error there is between the actual boundary and a
Voronoi boundary. While I'm sure there's some massive IV postcode for which it
wouldn't work, if most postcodes are tiny, then the fact that you're off by
under a kilometre isn't so bad for routing.

------
Qantourisc
I done some OSM the entry level is low-level (for me). There are quite a bit
of rules to OSM to map properly. So I am not entirely sure this is a good
thing. I'd be happier with bug-reports and pictures personally.

~~~
maxerickson
There's billions of buildings to map, millions of POIs, anything that makes
the long tail longer is a good thing.

------
amdavidson
Maps.me is a cool idea, but the search functionality is unusable.

Is it done entirely based on OSM data or are they referencing some other data
set?

~~~
Zverik
Searching algorithms were completely redone in this release. Give it a try.

~~~
nxzero
Still are very, very bad.

------
buckhx
As an OSM data consumer I hope this gets more people adding nodes,
particularly house numbers for geocoding.

