
Wikipedia’s Mobile Apps Drop Google Maps for OpenStreetMap - sbashyal
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/05/wikipedias-mobile-apps-drop-google-maps-for-openstreetmap/
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yuvipanda
Am one of the devs working on the App. The App is Open Source and available
for forking at <https://github.com/wikimedia/WikipediaMobile>. We're also
switching to a 2 week release cycle so updates should be faster.

Please poke us/me with any questions you might have :)

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glesica
It's nice that Google provided access for free for so long, allowing the
development of so many location-aware products and services. But it's also
nice that a healthy competitive environment is developing around the maps
themselves.

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Apple-Guy
But isn't Google's motto open and free?

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Karunamon
Since when?

Besides, it is still open and free.. to end users. You're only affected by the
pricing changes if you utilize their API's as a developer.

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sp332
Google Maps is in a rough spot right now. They're not better than their
competitors, so most of their users are just there out of momentum. If Google
does anything to annoy their users, masses of them will leave for Bing Maps or
OSM. If they want to make some money, they will have to improve their product
first.

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Steko
"They're not better than their competitors"

I guess my mileage varies widely here, they're far and away the best.

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sp332
In my area, Bing has much better imagery than Google. They have for years.
Google Maps has better text layout than Bing, but Bing Maps has several
features that Google Maps doesn't. The orthogonal "Bird's Eye" view lets you
see the map from an angle, and you can rotate to see all 4 sides with the
arrows in the top-right. <http://binged.it/Iaa4xm>

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yonran
The 45° “bird’s eye” imagery was a feature that Bing had first, but Google has
been adding it gradually (including at Cupertino where you linked). If you
enable the MapsGL experiment, the Google version also uses 3D buildings to
rotate very smoothly compared to Bing.

