

FourSquare switches from Google Maps to Open Street Map - replax
http://m.engadget.com/default/classic/article.do?artUrl=http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/01/foursquare-replaces-google-maps-with-openstreetmap-mapboxstreets/&icid=eng_latest_art

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feronull
Their site is fucked :/
[http://www.engadget.com/?m=%3C!doctype%20html%3EHello%20hack...](http://www.engadget.com/?m=%3C!doctype%20html%3EHello%20hacker%20news%3C!--)

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philo23
Oh wow, thats a fairly big screw up on their end...

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chrisacky
I'm sure FourSquare could probably write a long explaination of why they
decided to migrate, but simply put, the tl;dr version could be summarised as:

"We can't sustain a $8 CPM hit." (I'm assuming $8 since they use custom
styling). Most sites can't even sustain a $4 hit. If I could guarentee $4 per
1000 visitors to my site (income through advertisements) I would be a lot
richer than I am today.

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easy_rider
Seems that Google has been proven completely wrong with their pricing. They're
targeting the bigger companies, which don't see shy at all to reach out for
alternatives which offer equal quality and accuracy. Once these companies
switch, Gmaps will also lose its "trusty" image. As long as the competition
will keep up with providing easy integration, and API functionality, it will
no longer be the #1 choice for the bigger companies. And they're not going to
get their income from smaller, unless they drastically change their price-
model. OpenLayers is so great though for these kind of sites, that just need
that extra dimension of detail on maps.

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51Cards
Previous discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3649873>

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tarr11
I had asked this question of Google and received a response from a Google Maps
Product Manager a few months back. I wonder if they still feel the same way.

[http://www.quora.com/What-is-Googles-strategy-in-charging-
fo...](http://www.quora.com/What-is-Googles-strategy-in-charging-for-Maps)

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draebek
Thanks for posting this. Maybe I'm just grumpy from trying and mostly failing
to get some GIS data for the small business I work for, but when I read
between the lines of this statement I read either "we have to pay a lot to
license this data, and those costs are based on usage rather than a flat fee,"
or failing that at least "it's expensive to own and operate a fleet of Street
View cars to collect this data, and besides that you're not going to find this
quality of data cheaper anywhere else [for now, at least]."

I seem to recall that I'd see TeleAtlas and/or NAVTEQ copyrights on
maps.google.com for the US. Now I mostly see "(C) Google." (But also
"Sanborn," whom I haven't heard of, when I zoom in;
<http://www.sanborn.com/.>)

I welcome OSM shaking this market up. I believe that the losses OSM may
inflict upon the existing map data providers will be made up for several times
over by all the interesting applications that will arise from its
availability.

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Thomaschaaf
Making the GMaps Api is the best thing that could have happened for Open
Street Map and probably Google Maps in a while. The OSM Map Data is good
enough for most. In turn since more sites are going away from GMaps it gets
more popular and the data gets better. Google will probably integrate OSMs
Data back into Gmaps. Thus sooner or later Google won't need to pay licenseing
fees to the card guys. Because their own data (from Google Streetview) + OSMs
data will be enough.

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jsnell
Google doesn't use the OSM data now, and probably never will due to license
reasons. Just their own data will be enough, no need for OSM.

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tonfa
Why? Even if OSM is as good as GMaps?

As far as I can see, they have still a lot of value in the
direction/navigation infrastructure and places directory (which is where
foursquare actually compete with google).

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5h
what on earth has happened with engadgets url structure?

tried (albeit briefly) to re-write it to get to the desktop version, failed a
couple of times before i spotted the desktop link at the bottom, which looks
to append ?m=false, and now the first piece of content in the body element is
the word "false", presumably debugging stuff, hope that's sanitised properly!

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StavrosK
It's not:

[http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/01/foursquare-replaces-
googl...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/01/foursquare-replaces-google-maps-
with-openstreetmap-mapboxstreets/?m=%3Cscript%3Ealert\(3\)%3C/script%3E)

Interestingly, Chrome doesn't execute that because it finds the source of the
script in the request. Good XSS avoidance idea.

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5h
I tried that in chrome too, saw it didnt work and presumed the site handled
it, not my browser, IE9 avoids it as well, even shows a little popup saying
the site has been modified to prevent xss, latest FF still displays the alert
though.

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spullara
Safari also appears to prevent the alert. Must be built into WebKit.

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nopeqq
Nope. Ipad show the text

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hiromichan
OpenStreetMap is an interesting project in crowdsourcing geographical
information.

I am really curios and heager to find out what would happen if more companies
will start sharing their efforts with OpenStreetMap.

I would love to see the project getting some efforts and recognition from a
larger community :) .. Who know what can start out of this..

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bhousel
I really want to like OpenStreetMap, and I think it has a ton of potential,
but right now I think it's just too difficult to contribute to it. The only
choices for map editing are JOSM and Potlatch and neither of those are very
user friendly.

Just now, I tried correcting a missing street near me, spent about a half hour
playing around with the tools, and gave up. As OpenStreetMap gains popularity,
I hope some of these companies using the data will devote some programmer
resources to improving things so that "regular people" can contribute too.

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pja
For small tweaks to the map, I found Potlach (the flash editor) to be OK. I've
made a few edits to fill in the odd missing road or mark the point where the
name of a local road changed.

What exactly did you find difficult?

To add a new way (OSMese for a linear feature of some sort) abutting an
existing one, click where you want the road to start, then click where it
ends. Congratulations, you have a new "way"! On the left give it a type, name
etc etc. If you need to split an existing linear feature into two parts, click
on one of the nodes, then click on the scissors to split it, then you can
apply the correct values to each sub-section.

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bhousel
This morning I was trying to use Potlach to extend a street around a corner
and end it in a cul-de-sac. I was able to get the street to curve around, but
I couldn't really figure out how to make it end in a little neat circle like
all the other streets around here. And I couldn't figure out the way splitting
and joining. I had lots of problems with trying to move around, and also I got
"stuck" in draw mode, so I would end up with road paths that went all over the
place, then I had to go back and delete them. Maybe my mind is just too used
to programs like Adobe Illustrator.

I might try some more editing later -- my first few impressions of it were
just that it was too hard to use.

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ricardobeat
I came here to say that I hope they improve the default map theme, but then I
realized I'm off to the Maps app anytime I want to actually play with the map
or get directions anyway.

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panabee
Sorry if this question was already asked elsewhere, but how much roughly will
FourSquare save with OpenStreetMap? Obviously cost is a critical factor
driving this decision, and it would be great to know how much the delta is
exactly. Thanks!

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ximeng
[http://blog.foursquare.com/2012/02/29/foursquare-is-
joining-...](http://blog.foursquare.com/2012/02/29/foursquare-is-joining-the-
openstreetmap-movement-say-hi-to-pretty-new-maps/)

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harryh
God damn capital S.

When will the internet learn?

