
Why Use OpenStreetMap Instead of Google Maps? - tdurden
https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/jbelien/diary/44356
======
crazygringo
I totally support OSM 1000%...

But frankly, it seems it's still a _lot_ of work to build OSM into your own
website/app, setting up your own tile server.

I know there are instructions for this [1] [2] -- but to really get popular,
it seems like there really ought to be up-to-date, auto-updating, officially
recommended and totally secure server images on Digital Ocean, AWS, Google
Cloud and Azure where anyone can spin it up for $5/mo without even ever having
to SSH in once (except to update the root password), and then embed a live
JavaScript map into their web page with two lines of code -- one to load the
library, and one to insert a live map of a given size centered on a given
location. Where the whole process shouldn't take more than 10 minutes, and
most of that is waiting for the image to be copied to your server.

I've Googled but I can't find anything like that -- with the links below, I
assume I'd be using _at least_ a day to set things up, especially since
setting up servers from online tutorials never goes smoothly, as you have to
google error messages that arise since newer versions have changed slightly
since the tutorial was written... And most times where I just want to "throw
in a map", I don't want to spend a day+ doing it.

[1] [https://switch2osm.org/manually-building-a-tile-
server-18-04...](https://switch2osm.org/manually-building-a-tile-
server-18-04-lts/)

[2] [https://ircama.github.io/osm-carto-tutorials/tile-server-
ubu...](https://ircama.github.io/osm-carto-tutorials/tile-server-ubuntu/)

~~~
sidstling
We can’t really use google maps in the Danish public sector where I work,
because they track your data. So we use osm and I think you’re daily spot on.

I work in a small municipality so we don’t really have the resources to do the
integration ourselves. What we did was find a company which specializes in
making google maps like APIs/integration to osm as well as having a support
line that can correct osm mistakes for us.

This is not free, like doing the integration ourselves would be. I can’t give
you the exact price, but it is a lot cheaper than google maps and it’s worked
great for us for several years now.

We did by a package with little osm support because we can update osm
ourselves, but calculating routes is something we could never do within our
budget.

If your country doesn’t have any companies offering these types of osm
services, then I bet you could make a lot of money by building it though.

~~~
jimmaswell
> We can’t really use google maps in the Danish public sector where I work,
> because they track your data.

Perfect example of stifling regulations hurting the average person.

~~~
ionised
This _has_ to be sarcasm.

~~~
badosu
It certainly feels like it.

If it did not have that snark though, one could make the point that the data
could still be 'deanonimitized'.

~~~
jimmaswell
It's not sarcasm. It doesn't actually matter at all if Google Maps "tracks"
you. But this pointless legislation decided it does and now people have to
settle for surely inferior alternatives.

~~~
daltonlp
You're saying the "pointless legislation" had a point. Just not one that you
agree with.

This is a guess, but I suspect the point had to do with data privacy. Maybe
someone wrote legislation that prohibits public websites from hosting ads, or
third party browser-tracking software. And google maps fits that.

In the parent comment, there's also this bit:

> but it is a lot cheaper than google maps

If true, this is an example of government regulations working as intended, and
saving money.

~~~
jimmaswell
If an alternative was cheaper and of comparable quality then legislation
shouldn't have been required for it to be chosen by whoever was in charge of
the decision.

------
1996
And if you can't use OSM, try Here maps.

They are easy to download for offline use. Following the suggestion of
friends, I have repurposed an old phone as a "travel phone" with maps of the
whole world (or at least the parts I can download!)

Not perfect, but when I catch a plane, I don't have to worry about local
networks.

Fun story: recently in Europe, Google Maps stuttered. Now and then, there was
a networking issue. It is almighty wiseness, Google Maps was then showing a
white page instead of showing me the previously downloaded maps. This was
irksome, especially in navigation mode. I was litteraly following my way on
the screen, when it turned white in front of my eyes. Several times. I turned
white too.

After that, I decided I would take a chance with the backup plan. I turned off
the phone and used the travel phone instead. No network, so no lookup of
business names, but Here maps offline with street addresses did better than
Google Maps online.

I called that a learning experience. I later was told Google Maps lets you
download some tiles, but it is not as convenient as having litteraly every
continent saved. I do not want to plan what part I may need. Just "down it
all"!

~~~
dev_dull
Your anecdote falls into the trap I see often when comparing OSS software vs
proprietary. You’ve found a obscure, uncommon use case where OSM works better.
However, the opposite needs to be true for adoption. OSM needs to work better
for 80% of the use cases, not the other 20.

~~~
marcosdumay
Working without a network is niche now?

Anywhere you go far from a city will lack a network.

~~~
eigenvector
Or working on a slow, spotty network, which is par for the course for 'the
next billion users' that tech execs keep talking about.

~~~
ufo
Or if your mobile connection has strict data caps...

------
gytdev
I am an avid traveler currently traveling South-East-Asia. One of the most
favorite tools used by travelers is an Android app Maps.me, that is based on
Openstreet maps. You can download any Country or region and have it for
offline use, only need a GPS connection.

There are some practical caveats in using it though: -If You are planning a
ride by car, the estimated time for Your journey most likely be way
(waaaaayyy) off. Especially in Asian countries that are less covered. It can
show 3 hours in a journey that is 8 hours without traffic. -some areas are
completely not covered (I mean at all)

But for bigger cities it's pretty good in coverage

~~~
ris
Have you been improving the less-covered areas during your travels?

~~~
gytdev
Only in available ways. When it is easy to update the situation (add place to
map), I do it. But it's only easy to label areas and buildings, and much
harder to add whole villages or roads that are missing

------
bepotts
I like that the arguments for OpenStreetMap were more about the advantages
over Google Maps, instead of "because Google is a 'bad' company" like so many
Google debates delve into.

I love using Google Maps for my applications, but I'll definitely look into
OpenStreetMaps now.

~~~
ronnier
Reviewing the difference, OSM actually puts the street name where I can find
it. The first thing I want with maps are street names and for whatever
reasons, google maps makes that very difficult in some cases.

------
sbr464
I'm a big supporter of open mapping data and initiatives. I hope companies
continue to contribute to the datasets, vs keeping higher quality data within
silos.

I registered the domain thislocation.com a while back. Through some other work
I'm doing, I'm hoping to release a platform and datasets that allow you to
build/upload/download arbitrary metadata schemas that you can attach to a
location (coordinate/POI etc).

The data will be freely available to other platforms, OSM compatible as much
as possible. The goal is to pull up a location and there could be hundreds of
interactive datasets about it specifically or nearby. Anything from a live
audio recording of a space, to drone footage, lidar/radar captures.

The project started when capturing lidar & precision gps data recently, and
not having an easy, agnostic platform to just upload and allow it to work
easily. The goal is to understand common data patterns so the App will just
consume where it can, or allow extension via custom schemas where needed.
Everything now seems to be poorly design UI's, corporate desktop software, or
if it is a modern online platform, it's too specific to a particular vertical.

I don't really feel like the layers/photos etc experience of google earth are
really the best way to explore mapping data, as well as displaying thousands
of markers. We are trying for different approaches based on the types of
media.

A user can keep their data private, or share it publicly but it will be just
like opening Google maps online, typing in an address etc, then toggling
datasets in a modern, beautiful way that just works. hiding the map when
needed, activating different pages when more appropriate. Everything defined
in JSON Schema etc, no new standards or KML/XML, maybe compatible exports if
needed.

Apologies for the long pitch, just wanted to share about this side project,
and love for open mapping data.

~~~
sbr464
Another piece would be slowly filling out everything possible that could
document a specific location, from the soil, asphalt type/quality,
temperature, smell/sound, haze in the air, scientific measurements,
video/drone/lidar. Until all checkboxes are completed/amassed.

------
tristanho
> The latest change (June 2018) has much more impact : Google decided to
> reduce the limit of free requests (25000 map display per day to 28000 per
> month - that's around 1000 map display per day, so 25 times less)

IMO the biggest takeaway from this article. I've hacked up plenty of projects
on using Google Maps, but would definitely think again with this much lower
free limit. Though, on the bright side, it seems that Google has finally made
Maps pricing transparent:

[https://mapsplatformtransition.withgoogle.com/calculator](https://mapsplatformtransition.withgoogle.com/calculator)

~~~
Qwertie
Around a similar time Mapbox also made their pricing much cheaper for lower
usage users.

~~~
mtmail
Current Mapbox pricing came into effect July/2017.

~~~
Qwertie
Ah yeah I say similar time because I don't check it too often but the pricing
used to be: free, $500/month, and "contact us"

------
shiburizu
I just recently spent a few hours working with OSM and Nominatim as part of a
project for my university, an event planning page for ActivityPub social
media: [http://fedevent.herokuapp.com/](http://fedevent.herokuapp.com/)

OSM maps are quite detailed, perfectly serviceable...but Nominatim is not very
good (at least in my experience?) I used
[https://github.com/perliedman/leaflet-control-
geocoder](https://github.com/perliedman/leaflet-control-geocoder) to interact
with Nominatim but entering something that can sound relatively common (like a
mall or an abbreviation of an institution) will come up with locations in
entirely different countries than the user had in mind and at least in the
case of that geocoder control (props to the dev for making it, BTW) there
isn't a clear way to determine WHERE something is before selecting it.

I noticed this when I searched for "Mall San Pedro" and was returned the right
location but it was displayed as something completely different, under the
name of the street. It's a little disconnecting.

I appreciate that it might come down the libraries and tools that are querying
Nominatim with certain design decisions, but the useful of a database is in
the implementation of it into tools.

~~~
0XAFFE
Did you have a look at overpass turbo[1]?

With this API a lot more is possible than with nominatim.

[1] [http://overpass-turbo.eu/](http://overpass-turbo.eu/)

~~~
shiburizu
This looks useful for the purposes of describing areas in detail but setting
an event usually doesn't require more than a couple pins to show where it
takes place.

I will keep this handy for any future geomapping projects I work on (which
sounds like a possibility given that this was interesting to work with)

------
jnurmine
OSM is supreme when it comes to paths, trails and other such details (like
wind shelters). Google Maps seems to be devoid of these.

~~~
Qwertie
Absolutely, I use OSM all the time for walking paths and mountain bike trails
because the coverage of them is perfect. Google maps seems to fall short where
there isn't a lot of money to be made.

~~~
photojosh
Yep, I use OSM to plan runs and rides for anywhere I travel to, and then add
any new trails I find.

------
utopcell
Not sure how the article makes the mental leap from "google is limiting free
usage to a few thousand views per day" for a system that costs a lot to
operate, to "google may hide stuff or change country borders at will". If
that's the main argument for switching to openstreetmaps, it's not very
compelling.

------
tehabe
What I would love to see in OpenStreetMaps are translated or transcripted
place names. And since place names are extremely political, this should also
be mentioned that a place has several names in different languages and
cultures.

~~~
timthorn
That exists. This blog post explains how to add Welsh names:
[http://cardiff.theodi.org/2018/02/23/mapio-eich-milltir-
sgwa...](http://cardiff.theodi.org/2018/02/23/mapio-eich-milltir-sgwar/)

~~~
maxerickson
There's quite some resistance to adding translations and transcriptions, as
they aren't really names as such.

An example would be small towns in the US. They probably don't have a Welsh
name, even if there happens to be a direct translation into Welsh.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Cymraeg users often have a strong hatred of English language use, and users,
and want to deny that Welsh counties were annexed in to England and want to
try and hold back the tide wrt English language use in preference to Cymraeg.

We get silly things in Wales like Cymraeg mono-lingual government
announcements/adverts on the radio (accessible to about 7% [1] of the
population vs c.100% if they were in English), motorway signs that are only in
Cwmraeg for half the people passing them (they change over, useless if you
passed already), travel announcements in Cymraeg first. Heck, if you ring 999
in an emergency you have to wait for the Cymraeg speaker to finish their 20s
message before you start your call.

Welsh people use British-English language predominantly; the Welsh name is the
name in English, the _Cymraeg_ name sometimes differs.

[1] roughly: ~15% of the adult population say they know any Cymraeg, half of
those are fluent (self reported). FWIW half of those fluent say they prefer to
use English. So one could argue you're catering to <4% of the population.

~~~
gerdesj
_Cymraeg users often have a strong hatred of English language use, and users,_

Not my experience (English - Somerset based - with quite a lot of work and
friends the other side of the bridges). If you show some respect towards
others, I generally find it returned. They are also not users but speakers.
The only time I find dual language to be a bit of a pain is in lifts: being
told the doors are closing in two languages is bloody stupid.

 _and want to deny that Welsh counties were annexed in to England and want to
try and hold back the tide wrt English language use in preference to Cymraeg._

You might want to reread your history books and concentrate around 1066. The
Norsemen didn't really give a shit whether you were "welsh" or "english"
(neither of which, as we now know them, really existed as such at the time).
You were probably a vassel, whatever language you spoke. I can't remember or
even be bothered to look up when the concept of county was created. I think we
still had hides and hundreds back then.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Harold put a vassal in place in Gwynedd in 1063. But IIRC they were already
ruling and had originally taken Gwynedd by force with an Irish & Danish army.

Re counties, there were established principalities in the West of the British
mainland -- Gwynedd managed to subdue many of these other counties (ie
independently governed areas), whilst paying fealty/homage to the English
Crown, once Gwynedd had subdued Deheubarth and Powys and such, they (Llewellyn
The Last) stopped paying the Crown. At which point Gwynedd was put down,
handing their recent won territories over to be annexed to the "English"
King's territories (Edward I).

I don't think the Welsh counties in general were divided in to hundreds until
Henry Tudor (who also issued a writ demanding use of English across his whole
territory). Hides and hundreds, like the words, are Anglo-Saxon I think?

AFAICT Gwynedd grew strong (post-Romans) by earlier conquest by Vikings and
Irish-Scots.

You're right, the Norse, like the Romans before them didn't care what tribe
you hung with, Wales is called that because it's the bit the Romans hadn't
conquered yet (cf Walloons, Wallachia (? in Romania)); which is down to
physical geography. Same with the Norse AFAICT. And the same in the other
direction with why Gwynedd was able to conquer the principalities but not
subdue the Marches or Pembrokeshire.

------
alexandernst
I always wondered who actually pays for the bills in OSM? Who pays all the
servers, all the traffic, etc...?

~~~
dmortin
With OSM you have to host the map tiles yourself if you add maps to your
website, because OSM servers only provide limited traffic hosting via the API.

~~~
imhoguy
Anyone providing service on top of OpenStreetMap can or ideally should
host/render stuff on own mirror server. However for small uses I recommend
utilising simple reverse proxy caching e.g. with nginx. Here is snippet of
nginx config from my geo side-project:
[https://pastebin.com/brTQ68nw](https://pastebin.com/brTQ68nw)

------
kekub
OSM does not offer live traffic data, which makes it hard to use it for real
life navigation. Does anyone know a project that takes care for this kind of
data?

~~~
lucb1e
Are you from the USA? I'll assume so, because I've often seen this on
HN/Reddit: a lot of people there seem to use Waze or other traffic info
sources for getting _around_ traffic. I want to know whether I'll be delayed
so I'll check before a trip (and also during a trip if it's >2h), but I can
recall driving around a jam maybe once in my life. It usually isn't faster,
and that's assuming the byways/B-roads aren't congested as well, in which case
standing in the jam is definitely faster. It sounds like spreading the load
over multiple roads in the USA is a must.

~~~
wtallis
Some of this is probably due to American vs European driving habits, with
respect to long trips. It's hard to gain much by routing around congestion
along a half-hour trip, but if you're going to spend half a day or longer then
you definitely want to know when there's a wreck that makes it worthwhile to
get off the interstate to avoid.

~~~
ascorbic
I'm in the UK. I have a half hour commute by car when there's light traffic.
Congestion can easily add 10-15 minutes to that. There are at least three
almost entirely independent routes that I can take to work that are the same
without traffic so it's absolutely worth routing around it

------
joeblau
One of the interesting trends I've been seeing are the amount of companies
that are rebuilding there maps from the ground up. While Google currently
provides the best data set, there is a resurgence of companies mapping from
the ground up to solve problems that Google isn't solving for its customers.
You've got Apple[1], Tesla[2], and Uber[3] all rebuilding maps and all
current/previous customers of Google.

[1] - [https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/29/apple-is-rebuilding-
maps-f...](https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/29/apple-is-rebuilding-maps-from-
the-ground-up/)

[2] - [https://electrek.co/2017/07/03/tesla-map-navigation-open-
sou...](https://electrek.co/2017/07/03/tesla-map-navigation-open-source-
platforms/)

[3] - [https://www.uber.com/newsroom/mapping-ubers-
future/](https://www.uber.com/newsroom/mapping-ubers-future/)

------
tripzilch
Maps make even more sense to be free for the public to access, than the
summary of human knowledge known as Wikipedia.

This is a literal description of the physical space we occupy. The knowledge
of "what is there" should not be owned by any entity.

Now, I am aware that map data includes more than just "what is there" and one
could argue that certain types of metadata can be more appropriately owned
than others. But on the whole they should be the minority. In particular, the
metadata required to "make sense of it all" should be free: Systems for
searching between the wildly different naming conventions and other mapping
oddities in various parts of the world.

I am also aware that certain parts of map data may be classified to certain
governments. Exceptions could be made. I'm not sure what the best solution is
but it's not that important as these spots are a minority of the world's
mapped area.

------
yosito
Open Street Maps is great as a data source, but the front end client apps for
using it are somewhat lacking. On my iPhone, I use Maps.me when I travel to
Cuba and Google Maps almost everywhere else. If I was building an app, I'd
definitely use OSM and probably Mapbox.

~~~
craftyguy
On Android, Osmand works very well.

~~~
makomk
I've found it rather slow and temperamental, plus their business model of
charging for access to map updates basically means that you have to pay them
to use corrections you contribute to OSM.

~~~
craftyguy
> plus their business model of charging for access to map updates

Not sure what you are talking about, but I am not prompted to pay for updates.
In fact, I'm installing some updates and new maps right now. Even the 'live'
feature works. I am using the f-droid version of the app though, so maybe
that's the difference?

~~~
jraph
The version in f-droid provides anything free, which the version in google
play does not.

This app is excellent. I'll probably donate. I would be totallly comfortable
with doing this if they made their UI free, making osmand a completely free
software.

I which I could use it on a regular computer, or if a web service provided
something similar to what we get with osmand, the experience of its offline
search included.

Next step would be mapillary providing a free app to contribute to their
database or osmand providing a way to do it.

------
CommanderData
I developed a Maps centric app recently I realized all the things mentioned in
this article and made a comment recently on HN related to Apple maps about
this.

Popular times (Maps) in Google Maps is incredibly useful and a good example,
requests to expose this data are ignored. Some may argue Google has a right to
therefore it should. The data is gathered in numerous ways, perhaps
unsuspecting mobile users is one which method is used to.

I want more competition, I don't think a flood of Maps providers is a good
thing either. A single source of really good data is what is needed. Perhaps
OSM can be that, or perhaps smaller Map providers can provide data to an open
standard for which OSM can use through some type of exchange license.

------
qwerty456127
From the purely practical, pragmatic point of view both GM and OSM are very
far from perfect. Similar services offered by local service providers can be
much better in some cases. For example Seznam's Mapy.cz is feel much much
better than Google Maps when it's about the Czech Republic. I don't work for
them, that's my purely pragmatic user experience.

------
jstanley
I quite like
[https://maps.openrouteservice.org/](https://maps.openrouteservice.org/) as a
UI for OSM that has sensible search and routing.

The routing has many different cycling modes, and you can also click the
little leaflet icon on the right and switch the view to "OpenCycleMap" to get
a more cycling-oriented map view.

~~~
Doctor_Fegg
Another OSM-based cycle map and routeplanner you might be interested in:
[https://cycle.travel/map](https://cycle.travel/map) (disclaimer - my site!
Western Europe/North America only at present).

~~~
jstanley
Very nice, interestingly it doesn't always come up with quite the same route
as openrouteservice does.

------
mmirate
So roads are great and all, but the info I really care about is what's _on_
them. I know all of my possible commute routes like the back of my hand, and
couldn't care less about which data source is more accurate for them. What I
don't know is _which_ one is the fastest to use _right now_ given current
traffic conditions. As far as I know, OSM alone doesn't collect or store such
ephemeral data.

(Please remember: driving, like all practical and modern travel modes, is the
art of getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. I don't get
paid to sit in a goddamn parking lot that calls itself a "highway", nor to sit
in the other parking lot that calls itself a "two-lane rural road", nor to
superspeed through an overly non-straight two-lane rural road while the other
roads are actually performing as advertised.)

------
ghaff
I generally favor Google Maps for the things they care about--like major
roads, directions, etc. But, while not perfect, I find OSM is far more likely
to have things like hiking trails and other types of features that are
apparently not on Goggle's list of things it actually cares about.

------
2ion
I've stopped using Google Maps as a map altogether and subscribe to the
service of a navigation map maker directly. Their maps (they do combine
proprietary materials and sources like OpenStreetMap) are of higher quality
and have a satisfactory degree of completness as well as good search.

Gmaps has stopped being useful to me since searches in a given perimeter do
not show all results spatially at any given zoomlevel, and whole roads and
labels go missing if you zoom out a little bit to much or too far in. It used
to be a fairly good product around 2012 but has since then declined in
utility, especially in contrast to all the catching-up the competitors did in
the meantime.

I suppose a huge part of Gmaps business nowdadays is the embedding of Gmaps in
3rd-party products.

------
theomega
While I love OSM for the data and the free approach, one thing which annoys me
with OSM is that their main map doesn’t support hdpi (retina) displays. That
makes the map look ugly on iPad and MacBooks at least, I suspect on much more
recent devices.

~~~
Doctor_Fegg
There's tentative discussions underway about providing a vector-based
rendering on osm.org to augment the current raster styles, which of course
would be resolution-independent.

------
bibstha
> What if Google decide to "hide" or "highlight" certain kind of shops for
> instance

Doesn't google already do this? Shops with paid advertisement come much higher
than unpaid shops.

~~~
UncleEntity
Or for navigation: walking, biking, public transit, driving, _uber_

------
klokantech
MapTiler Cloud is also an alternative based on OSM data. It is free for
personal use and prices for businesses are fair:
[https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/](https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/) We also
offer many advanced services like hosting own data, easy map customization
tool, support for 55 languages with an autodetection and much more!

------
dmortin
" but also made it mandatory to give your credit card number even if you do
not go over the free limit !"

Only if you are a new user. Google published a transition document for
existing users and it says they don't have to add a card, but then of course
your maps stop working for the rest of the month if you go over the $200 free
quota.

So current users have it easier, but new users have to add a card.

~~~
JdeBP
One must supply a credit card or have an account with billing enabled.
Existing users will have accounts. But they must be altered to have billing
enabled if they do not have it enabled already.

* [https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/](https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/)

~~~
dmortin
There is a separate guide for existing users and it states:

"If you choose not to add a billing account, there is a risk that if your
usage exceeds $200 in a given month, your Maps API implementation will be
degraded or other API requests will return an error."

[https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/user-guide/pricing-
ch...](https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/user-guide/pricing-changes/)

So you can choose not to add a billing account if you are an existing user,
but then maps won't work beyond the $200 credit/month.

~~~
JdeBP
You might want to re-read the "all Google Cloud Platform services require a
credit card and billing account" in the first sentence of that. (-:

Which agrees with "Is a credit card or billing account required? Yes." on the
other page.

~~~
dmortin
I read it. And then comes the second part: "If you choose not to add a billing
account..." If a billing account is required then the second part makes no
sense, because then it would simply say the service won't work at all without
it, but it talks about the monthly free credit instead.

That second part is the difference between the docs for new users vs. existing
users.

But we'll see who's right soon. Tomorrow.

------
sharpercoder
What I miss is actual functionality that makes my life better as a user. I
totally agree on all points made, but it is not going get me a better mapping
experience in any way. For me to consider OSM, I need most features that are
as good and some that are better. I don't like to say it, but OSM does not
(yet?) offer this.

------
finchisko
Also you can try [https://windymaps.com/app](https://windymaps.com/app) I
think they're using osm data for their maps. Can navigate also on bike or
hike.

~~~
mormegil
Yes, they do, for most of the world, at least. In fact, it was originally a
Czech-only map website Mapy.cz (and later a mobile app), with their own map
data (they even have their own Street View-like function) in the Czech
Republic. For the rest of the world, they used map data from the common
commercial providers. Then, they switched to OSM for the rest of the world
(keeping their own for the Czech Republic). And finally, they launched the
international version of the mapping app after the success of the Windy
weather app which used the map layer.

------
hellojason
_what if they decide to draw the border between countries wherever they want_

This seems a bit tin foil hat to me. Has Google been caught doing something
like this before with malicious intent?

~~~
qznc
I would not call it "malicious intent" but for example the borders of Tibet
are very controversial: [https://qz.com/224821/see-how-borders-change-on-
google-maps-...](https://qz.com/224821/see-how-borders-change-on-google-maps-
depending-on-where-you-view-them/)

~~~
hellojason
Interesting stuff. Thanks for the link.

------
freeflight
I'd gladly use any map except Apple maps for navigation on my smartphone, but
its the only map software that navigates through the lock screen on my iPhone.

------
anandnair
I used OSM instead of Google Maps for a tracking project because I didn't have
11000USD to pay them upfront for the licence.

------
lalp1
Back in the days, I rode hundreds of kilometres on my bike to map empty areas
of OSM, but I never really used OSM.

Google Maps is not perfect but is there an OSS alternative to :

\- a map

\- a strong search engine

\- POI synced on the cloud

\- powerful transport/traffic route calculation

I can't use a map service without these features.

------
anandchowdhary
Ironically the website is giving a 500 error.

------
cup-of-tea
I just finished a week long drive and "wild" camping trip in Scotland. I have
Maps.me and Osmand on my phone and it was excellent. Helped me find all kinds
of things that aren't on any other maps. The best thing is, as a mapper
myself, I know the people who mapped it are people like me, rather than people
doing their job or trying to make money. It also makes me think someone has
probably appreciated my mapping at some point.

------
kojeovo
What about mapbox?

~~~
mkl
The article talks about them ("probably the easiest way to switch from Google
Maps to OpenStreetMap") and links to them, and they use OSM data. What more
were you expecting?

------
earthandmoon
Can one use Google maps offline?

~~~
sharcerer
Yes. There's an option to download sections . It shows how much space it will
take. Expires in 1 month I think and gives a notification to update it to
reflect latest changes.

------
EGreg
Whenever I say this kind of stuff on HN lately — supporting open source over
proprietary solutions — I get downvoted.

Facebook and others will always be in charge unless open source software gets
good enough to form decentralized networks compete with it. It has to be user
friendly and developer friendly enough to gain massive adoption.

Here is Qbix Platform. It took 6 years to develop, is open source and free.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1O_gmPneI](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1O_gmPneI)

------
cdg7777
Well, Google can "correct" your spelling and take you to the correct city
(let's say it's not a big deal), but mainly Google Maps rules for multiple
points navigation A->B->C->... I think it allows 10(-ish) intermediary points.

~~~
jraph
Osmand on android provides this feature. You can also ask to avoid a specific
road in the map.

Correcting the spelling and always guessing what your query means... Well not
so much.

