
Craigslist is on board: OpenStreetMap soars to new heights - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/08/craigslist-is-on-board-openstreetmap-continues-soaring-to-new-heights/
======
dredmorbius
The good news: CL now show a map _on the listing itself_ (previously you had a
link to a Google Maps page), which makes it somewhat easier to tell where a
listing is located.

What's still missing is the geographic overview that PadMapper offered. If you
want _that_ experience, _and_ access to CL listings, your best bet appears to
be the "CLMapper" Chrome extension, which pops up a two-panel brwoser window
with listings on the left, map on the right, and coordination between the two
(hovering over a listing URL highlights the map pin, hovering over a map pin
scrolls to and highlights the listing entry).

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/omonmigaleaafgpkgo...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/omonmigaleaafgpkgoammpclbcdepjpi)

The observation that GoogleMaps commercial terms-of-use is increasingly
driving third-party sites to free and open alternatives is noted. With irony.

~~~
J-H
And the best part of CLMapper is how Craigslist can't block it

~~~
hnriot
Why would they, unlike PadMapper, it's not doing anything that's prohibited by
CL's terms.

~~~
sliverstorm
Because CL hates freedom, didn't you hear?

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gajomi
>"Google Maps offers bells and whistles that OpenStreetMap doesn't, such as
street level data [and] more updates to imagery," wrote Caitlin Dempsey, the
editor of GISLounge.com, in an e-mail sent to Ars.

This sounds like a serious underestimation of the value that street level data
adds to relevant applications, especially for pedestrians, tourists and people
looking to do a quick check of the scenery in the vicinity of the location.

~~~
prophetjohn
I have a really bad sense of direction, so if I'm going to be driving in an
unfamiliar area, I'll always street view the highway to see what it actually
looks like where I need to take an exit, etc. Couldn't switch from Google Maps
without street view.

~~~
pserwylo
I also use Street View quite a lot (Australian here). However, I use
OpenStreetMap for everything else.

I don't actually access it from OpenStreetMap though, rather, I use it through
<http://open.mapquest.com> in my browser, or OsmAnd+ on my phone (with offline
data). You'll find that for th ehalf of the time you don't need street view,
it is really easy to switch of Google maps.

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dlitwak
We tried using open street map at mozio for a by. For u our primary concern
was public transit data. T was too much bother and too expensive to do transit
data, and googles release of the transit API a couple months ago solidified or
decision to go with google maps for the foreseeable future. Osm is fine for
applications like Wikipedia and four square which don't require much on top of
maps but for companies doing more advanced things google is still the best
choice.

~~~
Maxious
I didn't know Google finally released the transit API!
[http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/06/public-
trans...](http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/06/public-transit-
routing-and-layer-now.html)

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tylermenezes
If nothing else at least the PadMapper thing is forcing Craigslist to
innovate. (It's a totally useless interface, though.)

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tomelders
I'm not keen on the look of OSM. I know you can create your own tiles, but I
suspect many people wont.

For me, there's too much detail, making OSM difficult to look at and parse.

OSM has a long way to go design wise. I also think there's a lot of room to
innovate with design in cartography (Apple have done well in this regard).

I general, design and open source haven't managed to find a rhythm. Probably
because design by committee always fails, and open source design is always
going to be design by committee. But that's a whole other conversation.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
The OSM tiles are intended for mappers building the database and so err on the
side of too much detail.

As you say, for display you can make your own tiles, but you can also get them
(free for many uses) from a range of 3rd parties:

<http://switch2osm.org/providers/>

If you just want a drop in replacement for Google, rather than something
unique then this is probably your best bet:

<http://open.mapquest.com/>

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latchkey
OSM is great, except they don't provide a https solution for their tiles,
which is necessary if you run your site over https. It is easy enough to setup
a free nginx proxy on heroku to workaround this issue (which then sits behind
cloudflare for transparent caching), but it would be nice if OSM just provided
https.

~~~
untog
They appear to be running their own map servers that just _use_ OSM data, so
that doesn't apply here.

~~~
latchkey
Nope. They are doing exactly what I'm talking about which is proxying the
tiles through their own hostnames so that they can get https support.

map#.craigslist.org. The leafletjs api makes this easy to do.

~~~
untog
Are you sure that OSM offer this service? Is it free? I can't find any details
of it- it must be an utter bandwidth killer. Do you know where the details of
the service are?

~~~
Maxious
OSM absolutely do not provide free high traffic tile serving!
<http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_usage_policy>

Perhaps a commercial OSM partner like MapQuest, MapBox or Cloudmade are
providing the tiles?

~~~
natrius
Craigslist is probably hosting their own tiles judging by the URL:
<http://map7.craigslist.org/t00/15/5242/12665.png>

~~~
latchkey
I think you might be right. I doubt they have rendered all the tiles though,
it just takes up too much space to be worth it...
<http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_Disk_Usage>

Looking at that same tile through my proxy (which is backed by the MapQuest
map tiles), it is clearly different data.

Here is mapbox, which is also different...
[http://d.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-
vyofok3q/15/5242/1...](http://d.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-
vyofok3q/15/5242/12665.png)

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zrail
Slightly off-topic, but if you're looking for the growl graphic overlay that
Padmapper had, plus a bunch of other bells and whistles, check out Fivepad[1].

<https://www.fivepad.me>

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reustle
Is anyone aware of a gmaps.js equivalent to OSM?
<http://hpneo.github.com/gmaps/>

~~~
mnutt
Maybe check out Leaflet: <http://leaflet.cloudmade.com/>

It works with many different tile providers, including OSM.

------
jeffdavis
OSM uses postgres: [http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2009/04/openstreetmap-moves-
to...](http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2009/04/openstreetmap-moves-to-
postgresql.html?m=1)

