[OSM-dev] Implementing usability improvements

[Martin Koppenhoefer]

2012/7/4 Paweł Paprota <ppawel at fastmail.fm>:
> Thanks for the response. By "on par with Google/Bing Maps" I meant more
> polished, usable.


Actually we are already better than Bing ;-) even if we don't wan't to
compete with them, and even in a field that was for a long time one of
the most criticized features of OSM (search).
Try searching "ss155" in bing, google and OSM, and you'll not find
what you are searching for in Bing, but in Google and OSM. (It is an
italian primary street reference number). You can also look for "b27"
or "b 27" (german primary street reference) and you will find 2845
results in Google (the street not beeing one of the first 50) and 1
result in Bing (always in UK and not what I was up to) but in OSM
you'll find instantly the german primary. Is it really that odd to
search for a street reference number on a map? (SCNR)

Please keep in mind that there is no official routing service and no
aerial imagery on osm, so it is obvious that the map view will always
look quite differently. It might be an interesting idea to link to
different services (e.g. "get directions" would pop up a window asking
with which OSM-based service the routing should be done, and then it
would create a link to the routing service with the start- and
endpoint preconfigured). There could also be some link to OSM in 3D.

cheers,
Martin