[OSM-talk] Countering Google's propaganda

[John Smith]

2009/12/18 Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com>:
> Aw c'mon, Google Maps doesn't "giv[e] anything away of real worth to
> anyone"? Tell that to the millions of people who use it on a daily basis. A
> high quality, high performance, extremely reliable mapping platform.

That is one aspect of maps, but not the only aspect. The real worth is
in the data, by hoarding they limit what you can do with the
information underlying the tiles.

> We all have ideological reasons for preferring OSM, but let's not kid
> ourselves: Google has a great product which they give away for free.

Erm lets not kid ourselves, they don't give it away, they use it to
push advertising. The only revenue stream Google has been truly
successful at is pulling in advertising dollars.