[OSM-talk] Will Google ever use OSM data?

[Peteris Krisjanis]

2009/11/5 MP <singularita at gmail.com>:
>> There are obviously many areas where OSM data is absent, but.... in the
>>  areas which have been surveyed by OSM, what way does OSM have less quality
>>  than Google? I'd say Google's data quality is poorer, in the sense that
>>  many features are simply not there (you try finding an urban footpath or a
>>  rural path on Google), or footpaths are sometimes shown as roads, etc.
>
> Well, the point is, that quality of google data is quite uniform
> across entire countries (while google have better data for USA then
> for India for example, the quality/completeness of data in entire
> India is approximately the same, Quality across USA is also
> approximately the same)
>
> But in OSM, you can have one suburb mapped to level of individual
> houses and sidewalks and suburb next to it have only streets - some of
> them even missing or unlabeled. While many areas are mapped better
> than google, you can't rely on the area you'll need that will be
> mapped well too. So while in average the quality may be better that
> google maps, in worst case (when you stumble upon some poorly mapped
> place) it is not. Once even the poorly-mapped places will be better
> than google, then we can say we have always better data :)
>

While undoubtedly in Google Maps there's lot of correct data, amount
of error I have witnessed during my mapping efforts indicates that
Google doesn't care about quality nor they plan to improve it. So I
will take OSM with unclassified streets in town over Google stuff.

And so far only OSM creates motivation and momentum worth to explore
and correct these things.

And to answer to main question - I think they won't and they don't care.

Cheers,
Peter.