[OSM-talk] Why do you use Google Maps instead of OSM? Because of buildings...

[Shaun McDonald]

On 10 Nov 2009, at 12:20, Peter Miller wrote:

>
> On 10 Nov 2009, at 11:36, Peter Childs wrote:
>
>> While the map "quaility" may have some weight as to why people use
>> Google (or Bing for that matter) I suspect the bigger problem is the
>> User Interface.
>>
>> We have a good UI for map making maps but the API for rending and
>> searching the maps is hmm well complicated.
>>
>> Part of the problem stems from there being so many different ways to
>> do everything,
>>
>> I can't really say Google is any better at this really, but at least
>> its well documented and everything is in one place.
>
> Fyi, I have just had a response from Campaign for Better Transport.
> There are two reasons why they are not using OSM at present:
>
> 1) There is only partial building coverage which is confusing - they
> would prefer full or none but not partial. I will do a post to talk-gb
> to see if someone fancies doing some tracing in the area over the next
> week.

You can turn the buildings off as another option:
http://maps.shaunmcdonald.me.uk/?lat=51.517289&lng=-0.122566&zoom=15&layer=1

>
> 2) The tube and railway symbols are not the normal ones used within
> the UK. I will suggest that the overlay the normal UK symbols on the
> map in some editing software.

A custom renderer could be setup with the symbols that are needed,  
though if they are going to be clickable for more information markers  
would possibly be better, though they would need to be dynamically  
loaded.

Shaun

>
> The above does however show the level of quality and completeness that
> will be required to win people over, aside from any usability issues
> and doubts over licensing and attribution.
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Peter
>
>
>>
>> Peter.
>>
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>
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