[OSM-talk] Google Map Maker gets a UI overhaul

[Toby Murray]

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 9:35 PM, Russ Nelson <nelson at crynwr.com> wrote:
> OSMAnd. Offline vector maps. Google Maps can't touch that.

+1

Especially with the OsmAnd update I got from the Android market a few
days ago. Offline vector rendering was functional before. Now it's
downright beautiful.


On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 8:45 PM, Martijn van Exel <m at rtijn.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 1:21 PM, pecisk at gmail.com <pecisk at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 2011. gada 14. decembris 21:57 Martijn van Exel <m at rtijn.org> rakstīja:
>>> We're definitely losing (potential) mappers to GMM. I don't have to
>>> tell you that's a shame -- all that effort going into creating
>>> non-free data. But how do we divert some of that energy to OSM?
>>
>> You have numbers to confirm these fears? I don't know a single living
>> being who would map for Google.
>
> I don't, and I am not trying to approach this with scientific
> scrutiny.

I can say that enough people in my city were interested in adding data
to the map that they duplicated much of the detail that I have entered
into OSM over the last 1.5 within about a month after GMM launched in
the US. It was rather depressing to me personally. I'm convinced that
it is mostly just a publicity problem. Everyone knows google. They
truly are ubiquitous. OSM is lucky to get any kind of mention on
slashdot. If google would put out a blog post and an ad campaign
telling people about OSM, I'm pretty sure the API servers would
instantly light on fire from the resulting load. When google says
anything, millions of people hear it.

Toby