OSM data is generally on par or better than Google Maps data. The thing that’s lacking is the search engine.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
44 points (87.9% liked)
Open Source
31197 readers
181 users here now
All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!
Useful Links
- Open Source Initiative
- Free Software Foundation
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Software Freedom Conservancy
- It's FOSS
- Android FOSS Apps Megathread
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to the open source ideology
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Except for a lot of POI missing.
You can add them (Beginners' Guide)
Situations in which I quickly need a reliable source of POI are not compatible with me taking the time to search for them in person and then add them to the maps systen I am trying to use.
When I am on a relaxed walk in the neighbourhood, I do add stuff. But then, I obviously don't ever need to search for those.
I understand what you mean and I agree that in those cases GMaps is more useful. But then, if no one adds anything OSM database will always be empty. So, if you don't find something, use GMaps, that's fine. But then, what you were looking for should be added to OSM (after real-life checks, since GMaps cannot be used as a source) to help future users.
since GMaps cannot be used as a source
Dammn, you mean there is no "Church of big mommy milkers" in the next city?
Don’t worry, googles AI and monetization will fix their better search eventually.
Doesn’t most map providers get their data from OSM?
Just to clarify: what are some of your specific complaints with bad information? I ask because I've been trying to fill in business hours and other info you might find on g maps for my city, and it's definitely challenging. My new pet peeve is just how many businesses don't bother listing their hours anywhere but proprietary services. No hours on their website and not even on their front doors.
At least for my city OSM is pretty complete with all business in it, A alternative is Here Maps, which also show all traffic and public transport lines, apart of the business sites. The only thing that no other map has is the Google Street View (Here at least has a 3D view), but I can live without this.
Even if there are no proxied frontends already (like LibreTube for YouTube), it's a great idea for FOSS developers. But afaik it requires a proprietary component from GMS to work so it may be hard to make a frontend for
The question is really, why develop something like this instead of improving something like open street map with that effort?
To be honest, the dataset In openstreetmap is great, what is missing is good search and easy apps that are on par with google or Apple.
Well in this particular case the user seems to lack openstreetmaps' data. For such cases a frontend would be nice to have
Mm I don’t know. He said that he did not have much luck searching for „fast food“ in an area. Which again, is because the search is lacking. The dataset should be there, but the search does not recognize which restaurants are fast food restaurants.
If he where to search for specific names of the locations, it would lead to the results
Hmm you may be right