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OpenStreetMap.org Gets Routing

Posted by timothy on from the proceed-to-virtuous-circle-way dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Good news for OpenStreetMap: the main website now has A-to-B routing (directions) built in to the homepage! The OSM website offers directions which are powered by third-parties using OSM data, providing car, bike, and foot routing. OpenStreetMap has a saying: 'What gets rendered, gets mapped' – meaning that often you don't notice a bit of data that needs tweaking unless it actually shows up on the map image. It will make OpenStreetMap's data better by creating a virtuous feedback loop."

4 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. OSM did progress by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Comparing OSM with Google Maps, OSM did progress a lot, compared to a couple of years ago. I find more readability in Google maps, but that's maybe only a matter of taste.

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  2. Re:Now needs a better phone app by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    This website will never be as good as GoogleMaps. It'll never happen. I don't even bother. I dig the whole open source concept but when it comes to actually getting me from point a to point b efficiently and safely I simply want something that works.

  3. Re:Now needs a better phone app by BasilBrush · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Great anecdote. Right here, right now, today, OSM believes my location is a country that's at the opposite side of the world from the one I actually am in.

    None of the commercial services ever get this wrong for me these days. They all pinpoint me within a block.

    That means OSM has fallen at the first hurdle. If it doesn't get the continent, let alone the country right, it won't recognise my locations when I type them in to the router.

    Maybe I'll check back again in a few more years.

  4. Re:A decade behind the rest by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I added streets to osm and google maps had the data a few weeks later. I know it my osm data because I didn't know one street name, left it as the initial unique identifier, and that's what showed up.

    I assume google has a priority list, and uses navteq or the other atlas whatever before osm data, if present. If not, use osm.