Tag: OpenStreetMap

See Street Maps As Awesome Mondrian-like Art

The graphic design warlocks at Stamen Design have come up with another awesome production that demonstrates how cartography really can be a gorgeous work of art. Using this map of London’s Kerning as inspiration, the studio conjured up several different map tiles using OpenStreetMap that sport minimalist designs of cities throughout the world. Some of them depict only the names, which recalls the borderless Maps Without Maps, while others depict the exact opposite and only display the veiny network of streets without labels. Below is a street-less map of Soho in London.

The map of London without labels has taken on an aesthetic that recalls De Stijl painter Piet Mondrian‘s compositions of black and white grids, only these maps are missing the requisite red or yellow squares (although I’m sure if a developer really wanted to make a Mondrian-style map, that wouldn’t be too hard with these tiles). Below is the same neighborhood in London as seen in the previous map.

Here’s another map Stamen created of Chicago that’s a lot less graphic than the other two. This map reminds me of why I love flying over Chicago because, as you can see, Chicago is one of these brilliantly designed cities in how it’s expertly compartmentalized into a lattice of perfect squares.

Hop over to Stamen Design where you can see more maps and actually interact with the map tiles to see how your town looks when rendered to appear like a piece of 20th century abstract art.

[Via Stamen Design.]

July 5, 2012
Microsoft’s New AOL Patents Could Help Combat Google Maps

With Microsoft recently acquiring about 800 of AOL’s patents, it has been speculated that the software giant might have just upped its ante against Google Maps. The $1.056 billion deal also got Microsoft pending patent applications, and also included shares of an unnamed AOL subsidiary (some are pointing to Netscape), which allows AOL to take a loss for tax purposes.

There’s been some competition regarding online maps of late – Wikipedia, FourSquare and Apple all stopped using Google Maps and switched over to OpenStreetMap, primarily due to the fees Google had been charging. Mapquest, which has 239 patents registered at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, has been a backer of OpenStreetMap, supplying tilesets, APIs and other tools. Surely some of the Mapquest patents were acquired in the Microsoft/AOL deal. Conveniently, AOL bought Mapquest in 1999 for $1.1 billion, and could claim one of its aforementioned tax losses on that deal.

In early March, Mapquest stated on its developer blog, “Is 2012 the year of Open mapping? We’ve been ecstatic to see the energy around OpenStreetMap, and have noticed several applications recently convert to using MapQuest-OSM tiles and other companies like foursquare embrace OpenStreetMap as a foundation of their business.”

It would seem that Google Maps will be going up against an OpenStreetMap/Mapquest/Microsoft trio in the near future.

April 9, 2012
Wikipedia Latest To Give Google Maps The Slip

With how so many high profile partners have been dumping Google Maps lately, you’d think Google was patient zero for some communicative bubonic cootie-cancer that everybody was fleeing from. First foursquare bailed and then Apple’s been to distancing itself from Google Maps. Now, the latest company to dump Google Maps is Wikipedia.

The announcement came by way of today’s update to the Wikipedia app for iOS and Android, in which the open-source encyclopedia site announced a bevy of updates to bring the iOS version on par with the Android app’s features. Aside from the updated features, the biggest change in this version is Wikipedia replacing Google Maps with the internet’s newest mapping sweetheart, OpenStreetMap. Realistically, OpenStreetMap is more in line with Wikipedia’s central mission of making information as available and free as possible, but as a post from the site’s official blog explains, other factors came into play as well:

Previous versions of our application used Google Maps for the nearby view. This has now been replaced with OpenStreetMaps – an open and free source of Map Data that has been referred to as ‘Wikipedia for Maps.’ This closely aligns with our goal of making knowledge available in a free and open manner to everyone. This also means we no longer have to use proprietary Google APIs in our code, which helps it run on the millions of cheap Android handsets that are purely open source and do not have the proprietary Google applications.

If it was Microsoft’s goal to dislodge Google Maps as the default source for all things online geography by funneling money into OpenStreetMap, so far that operation appears to be running smoothly.

Aside from that search world tremor, there are actual updates to the app. For iOS:
Search suggestions
Full text search
“Did you mean?” results
Saving pages for offline viewing
Share pages via Twitter, Facebook
Save pages to Read It Later
Read current page in other languages
Map integration to view nearby articles
View location of current article + nearby articles in a map
Set the default language
Navigation history features

Quick Search Bar integration
Open Wikipedia URLs from any application using the Wikipedia app
Full Text Search and ‘Did you Mean?’ correction support
A much better tablet interface
App can be moved to SD Card
General bug fixes

April 5, 2012

iOS 6.0 Rumor: Google Maps Replaced By OpenStreetMap

Whispers that Apple may be ending its dependency on Google Maps in all iOS devices continue to grow louder. The latest piece of evidence to join that chorus comes by way of a leaked image acquired by Macworld UK that purports to be a leaked image of a map from iOS 6.0. The image alleged to be taken from iOS 6 is from OpenStreetMap and features the watercolor overlay created for the open-source map service by Stamen.

iOS 6.0 OpenStreetMap Leak courtesy of Macworld UK

Given the “leak” is pretty nondescript, I have to concur with Macworld, that speculation on the verity of this leak should be approached cautiously because this could have easily just been an image produced via iPhoto using Stamen’s watercolor design.

Still, Apple going with OpenStreetMap wouldn’t be a complete surprise at this point, would it?

Apple’s already abandoned Google Maps for OpenStreetMap with the release of iPhoto for iOS; strangely, though, Google Maps is still being used for the platform’s geotagging. At least for the purposes of iPhoto, OpenStreetMap noticed some problems with the map data being used by Apple, namely that the data is two years old and the lack of credit to OpenStreetMap’s contributors (tsk, tsk, Apple). Plus, this year has seen an attrition of map-utilizing companies from Google Maps, perhaps most notably – at least before Apple’s suspected defection – foursquare.

The integration of Google Maps into iOS devices must be a significant source of Google’s mobile search traffic but also its commanding dominance in the overall search market. Without the automatic traffic collected from iOS users searching for places or directions via the Maps app’s automatic sync with Google Maps would take quite a big chunk out of Google’s market share. Google’s enjoyed the fruits of its partnership with Apple since the iPhone has had a mapping application on it (since the beginning, really), so this could be a rough breakup for Google if this rumor pans out.

[Via PC World.]

Microsoft Banking On OpenStreetMap To Undermine Google Maps

For years, Google Maps has been synonymous with “online maps.” Although Microsoft launched its own mapping service, Bing Maps, in 2010, it was nearly five years after Google Maps launched its first stable release and well after Google’s service had established itself as the foremost source for online geography and directions. Any service and app incorporating any type of geotagging or mapping feature utilized Google Maps’ services.

In earnest, it would be hard to imagine Microsoft being capable of edging out even a corner of the online maps market at this point. Short of creating a living, breathing four-dimensional microcosmic digi-globe projection that includes real-time weather systems, volcano activity, transportation data, and virtual birthday parties everyday, Microsoft would seem to be relegated to simply arriving too late after Google established its dominance among map services.

Yet, incredibly, Microsoft appears to be making significant gains in the online map market but not by re-inventing the map. It’s banking on the user- and developer-friendly open source map service, OpenStreetMap, to undermine Google Maps’ dominance. So far, it appears that strategy might be working.

OpenStreetMap has attracted some high-profile company lately. Many companies have been defecting from Google’s service in favor of OpenStreetMap due to the high cost of using Google Maps. Earlier this month, foursquare, a company that relies pretty heavily on geotagging in order to check in at locations, abandoned Google Maps in favor of the OpenStreetMap-powered MapBox and, later, Apple quietly made the switch to OpenStreetMap with the debut of iPhoto for iOS.

So what’s all this have to do with Microsoft? It so happens that the company not only hired OpenStreetMap founder Steve Coast to lead the development of Bing Maps but, according to the New York Times, Microsoft’s also been opening up its archive of map data for use by OpenStreetMap.

As more partnered companies leave Google Maps in favor of alternatives like OpenStreetMap, that’s charted territory in the online map market that’s relinquished by Google Maps and Microsoft undoubtedly stands to gain from the market shift. While Bing Maps may not be able to claim dominance the way Google Maps has enjoyed these past several years, Microsoft could absolutely break apart Google’s monopoly in a way that repartitions the market much more evenly.

(Via Business Insider.)

Websites Bypassing Google Maps Due to Fees

More and more websites are opting to bypass Google Maps, as the company established fees for even smaller users, starting last October. According to a comScore report, of the 91.7 million people in the U.S. who used an online map in February, 71% used Google Maps. In the last seven years, Google, offering street maps, satellite photos and street-level views, has become the dominant player – but this might change, due to fees that it charges in certain instances.

Many sites incorporate Google Maps into their content, and Google has been charging the largest users for a long while – with some fees hitting six figures annually. But last fall, smaller sites, those generating an average of 25,000 map views per day within the same quarter were also hit with fees. James Fee of WeoGeo states, “Google says it will affect a very small number of users, but I have heard it will touch 30 or 40 percent of people who really depend on maps for their business. It could cost you tens of thousands of dollars a month.”

In February, Foursquare, the social media location service, said it would drop Google Maps and move to OpenStreetMap, a user-contributed map service, citing that Google’s price increases had prompted the change. Apple’s latest iPhoto app also uses Openstreetmap, and Nestoria, a real-estate search engine, will also leave Google.

Still, according to comScore, OpenStreetMap doesn’t presently generate much web traffic, but with the backing of companies like Foursquare, this will likely change. Google Maps had 65 million users in February, a 16% increase from the year before. MapQuest had 35 million hits, a 13% decrease. Microsoft’s Bing Maps came in third with 9 million users, an 18% increase.

Google’s Sean Carlson states that the pricing “is intended to encourage responsible use” of the map data, and to “secure its long-term future while ensuring that the vast majority of developers are unaffected.” He also noted that traffic and the number of sites using Google Maps had risen since the pricing was put into place.

Bing Maps Gets OpenStreetMap App

Microsoft has launched a new Bing Maps app for OpenStreetMap. The app adds a layer on Bing Maps as a new style option.

"OpenStreetMap follows a similar concept as Wikipedia, but for maps and other geographic facts (despite its name, it’s by no means only limited to streets and roads)," explains Bing’s Chris Pendleton. "People, like you and me, gather location data across the globe from a variety of sources such as recordings from GPS devices, from free satellite imagery or simply from knowing an area very well, for example because they live there. This information then gets uploaded to OpenStreetMap’s central database from where it can be further modified, corrected and enriched by anyone who notices missing facts or errors about the area."

"Users can still perform searches atop of the OSM map layer," adds Pendleton. "Once the OSM Maps are rendered, users will find the OSM map option listed in the map types so if you switch to Bird’s Eye or some other native Bing map types, you can easily return to the OSM map style. Of note, we are using the Mapnik map style from OSM (one of the many map styles available to open source users) to create our OSM map type. People love the details you see?"

It should be interesting to see how the OpenStreetMap grows from community participation, and how it looks compared to other map offerings.

Bing is doing some interesting things with maps through its Maps Apps. They’ve recently launched apps for Facebook, Foursquare, health, and the Tour De France, not to mention Mars imagery.