On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 7:54 PM, S Omeone <someonew...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi, > > I haven't seen this mention before and I thought it might be of some > interest here. > > Since sometime last year Google no longer used TeleAtlas for their map data > in the > USA but instead created their own map data. It seems they have now > extended > their own data to 10 more countries including some in Europe Africa and > In South Africa's case that doesn't mean too much. The StreetView cars didn't cover all the roads. So they had to buy data from a commercial vendor. That vendor has some quality issues (see the illegal route in the link below). They also rely on government data that is no longer being maintained. So Google is not really smarter. They are relying on man power like everyone else. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=-25.781959,28.291027&daddr=326+Edna+St,+Pretoria+0081,+South+Africa&hl=en&geocode=%3BCXVbiDH7YSbAFSendv4duLevASkdxtgEomCVHjEtejqmm6w9SA&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=17&sll=-25.781141,28.290718&sspn=0.006975,0.009645&ie=UTF8&z=17 > Oceania [1,2]. However, what makes it interesting from a OSM point of view > (apart from knowing what the "competitors" do) is the way they seemingly > crowd > source their updates and error reports. (The main data is, unlike their > also very > successful map maker maps, not crowd sourced, but supposedly collected > together > with the street view data). Just like they have had in the US, however, > they now > have a nice and simple, easy to spot and convenient "Report a problem" > link in > these countries in the bottom right hand corner. > > OpenStreetMap has of cause something similar with OpenStreetBugs (which > Google may well have used as inspiration), but unfortunately, as too often, > less > convenient. Instead of simply clicking on the report a problem link, in > OSM you > first have to know something like this exists, then figure out that you > might learn > about such a feature on the wiki, search the wiki for it, go to some random > external > page, then find your location on the map again without a search box on the > OSB > page, and then finally you might actually be able to add your error > report... > > Can we perhaps learn something from Google of how to build a nice user > friendly > crowd sourcing of local knowledge? > > Also, can we perhaps somehow harness the fact that Google is "educating" > people > about the possibilities to crowd source maps through map maker and the > "report a > problem" link? E.g. by creating a press release highlighting some of the > additional > benefits of OSM over Google (without being unfair to them)? > > Or will Google eventually beat OSM at its own game? > > [1] > http://searchengineland.com/google-updates-maps-in-10-countries-teleatlas-going-away-55288 > [2] > http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/11/changing-world-changing-maps.html > > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk >
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