Comments on: Google Maps Cheaps out with MapMaker

By: Sarah Jefferson

Sarah Jefferson — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:52:01 +0000

@jordon You've missed the point. "If they really cared about copying this company you keep touting" ....openstreetmap is not a company. It's a not-for-profit volunteer organisation overseen by the openstreetmap foundation That's exactly why you should contribute to openstreetmap.org and not google map maker.

@Symbian "openstreetmap.org looks a little abandoned" I don't really understand how you can reach that conclusion. The project has exponential growth in users and map data. It doesn't have the coverage of google maps in developed countries because the project is building new open licensed data from scratch.

Google meanwhile is simply licensing copyrighted data from other providers for most of the world, and where there are no providers they have released Google Map Maker, and are asking people to work on creating data which, in a few years time, they will be able to sell, or otherwise use to command a monopoly on the geodata industry.

I enjoy volunteering a bit of my time to work on building maps, but I wouldn't do that without thinking about what exactly it is that I am contributing to, and I'd advise others to think about this.

By: Alex Isaacs

Alex Isaacs — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:17:18 +0000

Is that really how a meeting of the minds works? haha

By: Goran Web Design

Goran Web Design — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:01:04 +0000

Otilia Otlacan what you say makes sense, Google starting small initially.

By: SeoPositive

SeoPositive — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:49:18 +0000

It is frre, and great because of that.

By: Austin(Cowsgonemadd3)

Austin(Cowsgonemadd3) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:59:43 +0000

Nothing like free labor.People just enjoy doing things. Austin(Cowsgonemadd3)'s last blog post..Sony loses 3.3 billion on the playstation 3 game console

By: Symbian

Symbian — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:25:18 +0000

openstreetmap.org looks a little abandoned. Symbian's last blog post..Nokia S60 Symbian Windows Live client available in Europe

By: MB Web Design

MB Web Design — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:20:08 +0000

Pleased to see Google has their Latin phrase-a-day calendar still.

I’m not sure whether you’re suggesting this is a poor idea but here’s my £0.02 – why not make it open source to a limited population (islands, though this logic fails when considering Pakistan…) and see how the experiment fares before offering it to their main markets. Seems a reasonable prospect to me

By: Jordan McCollum

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:42:59 +0000

The problem still looks pretty patently obvious to me. Why test something with a group of users that is undoubtedly so small that we’ll never see any progress?

If they really wanted to get into these areas, DO IT. It’s not like you really have to go there to figure these things out. But it would involve time and resources, and the user base in these areas obviously doesn’t justify that.

If they really cared about copying this company you keep touting, why not launch MapMaker somewhere where people will actually use it?

For the number of people that will actually use it, the tool is essentially nonexistent. It’s a project that makes it look like they’re doing cool new things without actually making any improvements.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:04:35 +0000

@Tiffany: They don't.. The basic idea is stolen from www.openstreetmap.org and others. Alex's last blog post..Import von Earth-Info.Nga.Mil

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:38:17 +0000

I think doing something that other don’t even think about is Google’s success key.

By: Edward Johnson

Edward Johnson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:59:25 +0000

Google is just trying to start to crush legitimate open source projects like OpenStreetMap. Google will copyright all the data you upload as their own and sell it on for profit. Contribute to OpenStreetMap instead.

Ed
[link removed]

By: Otilia Otlacan

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:00:32 +0000

Looks like they wanted to start small, like pretty much everything that went through the Google lab. I assume this first batch of territories was selected because they would not pose issues from who knows what policy / legal point of view? Otilia Otlacan's last blog post..Aegis Media Moves into Ad Serving by Acquiring Bluestreak

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:38:33 +0000

I'm trying to understand this post of yours, Jordan. No offense, but what is wrong with Google wanting to go somewhat "open-source" with their maps and hoping for user-contributions in certain smaller areas of the world as a trial to see how it will work out and how users apply their own knowledge to these areas. This was discussed ages ago by Google (2006 already I seem to remember), and they have finally made the step. Kudos to them I say. Alex's last blog post..On Information Architecture and user-testing - Part 3 - Usability testing and Accessibility testing

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:44:09 +0000

Why giving Google Maps they sell, then ?

Use www.openstreetmap.org instead an the map you make is freely usable for everybody.

By: DeeMX

DeeMX — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:01:19 +0000

Google’s ideas is out of my mind
I think this useful for some people groups.

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:34:22 +0000

I claim Tahiti!

By: PS3

PS3 — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:59:40 +0000

I’ve read the post three times now and am not sure I am getting it. Bottom line? You think it is a waste of time?