Google Maps, Bing Maps, & Yahoo Maps: Cartographic Design Differences (opens in new tab)

A marketing problem with OpenStreetMap is that people used to Google maps where you get some .png tiles and that's it assume that OpenStreetMap is the same kind of thing.

Note that the OSM say "We make beautiful maps", that's maps plural, not "a beautiful map".

The project is primarily about the underlying data, not any particular end product. They have vector and bitmap outputs, 2D and 3D, digital and printed, up-to-date and historical maps, cycle, public transport and walking maps etc.

And many are both more beautiful and more useful than the alternatives, as well as being free. But not all of them.

Their featured image section of the Wiki gives a better overview, though again many of these images are intended to highlight the quality of the data or new technology:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Featured_images

Some picks based on visual beauty:

City of Murmur (width of street varies based on quantity news reports):

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:City_Murmur_Madrid.p...

A Heatmap of Public Transport in Chennai:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Chennai_Openstreetma...

Visualization of Flights diverted due to Volcano:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:ItoWorld_flightRadar...

Helsinki by Night, based on streetlighting info:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:OSM_By_Night_Helsink...

Demo of Hillshading in the Cycle map:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Cyclemap_hill_shadin...

8-bit NYC (New York mapped Zelda style):

http://8bitnyc.com/

Stamen Design's work:

http://www.stamen.com/clients/cloudmade

OpenOrienteering maps:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:OpenOrienteeringMap_...

Map of London showing color-coded updates:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:London_map_updates_2...

Isometric 3-D map of Czech Republic:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Iso3DMap.jpg

TopOSM, relief shaded maps of the US:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:TopOSM_example3.jpg

Printed maps:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Mappa-mercia-ed1-det...

Tactile map in copper:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Rnk-kupfer.jpg

Finally, some nice maps that Nike did based on OpenStreetMap without crediting the source:

http://blog.oobrien.com/2010/04/nike-grid/

Open Street Map is an incredible resource and really should be supported.

Over at Yell Labs we're looking at producing tiles from OSM that might be more readable on specific devices and include layers that are hold data suited to the way the map is consumed.

An example of this being done already is http://www.opencyclemap.org/ which is generated from Open Street Map but they have reduced the importance of things like motorways, and increased the importance of national and regional cycle routes as well as contours and cycle shops.

Tiles that suit driving don't necessarily suit cycling or walking. When I'm walking I'm more likely to want to see where post boxes, ATM machines and phones are... when I'm cycling I want to see contours and bike routes, and when I'm driving gas station and alternate routes.

This is all possible because of open street map. I don't know how we'd be able to consider tuning the display of devices to device/utility without them. It's a pretty awesome project.

The article has map samples for comparison at the bottom. I made one for OpenStreetMap, and tried my best to make it a fair comparison.

- Approximately the same zoom level, judged by distance between cities and size of land masses.

- 387x387 pixels (same as images in article)

- Map of approximately the same location

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/3999/screenshot20100501at...

Here is a second image, zoomed-in by one notch. The level of detail provided is more comparable, but arguably I shouldn't have to zoom in to get this. http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/5959/screenshot20100501at92...

I am a long time OSM contributor but I have to say that the map is very ugly. My major gripe is the rendering of footpaths and stairs as coloured dots instead of eg some grey lines. Also the mess of colours with no apparent style/guide is sad. Some of the styles at cloudmake(?) are nice. "We make beautiful maps" is just wrong if you are talking about the Mapnik rendering.

I think you're lucky it was forgotten.

- It's highway markers look like gel capsules

- Many users put their hometowns so that they're visible when you zoom out really far (you see the suburbs of Salt Lake City & L.A. before you see SLC & L.A.)

- There seems to be 80 airports in every county (I've never heard of most of the ones around my area)

- It's incomplete in many places

- It doesn't even give you directions

I'm sorry, but I just don't trust OpenStreetMaps over Google Maps. I'm sure there aren't many inaccuracies, but it's not worth taking the chance when I'm traveling in an unfamiliar area.

Don't forget Mapquest, Rand McNally, Multimap, Ovi Maps, ABmaps, viaMichelin...

...the guy can write about whatever he wants.

Can we knock off this "worthless" bullshit? Just because someone has an opinion on something, doesn't mean that their analysis is "worthless". Comments like these cheapen HN.

OnePlusOne, the same can be said about your comment: "The author of the above comment clearly prefers Bing Maps and is so biased in his analysis it is worthless."

If you're going to bitch about bias, do it without inserting your own.

I don't think its biased. Google is clearly more legible and useful. Bing is so so but way too many quirks and unuseful stuff, less legible, Yahoo is just insane. I don't think I've ever used Yahoo so I didn't realize just how bad it was.

Very interesting reasons and analysis of the small differences that all add up to Google maps market dominance.