UK already has an open map
It's called OpenStreetMap. I wonder if they've thought of cooperating with OSM, rather than competing with it?
Google is extending its Map Maker editing tool to users in Blighty, so they can help the Chocolate Factory get its maps right. Googlers in the US, France, Australia and over a dozen other countries have been able to add detail to Maps on the browser-based software for as long as five years now, as the tool has spread since its …
google is a corporation, not a public-good project. They do not cooperate. They invest resources, buy data, take over companies, or use crowsourcing to "optimize the cost" (to zero), they do not "cooperate" unless there is a benefit to them (monetary or otherwise).
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Apparently they have chatted with the OSM people in the past, and at the time the licensing requirements were a bit of a legal grey area, and certainly something of an inconvenience for big companies.
OSM went through a big license change not so long ago, with the aim of making it (legally) easier to consume their data. Clearly whatever changes were made were not good enough for Google. There are other (much smaller) companies who have used OSM data for commercial purposes... Cloudmade spring to mind, but maybe they're probably less likely to attract negative attention than Google. Who knows.
> OpenStreetMap? You mean the place Apple got the data for their oh so accurate maps?
Err, no. Apple maps are much worse than OpenStreetMap where I've looked.
It's possible that Apple have used some OSM data somewhere, but it is clearly not the main source in the UK.
Upvoted.
I've added a lot of detail to OSM and I did it for the longterm Good Of Humanity (plus it's relaxing way to pass the time, LOL) not for the profit of a corporation. Having said that, I often see businesses on Google maps tagged far away (literally miles!) from where they should be, and wouldn't object to fixing any I see, for the sake of OCD-like perfectionism.
OpenStreetMap isn't confined to the UK. It's world wide. For example, I've used it while cycling in Iceland and walking in Tenerife and I was just browsing the streets of Luang Prabang earlier today.
If you want to contribute mapping data, it's surely worthwhile to continue to add to an open project, than add to a project that may vanish behind a paywall.
Obviously you can't legally grant data to Google that belongs to someone else. But by doing so you can get them into trouble. The legal language used is probably designed to get you into trouble too and protect Google. Since they need to protect themselves, evidently.
Not a cheap shot, but I thought Apple should have done something similar to this when they switched. If they had been upfront and said, this is basically an open beta, please send feedback, heres how to do it, less piss may have been showered on their bonfire. The issue there was it was launched as 'something so good Jesus would have only spent 4 hours in the desert if he had an iphone' when in reality he probably would have died in the middle of an Aussie national park.
A six lane highway suddenly appearing right outside your least fav politicians/J Clarkson/etc country home?
I feel sure that some Students will have great fun with this during Rag Week.
you get my point.
Who is going to check the updates? Vested interests need not apply.
It's still technically part of the Guernsey Bailiwick, isn't it?
They must have upset them by... refusing to allow them to use their painstakingly collected Streetview shots? :)
You can mooch around Jersey in Streetview, but not Guernsey. The Googlemobile visited both island, as far as I recall, but the Guernseymen got upset about their privacy, LOL
"Drawing from your knowledge about world famous tourist destinations or the streets of your hometown"
Stevenage, the town where I live has a few signs for "tourist attractions" around the place. They all seem to be pointing towards the A1(M), and presumably therefore the way out. That always struck me as quite funny.