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Comment by bombolo | Hacker News Reader

How can google maps monetize when openstreetmaps exists?

Interesting to know that OSM lists businesses, but GMaps contains more information, which can sometimes be crucial. (E.g. opening days and hours.)

OpenStreetMap does hold opening hours of businesses. Here are the details (including opening hours) of my local cafe https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/485163917 I go round entering OSM data using the StreetComplete app. It's slightly awkward if a shop doesn't display their opening hours, because then you have to go in, and I feel I need to buy something and then ask their opening hours.

I do that too (in Germany), and I just… ask them if I may enter their opening hours into OSM. I've never been refused. Sometimes an employee takes an interest and then I take the chance to explain a bit. It's a win-win for both sides, after all—the map users and the shop owners.

Why ask the owner in the first place. Its public information anyway. Google does not ask either.

In a practical way (instead of just, why not be polite?), the information for permanently displaying to the public may be different than the information relevant to you at a single moment.

If you just ask it without context, "today we'll close at 16:00" is a perfectly reasonable response.

Hopefully a few of them will realize it is easy and so start updating their own information as it changes. Everyone wins - their customers get up to date information and so come when they are open.

Because I'm nice that way.

Sure.

But for mapping lots of POIs this is a PITA and doesnt scale. What if the owner declines? This is non-copyrightable info anyway.

Shall one ask house owners if one can map their address or their house' outline?

This is funny. You are giving the business free labor, yet you feel you owe the business.

Those details are even occasionally correct

OSM can't show (and plan for) traffic, for one.

> OSM can't show (and plan for) traffic, for one.

Unfortunately there's nothing to aggregate current traffic information (traffic jams etc.) as far as I know.

The maps themselves support all sorts of routing options for walking/bikes/cars, at least: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing#End_users:_routi...

They also have a Wiki page on public transport: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Public_transport

Sadly, they don't even attempt to have public transport schedules on the main maps, whereas Google has even added inter-city buses in some places, as well as having an integration with Bolt or other platforms I think.

That, in addition to the lack of business information, business hours, reviews and so on makes OSM a bit inadequate in comparison, which is unfortunate. There have been other maps that build on top of OSM data (which is great), but they're still pretty small in comparison.

It would be interesting to see how OSM would fare if it actually tried to compete with Google: 1st party Android/iOS map with some open dataset for business information, integration with some review platform, aggregated public transport maps with an underlying open dataset and stuffing their pockets as much as possible with money from Bolt/Uber/whatever to ensure longevity of the platform, by adding helpful suggestions for trip routing, as well as aggregating traffic data.

> Sadly, they don't even attempt to have public transport schedules on the main maps, whereas Google has even added inter-city buses in some places

What Google is doing is to integrate public transport data (often in GTFS format). It is not mapped directly by Google, and unlikely that it would be doable in OSM (note that in many cities timetables change weekly, for example as result of construction).

There is some ongoing work to build similar things for OSM-using software, for example Organic Maps is at least trying: https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues?q=is%3Aiss... (I bet that pull requests would be welcome, especially if discussed with people developing it)

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