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Comment by deng | Hacker News Reader

The amount of data OSM has nowadays is a treasure. It's just a shame that there's no well done generic web frontend that would make all this data accessible in a way that could rival Google Maps. The official openstreetmap.org web site just provides bare functionality with an almost unusable search, and otherwise focuses on editing OSM data.

Probably the best generic "frontend" for OSM is Organic Maps, which however is confined to Android and iOS. I think if there would be a web version of Organic Maps, this could greatly accelerate OSM adoption.

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I think mapy [1] is the best frontend I've seen for OSM. Its search still isn't as good as Google Maps though.

They also have iOS [2] and Android [3] apps. I can't speak for the iOS app, but the Android one lets you download offline maps in a very space efficient way, similar to Organic Maps.

1. https://en.mapy.cz/zakladni?x=-2.2989613&y=53.1629710&z=8

2. https://apps.apple.com/cz/app/mapy-cz-maps-navigation/id4114...

3. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.mapy...

I feel like an ass just for saying it but I downloaded the iOS app at the map style is so… busy. Granted I’m in NYC so there’s a lot going on but it’s showing me every single bus stop (there are literally seven in a one block radius) and building outlines even when zoomed out. It’s very visually overwhelming.

This is something Google and Apple Maps really nail, I hope OSM can too at some point.

I get what you're asking here, but I think it's important to note that OSM's primary value is in its data, not in a human-consumable map.

So if I could respectfully amend your request, I'd say I hope some third party can really nail this at some point. Organic Maps is pretty good, but I still need Google maps for a number of things. But even if that doesn't ever happen, the free OSM data is invaluable in a large number of GIS contexts.

(I'm an opinionated OSM contributor since 2007. :)

> I think it's important to note that OSM's primary value is in its data, not in a human-consumable map

I agree in theory but OSM does have a human consumable map. I think it’s in the projects interest for that default to be as good as it can be, rather than rely on third parties.

There's often discussions in the default OSM map renderer project[1] about what the goal of the project should be.

A lot of people have niche interests that they want implemented in the map, but that just looks busy to everybody else.

[1] https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto

Neither mapy nor the default tileset should have maximal information. Perhaps you can argue google is primarily for navigation and default OSM is not, but that doesn’t mean it should have all the OSM data represented at each layer.

IMO the default OSM tileset is terrible and the mapy set seems to be the same/similar. I guess it’s meant to show a lot of information, but the colors and patterns are noisy, the icons are too detailed, too many or too few things show up on the wrong layers. It’s been this way forever.

For me, it still beats Google by miles when I need an actual map to orient myself or get a feel for the geography of a place, as opposed to the map merely being a convenient sort-of-geographical background for navigation instructions or the result of a POI search.

Google doesn't always properly demarcate built-up areas, doesn't show forests, mistakes large-scale "Nature parks" for regular city parks and shades everything inside them in green, including complete towns and villages…

This sort of sentiment results in flat design.

Indeed, discovering all the goodness people have built on top of OSM is not particularly easy, especially for non-technical users. A long list of OSM based services is available in the OSM wiki [0].

A useful collection of links for non-technical users is hidden inside the streetcomplete app [1] (which itself is one of the most remarkable apps built on top of OSM). To find it, open the "my profile" view and then the "bookmark" icon). The list is unlocked gradually using some gamification (as a reward for completing quests). The complete list (for the impatient :-) is available here [2]

[0] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/List_of_OSM-based_servic...

[1] https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/

[2] https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/blob/a09ae2...

It depends on what exactly you want. Google Maps does more then just being a map, such as navigation, streetview, reviews,...

In either case, I've heard quite some people being in love with Qwant Maps.

And I try to get to build specialized maps with https://mapcomplete.org

Qwant Maps is discontinued, sadly.

Features I would want most from a web frontend for OSM:

* Smarter search in the local area that is currently focused, with possibility to search for generic terms like "atm", "bus stop", "bakery", etc.

* Display of shops/restaurants/markets/etc with additional information like opening hours (which are available in OSM, I've added a ton of it through StreetComplete and often wondered why I even bother as no one will ever see them). I can easily live without reviews, they are easily gamed and would need a ton of moderation.

* Public transport information. There's currently work ongoing in Organic Maps to support this.

* Navigation, yes, to some degree. I think this area is actually already quite well covered through services like Komoot, for instance. For car navigation, you probably will never beat Google Maps because of the available current traffic information there.

May I recommend GraphHopper Maps? A bit routing focussed but soonish also for POIs: https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper-maps/pull/394

Also addresses in the current view are more important when you search.

Turn-by-turn navigation is also possible ... in the browser. See https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper-maps/pull/279

First three points heavily dependent on good local mapping and tagging of POI. The public transport is a topic that is very very hard for local mapping. There is little point in mapping 20 bus stops around me without adding details like network, business etc. these details again are often not easy to get. An public transport overlay would be better in my opinion.

https://cartes.app has all these features, but it's french only for now, in the alpha phase.

(I'm the developer)

It's all a bit of a licensing nightmare as well, if you want to embed the maps.

If you want actual FOSS, you need to be aware of which libraries to avoid (i.e. don't touch anything Mapbox with a bargepole anymore - to be honest, their anti-union, anti-open agenda put me off a few years ago regardless of the license change, which is a shame because they used to do really good work).

https://cartes.app plans to be the open source alternative to Google and Apple Maps. French-only beta version for now.

(I'm the developer)

Yeah, openstreetmap.org is a bit of an embarrassment for the community in its current state, although the search isn't too bad.

OsmAnd and OrganicMaps are fortunately quite powerful and full-featured.

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