Comment by Chyzwar | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Chyzwar | Hacker News Reader

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I am working on geospatial project, initially mapbox and maptiler competitor. My perspective is that there is combination factors that make geospatial tech to suck.

  - Legacy open source solution GDAL, mapzen and mapbox abandonware
  - Google semi monopoly on map data
  - Dead-end desktop apps like ArcGIS and QGIS
  - Plethora of formats/interfaces for storing and accessing map data
  - Plenty of uncoordinated efforts from government funded organizations

My general thinking is that open-source is not suitable for geospatial tech because this is a highly specialized field with relatively small TAM. I think that there should be an antitrust case against google that should force them to contribute data to OSM.

I am hoping that current landscape do not change in follwoing 1-2 years.

> - Google semi monopoly on map data

I am sure it varies depending on where you are in the world but in my experience OSM plus official government data is as good as, and sometimes better, than Google.

It would be nice to have mine Google Places and Review data but other than that I never feel I am using 2nd rate data when using OSM, in fact I am frequently amazed at the quality and depth of the data.

That said, I do agree with your other points. A greenfield gdal alternative would be nice.

This depends on what you want to do. If you want to use OSM to find address, then it might be ok.

If you want to create directions based on live traffic or find POI/business on map or have street view of location/route, then good luck. Google map have many datasets that just not available or too expensive for competition:

  - Street view
  - User upload images of places
  - Pedestrian and car traffic
  - Public transport information and timetables
  - POI and business database
  - Consumer reviews
  - High quality aerial images

> Public transport information and timetables

Public transport information is published and maintained by transit agencies themselves. It’s an open standard and trivially easy to access.

See: https://gtfs.org/

Yes, your correct. Also the areas where the OSM coverage is on par with Google is very less. In fact the coverage depends on how strong the OSM community is in that particular area.

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