Well that's a matter of cartographic style, which is only small part of what goes into creating a map like this. The nice thing about OpenStreetMap is that it supplies the raw data to enable all manner of map style experimentation, so actually there's lots of different maps powered by OpenStreetMap, some more difficult to read than others. You might find 'MapQuest' style is more pleasing on the eye. http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=48.8432&lon=2.356&... Same data. Different map style. More details here: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparision_Google_servic...