[Wikimedia-l] TomTom does a Britannica

[Richard Symonds]

Oddly, I checked a family home in Missouri the other day.

On Google maps, it's set about 1 mile from where it should be... and on the
wrong side of the Missouri river. It shows roads where there are none, and
is thoroughly unusable. UPS etc don't deliver to the house because it's not
on their navigation systems...

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=google+maps+336+rose+lee+lane,+MO&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x87d9437774ae90b1:0xe097361aeae6e007,336+Rose+Lee+Ln,+Union,+MO+63084,+USA&gl=uk&ei=C4rQT_bNH8TZ8APbgeHRDA&oi=geocode_result&ved=0CBUQ8gEwAA


Of course, OSM is more accurate than any others - compare the link above,
with this link, showing a more accurate - but incomplete - map:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=38.396220356226&lon=-91.0328784584999&zoom=18


Richard Symonds
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On 7 June 2012 11:57, Marcin Cieslak <saper at saper.info> wrote:

> >> Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod at mccme.ru> wrote:
> > On Tue, 29 May 2012 13:23:25 +0100, Tom Morris wrote:
> >> On 29 May 2012 13:08, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> >>> The difference is that Wikipedia is usable in the real world,
> >>> whereas
> >>> OSM, for the most part, is not.
> >>>
> >>> Yes, TomTom is dying.  But it's because of Google, not because of
> >>> OSM.
> >>>
> >>
> >> I'd say OSM is beginning to be pretty usable in the real world. It's
> >> usable for a lot of things where there's not so much commercial
> >> interest in the map data...
> >>
> >
> >  From my personal experience: Twice per year I travel into middle-size
> > towns of Russia, usually visiting several of then on a single trip.
> > Google maps suck badly; Google's Russian counterpart, Yandex Maps, are
> > better, but they suck as well; TomTom is nonexistent, and OSM had for
> > all places I visited in 2010 (with one exception - for the record, this
> > was the city of Tayga, Kemerovo Region in Siberia) reasonably good maps,
> > often with reliable house numbering.
>
> I can confirm this too - even in a large city of Kiev my coworkers
> tried to explain to each other how to reach something using
> very inaccurate Google Map. We tried openstreetmap.org (they
> didn't now it even exists) and we all were amazed by the level
> of detail the city was described. Even all traffic lights and
> bus stops were in place as they should.
>
> //Saper
>
>
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