this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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[–] nutsack@lemmy.world 130 points 3 months ago (11 children)

the biggest problem I have with switching is that Google Maps is a business directory. open street maps is empty where i live. it works okay for navigation, but not so much for finding a coffee.

[–] then_three_more@lemmy.world 48 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] rolling_resistance@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago (3 children)

It says “page not found”, maybe because I'm not in EU.

[–] EveningPancakes@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm in the US, also says page not found for me.

[–] olicvb@lemmy.ca 27 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yea looks like they were linking to this: Street Complete

[–] then_three_more@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Very strange. It doesn't work. I shared directly from the f-droid client droid-ify

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/index.html

[–] Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 months ago
[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] then_three_more@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Oh weird. That's shared from droid-ify which is an f-droid client.

Here's the proper link https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/index.html

[–] snrkl@lemmy.sdf.org 48 points 3 months ago (2 children)

there are ways to make it easier; it's been gamified:

https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete

Available on FDROID.

When my partner stops to play pokemon go, I complete some Open Street Map info quests...

[–] controlphreak@lemmy.ml 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Street Complete is a great app for quests regarding existing features, but also consider the feature might not exist at all yet in OSM.

Map Complete is great for adding new features. It also asks a bunch of optional simple questions about the feature which gets converted into the relevant OSM tags. It's browser based but you can just add a shortcut to your home screen to have it quickly accessible.

[–] InsertUser@en.osm.town 5 points 3 months ago

@controlphreak @snrkl
Now that StreetComplete has overlay layers for places and things you can add most of the thing you'd want to add in person.

[–] ctag@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 3 months ago

I didn't know about map complete, thanks!

[–] Contentedness@lemmy.nz 3 points 3 months ago

I've just installed this now, thanks for the tip!

So many quests right on my street!

[–] bikooo2@r.nf 35 points 3 months ago (1 children)

As many have already told you, you can contribute to OSM, I have put in it almost all the establishments in my area (Not at Big area but...). Although soon I have to update them

[–] nutsack@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

im on board with the idea in general, but im not going to do this. it would be an endless effort to the benefit of almost nobody. places go up and down so fast here that google maps is often out of date too. it's filled with stale information and im flagging missing places constantly. every digital community in this country is a garbage pile.

the ride share apps here do use open street maps though, and im making corrections to building addresses when i find something isn't right. it's great.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 31 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Umm...it benefits loads of people.

On OSM you don't have to just flag something. You can edit it directly, so it leads to more accurate information.

[–] Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But you can also just flag it if editing is not your cup of tea. Here's a convenient, non-techy tool to add notes for others to use when editing: https://www.onosm.org/

[–] teolan@lemmy.world 33 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You can contribute them!

There's a pretty barebones editor in Organic Maps, but you can also check out Street Complete and Every door (more advanced and less user friendly, though insanely efficient)

[–] Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I use Vespucci, it's advanced but still pretty easy if you just want to do basic editing. https://vespucci.io/

P.s. how do you link to an app on fdroid?

[–] IHateReddit@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks. I wish the link could be created from the f-droid automatically. I'm too lazy to try to paste the parts together

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Same issue here. I really like their maps in general, but my local area in OSM is about a decade out of date

[–] vatlark@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Yeah, it's interesting to look through the edit history over the years. With StreetComplete I recently fixed ~8 stores that were many years out of date, during an hour walk.

It's fun to find a real hole-in-the-wall that even google maps doesn't have.

[–] rolling_resistance@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

I keep businesses in my area up-to-date, doesn't take much time at all.

[–] barsquid@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That kind of contribution seems like a lower level of effort than making changes to source code.

[–] teolan@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

And there are apps that make it very very easy and fun. Check out street complete.

[–] bitwolf@lemmy.one 5 points 3 months ago

I felt the same however Organic Maps did have many businesses. And with Street Complete I can correct any errors when I visit.

It may simply be my area, but I so recommend organic maps over Osmand for business and POI lookups

[–] gimmemahlulz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Yeah trying to find anything on any of the competing apps is basically impossible. I mean ffs OSMand literally couldn't do address lookup!

[–] themachine@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

I just recently learned this.

For OsmAnd, go to search, then the categories tab, and then hit "Online Search".

Voila, address lookup.

[–] vatlark@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I have found Organic Map's search to be far better than OSMand. OSMand has far more features though.

You'll need to first download the relevant section of the map downloaded to be able to search it, though.

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

i think openstreetmaps only works in big countries honestly

[–] joostjakob@lemmy.world -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What does the size of the country have to do with it? Which good big and bad small countries are you talking about?

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Most people don't use openstreetmaps on these small countries like with low/medium population it feels like apple maps on there

[–] MadBob@feddit.nl 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Can you give an example? Because I've just looked at Luxembourg, Nepal, and Aruba, and they're all littered with named buildings and landmarks. Pyongyang even has a fair bit filled in.

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

didnt rlly try it but might try tbh but idk since i see people here where i live use google maps

edit: tried it and it really is quite outdated my house does not show up and idk if waze is even privacy respecting

[–] CAVOK@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Waze is google these days. They bought it some time ago.

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago
[–] InsertUser@en.osm.town 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

@Mwa @joostjakob

Apple Maps uses OpenStreetMap data on n some countries.

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

ohh makes sense

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

All it takes is you to fix this. Its even easier in a small country

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago
[–] erenkoylu@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You can add the POIs and fill the gaps!

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

And then in the web app, you need to do this complicated hold-LMB-then-select-from-list to select something, making just browsing really difficult.

Or is there a better way of doing that? I lack a good way to just browse Openstreetmap.

[–] erenkoylu@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

openstreetmap.org is a mappers website, not a map users website. It works great for mappers, but is horrible for people who want to use the map to find their way around.

I think the openstreetmap ecosystem really needs a better website for map users.