The Street View time machine

I remember being very impressed when Google launched their Street View application in Spain as an addition feature to Google Maps. I even forgave them for not including my street at first, it seemed like a great idea. Although after the initial interest faded I can't say that I have been back using it very much. However, the other day I thought it might be a useful tool to check some data that I'd collected in Madrid where I wasn't absolutely sure about the location. When it came to looking at the area around Madrid's Puerta del Sol I soon realized that I had a problem.

Apple's maps

The discovery last week that Apple seems to have used some tiles from Open Street Map (OSM) in its new iOS version of the iPhoto application has provoked speculation about yet another company making the switch to OSM. However, it seems that the data used is from some time ago, and even contained errors which have since been corrected in OSM. One great advantage of community sourced mapping is that errors get detected and corrected. The data has also been used with no attribution of its source, a condition of using OSM data.

Have Google Maps taken the wrong road?

It started with one or two isolated reports of companies abandoning the use of Google Maps for their websites and switching to Open Street Map (OSM) as their map server. One of the main reasons behind such a move has been Google's decision to change their charging policy for use of their maps. This seems to have forced some smaller companies into a position where they effectively had little choice but to look for a cheaper option.