Some of the issues you raise seem to be solved in e.g. http://www.openlinkmap.org/
There are some very useful maps out there umap, openlinkmap, geschichtskarten, hikebike map, etc. each serving a different audience. It would be great to see all that functionality combined in 1 uber-map. Google does this to a certain extend (umap + openlinkmap + routing). But what happens to usability when you keep adding information, rendering of obscure POIs ? How do you hide irrelevant information, or just show that special piece of data ? That are some nice challenges imho. Marc On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 6:41 AM, Guillaume Pratte < guilla...@guillaumepratte.net> wrote: > Hello, > > I have been a serious user of OpenStreetMap for less than six months, and > I am proud to recently have achieved my one hundredth contribution to the > project. I really love the OpenStreetMap project, and I would like to > replace my daily usage of Google Maps with OpenStreetMap. > > But it just seems I cannot. Anybody else feel the same issues? > > I'll give a few concrete examples why, humbly hoping that my words can > encourage changes to the main website. > > First point: searching. I have OpenStreetMap zoomed in to some region of > Montreal, Canada. I input "café", looking for a coffee shop. I get results > from Nominatim, inviting me to visit a village in Brazil named "Café" or > even the "Café point" in Antarctica. While these search results awaken my > globetrotter's desire to explore the world, they frustrate me at the same > time. Why couldn't Nominatim priorize results from the bounding box or > surrounding? Why can't OpenStreetMap show me results on the map like the > OverPass API does, performing a search on the tag amenity=cafe and showing > the results on the map? > > Second point: accessing POI information. I cannot click on point of > interests (POI) to get more info about them. Why do we input address, > business hours and phone numbers on shops and restaurants if the map cannot > easily display this information to the user? Why do I have to show the > map's data in order to have information on a point of interest? > > Third point: maximum zoom level. Some area are densely populated, and > OpenStreetMap's current zoom level is not enough to see all details of the > map. This is really unfortunate. Example: http://osm.org/go/cIrNs6Qzp--What > are the restaurant surrounding the Hard Rock Café on this map? I have > to use the editor to be able to zoom and see all data. > > Fourth point: sharing a point of interest. There should be an easy way to > do that. I have found a (complicated) way to do it, which is all but > obvious to newcomers. Here is how: > > • Using the layer icon at the top right of the map, I select > "Browse Map Data"; > • I select the object I want to share (which is not always > possible; sometimes it is "hidden" behind a residential area or similar); > • I click on "Details" > • On the resulting page, I click on "View way on larger map" > • I get an URL similar to this that I can share: > http://www.openstreetmap.org/?way=225637513 > > Fifth point: routing. Why is there absolutely no routing implemented on > the main OpenStreetMap website? This is I concede a naïve question, as it > might be simply because of limited server resources. Once we have our new > servers, is this something we want to implement, as a community? > > I really like the OpenStreetMap project, and I dream to be able to use it > as a primary map instead of Google Maps. I feel resolving these issues > would bring me many steps closer to making that dream come true. > > What do you all think? Do you also have showstoppers that prevent you to > use OpenStreetMap as your primary and daily map? > > Guillaume > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk >
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