Old post is here: https://lemmy.world/post/14437575

Both OSM and Organic Maps are SEVERELY lacking in businesses. So many places aren’t in the directory.

You search for fast food and only a couple pop up. Search for s fancy steakhouse by name, nothing. It shows about half of the weed dispensaries in my area…

Is there a way to update the “phonebook”?

Has shitgle been spending money trying to make all other maps unusable? It sure fuckin seems like it.

  • barbara@lemmy.ml
    871·
    7 months ago

    You can easily add POIs with streetcomplete, osmand or directly on osm.org . Just add POIs whenever you search for it and it is missing. It’ll take some time depending on your area but if you don’t start today, there won’t be an alternative for you tomorrow. Ask a friend to do the same. My area has more pois and details and is more up to date and the location is more accurate than google.

  • shortwavesurfer@monero.townEnglish
    68·
    7 months ago

    Please add them. I know it’s a pain in the ass to do. But if you add them and other people add other places, then it becomes better for everyone. So please contribute.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    33·
    7 months ago

    Nearly all open source map apps (definitely OsmAnd and Organic Maps) use openstreetmap.org as a data source which is literally a wiki, ie. anyone can edit it. If there is a lot missing in your area on OSM, then please add those things yourself. It is exactly as good as volunteers made it.

      • eco_game@discuss.tchncs.de
        42·
        7 months ago

        Yes, but as you say, they have a good privacy policy. Also their revenue model backs up their privacy policy, and I find their reasoning as to why they aren’t FOSS fair:

        Will Magic Earth be Open Source?

        No; since it is also used commercially (we have a paid Magic Earth SDK for business partners), we cannot make the code public.

        (from the FAQ)

        • kabi@lemm.ee
          14·
          7 months ago

          That’s just saying “we want to sell access to our code, so we can’t make it open source”. Basically the definition of proprietary software, no?

            • kabi@lemm.ee
              3·
              7 months ago

              My point was that it’s not so much “fair reasoning” as just a statement of that fact.

            • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
              1·
              7 months ago

              Yes, but people were claiming they had a good reason not to be FOSS. They could have easily just not mentioned it at all but instead they name a reason that isn’t an issue for many others.

        • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
          3·
          7 months ago

          That’s a weird reasoning, as I can find plenty of FOSS that has paid “business” editions

      • Scolding0513@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        7 months ago

        yes but the old school business model of selling access to code without giving someone a full on anal probe in the form of data collection is not bad. it’s only because major applicationa became insane spyware that we all had to start screaming about FOSS in the first place.

        Magic Earth is doing a great thing. they are giving you a decently private, “Just Werks” maps experience, while still making money to fund their business, which is necessary to make software that is high grade. if that involves proprietary code, then okay fine.

        They are giving a great experience to the average user, even someone trying to be private or at least degoogled. I see no issue with Magic Earth.

        • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
          11·
          7 months ago

          Magic Earth isn’t private as it sends back data. Even if it was, there is no way of doing they won’t change something in the future.

          I used to use it before Organic maps matured. Now organic maps seems to be the best option. I also use OsmAnd for a while but it is far to unstable and slow plus it takes up a lot of disk space.

    • teolan@lemmy.world
      52·
      7 months ago

      But they don’t have more data than organic maps since they’re using OSM too.

      • Deckweiss@lemmy.world
        4·
        7 months ago

        They have live traffic data, which OSM doesn’t have.

        In terms of search, there are algorithmic ways to get smarter results compared to what is built in OSM per default. So if other users say that the results are better, magicearth might be doing some magic under the hood.

        • teolan@lemmy.world
          3·
          7 months ago

          The post specifically mentioned POIs, and as far as I have tested (in France at least), Magic Earth has the same incomplete/missing POI database as organic maps, coming from OSM.

  • Takios@discuss.tchncs.de
    19·
    7 months ago

    Most responses tell you to add them yourself which is a solution to this problem. But I think the reason why the state of businesses on OSM and Organic Maps (which uses OSM as a source) is so dire is interesting too:

    OSM must not use other maps as sources. In fact, they must not use any information that hasn’t been licensed in a way that specifically allows OSM to use it. As such, they can’t just go to Google Maps and copy all the business information over because Google has not licensed that information in an open way. Information like streets, paths or houses can be gleaned from satellite pictures that have been provided to OSM and can be put in easily so they tend to be up-to-date. But for businesses, someone has to actually go there and confirm the information.

    Now why is Google so good at that? Because almost every business owner makes sure to put their business on GMaps themselves and keep that information updated so it doesn’t depend on one person going through the area regularly.

  • kbal@fedia.io
    15·
    7 months ago

    It’s not as if google’s map is without problems. Even when it comes to finding shopping opportunities, depending on what you’re looking for (computer shops, locksmiths) it can have a lot of locations on the map that don’t exist in reality. And then for something like fast food you can assume it’s more prominently showing whichever chain has paid the most.

    Maybe it’s worth it if you need to be sure of finding the nearest McDonalds, but it isn’t the map I’d go for first for most things.

  • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
    14·
    7 months ago

    They’re all crowdsourced, but the non-Google/Apple crowd is much smaller. This shouldn’t be surprising.

    Although I’m sure that Google and Apple also have people being compensated for adding places, either actual employees, contractors, or micropayment style. The FOSS ones don’t have that.

  • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
    3·
    7 months ago

    I’ve tried magic earth and am using organic maps right now. It’s pretty good and I use it. Though, it won’t have traffic reports and stuff which kinda sucks. For busing around, I use the website my county bus system has, which has a google map backend thing which shows which bus stops to go to.