Google Maps vs OpenStreetMap: Which is the Best Web Mapping Service Part 1?

Google Maps vs OpenStreetMap: Which is the Best Web Mapping Service?

As a cartographer, you actually have an option as far as maps are concerned, but the solution isn’t so clear like was in the past. Google’s maps remain the king; however, OpenStreetMap is becoming a force to reckon with, getting more popular among different applications as well as services.

While one can find a comparison between the both community mapping programs, which one is really the preferred alternative to commit one’s scarce resources and precious time into if one desires to see his crazy mapping skills get projected on the internet?

1. Coverage

In terms of coverage, Google map has a higher coverage in many countries. As a matter of fact, it is the leading map in many countries which include the United States, Germany, and Japan and over 220 countries. OpenStreetMap, on the other hand, has a very poor coverage in most countries, there are instances where many important places such as hospitals, government buildings, parks etc. will be missing from the map and the individual will have to edit to include the missing places. Google Map is very detailed in its coverage, down to the smallest streets and shops. In website categories, Google map is also ahead of Open Street Map in many categories including arts, shopping travel, business and more than 200 other categories.

2. Ownership

While Google Map is copyrighted and owned by different organizations, OpenStreetMap is fully owned by you; the user, both the data and software are the property of the contributors. The organization is known as Open StreetMap Foundation only exists in order to develop, promote, support and protect the project.

3. Imagery satellite updating frequency:

It’s over and over again asked how often Google updates the imagery in Google Maps and Google Earth. The answer depends on where you live and can be anywhere from once a week to never. For much of the world, there are certain hotspots that get fairly regular updates and other places that have no high-resolution imagery whatsoever.

When it comes to OpenStreetMap, they don’t update satellite imagery, ever (for lack of satellites). They use imagery from third-party providers that have granted permission to them; Yandex and Google are not among them. In most parts of the world, the best imagery available to them is either Bing or the MapBox satellite imagery, and OpenStreetMap has no influence on when they update.