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rplnt | karma 6199 | avg karma 2.64 · 2017-12-20 07:39:41

> Many people don't realize why Google maps are so much better than anything out there.

Absolutely not true. I don't use Google Maps in Czech Republic at all as there is a solid local map provider[1] - (they offer whole world through OSM, so I use that on phone as well[2], but it's not that great). They lost some edge with Google going full-textured 3D few years back (actually the Czech map had it sooner, just not as useful). But other than that much cleaner rendering, equally good aerial or street view, better routing, POIs, richer layers ...

(edit: and two huge UX advantages over GM: no stupid random rotation - North is UP, and a very quick and precise zoom by holding control)

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if there were similar stories in other countries.

1. https://en.mapy.cz/

2. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.mapy or recently released as https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.wind... (haven't tried it)

reply

tigershark | karma 2132 | avg karma 1.4 · 2017-12-20 08:34:12

To me it seems to have a much less detailed view compared to google maps in all the places that I quickly tried. How can you proclaim that google maps is not much better than everything out there bringing this low detailed map as an example?

rplnt | karma 6199 | avg karma 2.64 · 2017-12-20 08:38:26+00:00

What do you mean less detailed? Any examples?

tigershark | karma 2132 | avg karma 1.4 · 2017-12-20 08:59:09

I checked both London and a small city in Italy and there is simply no comparison looking at the building details.

rplnt | karma 6199 | avg karma 2.64 · 2017-12-20 09:06:55+00:00

I explicitly said it's for one specific country...

tigershark | karma 2132 | avg karma 1.4 · 2017-12-20 09:21:32

Then it's true that google maps is much better. I don't really care about having only one country better when all the rest of the planet is less detailed...

LukaCEnzo | karma 30 | avg karma 3.75 · 2017-12-20 09:49:12

It's used mostly in and for Czechia. Why would someone in Czechia care about the rest of the globe when he'll mostly use it to find stuff in Czechia?

bokstavkjeks | karma 64 | avg karma 3.37 · 2017-12-20 12:19:41

I'd guess that 80% of my Google Maps use is within one country, and that 99% is within three countries. I'd definitely download separate maps for each country to get better directions and maps.

tinus_hn | karma 7585 | avg karma 1.16 · 2017-12-20 20:47:38+00:00

That's some really neat rendering, I can't remember seeing a better representation of the OSM data.

rplnt | karma 6199 | avg karma 2.64 · 2017-12-21 10:56:29+00:00

The tourist layer (default on mobile) is great with all the data OSM has on bicycle paths.

_Tev | karma 130 | avg karma 0.41 · 2017-12-21 15:34:05+00:00

Exactly, especially public transport in Prague is so much better looking in mapy.cz I almost stopped using google maps.