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OpenStreetMap's New Vector Tiles

(tech.marksblogg.com)
479 points marklit | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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Someone ◴[] No.42183666[source]
> Imagery should appear much sharper and switching the language of the labels should become possible.

I expect that to work sub-optimally. Label dimensions are far from guaranteed to stay the same if you change language, and label dimensions interact with map layout, even influencing what to show.

If your labels grow larger, they may end up covering too much of the map or even overlapping. If they grow smaller, users may wonder why a city that was omitted before because of space constraints doesn’t show in the empty space created.

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dheera ◴[] No.42183722[source]
I hate it when city and street names disappear on Google Maps as you zoom in and out. Sometimes a street or business name only appears at one particular zoom level and not higher or lower. Just show the name of every street damnit. I don't care about crowding. Standing at an intersection staring at an unlabelled map is a useless map.
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enriquto ◴[] No.42183815[source]
> Just show the name of every street damnit.

But why? Google Maps is not a navigation aid. Its purpose is not to help you know the name of the street you are in. It's a tool for paying customers to steer you towards their shops. If all you need to do is follow a path towards a certain shop, they don't need to show you the names of the streets.

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1. astrange ◴[] No.42184515{3}[source]
Google doesn't really optimize to show you ads. They're a monopoly and the voting shares are owned by Larry/Sergey; they have no intrinsic motivation to care about anything. If you want to be optimization-brained (don't, it's bad for you) they optimize for metrics that individual people make up and use to get promoted.

They monetize the map other ways, like with the expensive API fees, but I wonder if they really care about it. Whenever I look at it for a few seconds I see something obviously sloppy, like misspelled POI names or people adding fake businesses at their apartment.