Ask HN: Google Maps alternative that uses OSM?

by _august on 1/2/2022, 10:15:10 PM with 8 comments
Is there a good alternative website for google maps? I tried the official OSM website but I can't search simple things like "gyms" or "cafes" in the current viewport (it does a name search instead of a category search)

  • by castorp on 1/2/2022, 11:05:21 PM

    Did you try Qwant? https://www.qwant.com/maps

  • by btown on 1/2/2022, 10:55:38 PM

    https://foursquare.com/city-guide layers Foursquare's proprietary labeled place taxonomy ( https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/categories ) on top of Mapbox maps which use OSM. It's certainly not all open source data, but if you want something that's an already-deployed website that doesn't use Google tech, it may be your best bet.

  • by habi on 1/3/2022, 11:19:16 AM

    https://overpass-turbo.eu/ is a complete search for OpenStreetMap. It’s a bit cumbersome to use, but the wizard is great and the search is super powerful. I particularly like “banks far away from police stations” example: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Overpass_API/Overpass_AP... ;)

  • by mike_d on 1/2/2022, 11:22:06 PM

    GeoNames.org or OSM will give you natural places ("New York", "River Thames", etc). Commercial places ("McDonalds", "Cafes", etc) are primarily proprietary databases.

    As a reference, Apple maps sources its commercial places data from a combination of: TomTom, Automotive Navigation Data, Getchee, Hexagon AB, IGN, Increment P, Intermap Technologies, LeadDog, MDA Information Systems, OpenStreetMap, and Waze.

  • by marcodiego on 1/2/2022, 11:07:47 PM

    If you can install an android app, I've been using OsmAnd for exactly that.