Which street-level image service do you commit to and why? - eviltoast

It seems pretty clear that street-level imaging on OSM is pretty lacking, unless you only want to see highways.

I’m looking to start mapping street-level images for my city, but it seems like there are three players (integrated in the OSM editor), and I don’t know which to commit to:

-KartaView

-Mapillary

-mapilio

My gut is to go with the one with the largest user base (Mapillary), but they are owned by Facebook and who knows what direction they will take in the future or what our images will actually be used for in the long-run.

Karta seems dead.

And Mapilio seems like a knock-off of Mapillary, but with a much smaller user base and an uncertain future.

Are any worth investing hundreds of hours of time to?

  • infeeeee@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    None of them is “baked into” OSM, they are available in the iD editor, which is currently the default editor on the openstreetmap.org website.

    • You can access the OpenStreetMap database in a lot other ways not just via the main website
    • You can edit the OpenStreetMap database with a lot of other programs, not just the default iD, via the main website. Me personally rarely edit there (JOSM ftw!), so it was a bit confusing you call it “baked into”.

    Don’t forget, OSM is a geographic database, not a direct competitor to services like Google Maps.

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Yes, what I mean is that the default editor has these street-level services already there for mappers to use, so they have an advantage.

      Mapillary, for example, is also the only street-level option in OSMAND, so even users who aren’t mapping can use the data easily.

      So, if I were to commit to a service to add data to, I would want it to be the one that would get the most user exposure by default.

      “Baked-in” might not have been the best way to describe it, but if it’s available in the default editor, then it narrows down my options.