Nestoria Abandons Google Maps
January 27, 2012
With Google Maps dominating the online map market since its creation last decade the unthinkable (that Google should be replaced) is in the process of happening. Nestoria, an online real estate listings company with growing ranks in Europe, Australia and India, recently announced their departure from Google Maps for OpenStreetMap in a blog post titled, Why (and How) We Switched Away from Google Maps.
Nestoria listed four primary reasons for their switch each with equal merit. First, OpenStreetMap provides maps at the same quality as Google Maps. That was not always the case. For a long time (up until very recently) Google Maps dominated because they were the best.
Next, the tools necessary to switch away from Google Maps were not available making the process difficult at best. That is not the case anymore. A good chunk of the blog post is devoted to explaining how the transition was technically done.
Third in the reasons, and perhaps the key motivator, is that Google has begun charging for the use of Google Maps. As the blog post points out the price to use the maps would bankrupt Nestoria making OpenStreetMap even more appealing.
Lastly, Nestoria lists a dedication to all things open source as a motivating factor in the switch:
Our service does nothing more (and nothing less!) than aggregate data from many different sources and present it in an easy to use format. We benefit greatly from open data, and as such we want to do our part (within the limited resources of a start-up) to help the open data movement.
The reasons considered seem to add up to a compelling case against Google Maps. For years Google was untouchable and the idea that a start-up could steal users away from the mighty Google giant was unthinkable. Time for a rethink?
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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