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23 votes
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Why did Google Maps have a big black smudge in the South Pacific before 2012? And why did it disappear? And what does it have to do with Captain Cook? And what is a phantom island? | Map Men
37 votes -
The Greenwich meridian's forgotten rival
4 votes -
Why a tire company gives out food’s most famous award
15 votes -
Google sued for negligence after man drove off collapsed bridge while following map directions
67 votes -
Why is north up? | Map Men
18 votes -
Inside the secret world of Russia's Cold War mapmakers
7 votes -
This guy shares cool maps of the world every day on Facebook
5 votes -
Once a millennium alignment of all three norths
5 votes -
In 2017, I made an unofficial transit diagram covering the Oslo region in Norway – now, five years later, it's time for a revisit
4 votes -
The biggest mapping mistake of all time
7 votes -
Maps Are Fun! (1946)
3 votes -
Indian government restricts foreign mapping services to one metre accuracy
5 votes -
What are your favorite imaginary/fictitious maps?
(Only took me 2 months /s). Also this map is by no means a complete list. Santa-pocalypse: What if santa was (a tiny bit more) realistic? A timeline where Santa delivers his presents via quantum...
(Only took me 2 months /s). Also this map is by no means a complete list.
Santa-pocalypse: What if santa was (a tiny bit more) realistic?
A timeline where Santa delivers his presents via quantum tunneling and due to a failure in this device, he causes a nuclear explosion when he accelerates to relativistic speeds in order to gift Children worldwide. Given nuclear fusion doesn't work like that and the Shockwave travels westward counterclockwise, I disagree with the notion this is realistic, but that's pedantry.
Someone mashed dozens of fictitious worlds and the real world at different times to make a very weird and high-effiry map.
Industrialized, colonial, imperial China
A timeline where the Ming is an expansionist empire and puppets nearly half of the world's population. Given China has been as large and populous as entire continents at times, the fact that China had so much the leadership felt they could be self-sufficient and refuse to try to expand until like, 10 years ago, I find this scenario something that could totally have happened but didn't due to disinterested leadership.
What if the new world didn't exist?
A world where columbus is right about Geography and the Americas don't exist. While I don't think it's particularly realistic, I find this scenario underrated.
A grim, dark rainbow: What if the current rightwards shift of politics doesn't stop?
What it says on the title. Not particularly realistic given the CCP and NATO apparently collapse, but I like to use this map as a stand-in for the worst-case scenario of the near-future.
The dragon in shackles: Qing China and Japan in 1932
A timeline where Qing China re-unifies China, but at large costs to their economy, independence, infrastructure and territory.
Flavo et purpura: A world in which Islam never leaves Arabia Ca 800 AD
A very detailed map with quite a few differences from what happened IRL. Far more romanized.
Spain if the re*conquista continued into North Africa
A timeline where the Spanish conquer the Western half of the Maghreb. The justificarion is that Pre-columbian empires ally themselves to other European nations to not be colonized by Spain, so the Spanish focus their imperialist efforts into neighboring Morocco. Obviously not very realistic, but the maps are cool.
Fictitious maps based on real data:
The world divided into 200 areas of equal population
What it says in the title.
14 votes -
Why does Russia have the best maps of Britain? | Map Men
12 votes -
Google Maps' moat is evaporating
7 votes -
Understanding hyperbolic geometry by illuminating it
3 votes -
How triangles shrank France and the first modern map | Map Men
8 votes -
Apple adds cycling routes and EV charging stations to Maps in iOS 14
11 votes -
Colorado is not a rectangle, it’s not even a quadrilateral, in fact it is a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon
19 votes -
MAPfrappe
3 votes -
Google & Apple adjust maps during pandemic
6 votes -
"Mapping Imaginary Cities" by Mouse Reeve
4 votes -
New York’s subway map like you’ve never seen it before
20 votes -
Apple's new map expands to the midwest and western US
13 votes -
I dare you to try OpenStreetMap!
I dare you to try OpenStreetMap but also (probably most importantly) contribute! But first, some introduction, What even is OpenStreetMap? Okay well, OpenStreetMap is a database, licensed under...
I dare you to try OpenStreetMap but also (probably most importantly) contribute!
But first, some introduction,
What even is OpenStreetMap?
Okay well, OpenStreetMap is a database, licensed under ODBL, to create maps basically.
It's kind of like Wikipedia with how the data is crowdsourced from well, anyone. The data can then be used for well, basically anything.
Research? Sure.
Wanna make your own map? Sure.
Wanna just use it for navigation without relying on anyone else? Hell yeah you can.Basically anything you want as long as you share people's work under ODBL and well, attribute them of course.
How do I use it?
Well, for navigation, on desktop :- Gnome Maps
- GraphHopper
- Qwant Maps
On mobile :
- OSMand
- Maps.me
- Maps (on F-droid)
- Navmii
You can also find other choices on the OSM wiki
Okay so now that you know how to use it for yourself, let's get contributing!
For this, since it's most likely going to be new users editing, we will use iD, it's available right under the edit button on OpenStreetMap's website!
Well, I would explain how to use it and all but thankfully, since iD is pretty userfriendly, there's a walkthrough to get you started.
Please DO NOT copy data from Google Maps or other services, it would violate their licenses. Only add information you personally know from local knowledge or aerial footage which you can use, iD thankfully lets us use most of the available ones which we have the rights to use for OSM.
If you need any kind of help,
the wiki is there which has tons of information but which also has links to mailing lists, IRC, Discord and other services. Oh and of course, feel free to comment below too.If you're already using OSM or contributing, feel free to talk about your experience below too!
Happy Mapping!
46 votes -
'The perfect combination of art and science': Mourning the end of paper maps
18 votes -
Vietnam bans Dreamworks' "Abominable" over South China Sea map showing Chinese claim to the region
9 votes -
The family that shrank France | Map Men
9 votes -
Beautiful maps of the solar system’s asteroids and the topography of Mercury
6 votes -
Open Place Reviews, an open data review site developed by osmand and maps.me
8 votes -
Google Maps is filled with millions of false business addresses created by firms pretending to be nearby
13 votes -
The world’s oldest medieval map
8 votes -
How an internet mapping glitch turned a random Kansas farm into a digital hell
8 votes -
Can you spot a map trap? | Map Men
7 votes -
A newly digitized map from 1587 offers a rare glimpse at the way Europeans conceived of the Americas before British colonization
14 votes -
How Google’s bad data wiped a neighborhood off the map
2 votes -
Pinpoint your location using only three words
30 votes -
Where does London stop? | Unfinished London
12 votes -
A silly Google Maps origin story about how “Satellite” was almost named “Bird Mode”
@btaylor: Here's a silly Google Maps origin story about how "Satellite" was almost named "Bird Mode
9 votes -
How the US has hidden its empire: The United States likes to think of itself as a republic, but it holds territories all over the world – the map you always see doesn’t tell the whole story.
12 votes -
DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps in search results
27 votes -
How cartographers for the US Military inadvertently created a house of horrors in South Africa
15 votes -
Apple's New Map — by Justin O’Beirne, a follow up to "Google Maps' Moat"
21 votes -
Wizards, Moomins and pirates: The magic and mystery of literary maps
8 votes -
Maps showing California as an island
9 votes -
Zooming out on Google Maps now reveals a globe
7 votes