Ordnance Survey OpenSpace Demo (via) Niall Kennedy threw a demo up on his site—the map seems to load a lot faster than Google Maps and the level of detail once you zoom down to street level is really impressive.
Sign in with 
OpenID
Ordnance Survey OpenSpace Demo (via) Niall Kennedy threw a demo up on his site—the map seems to load a lot faster than Google Maps and the level of detail once you zoom down to street level is really impressive.
I plotted Big Ben on Google, Yahoo, Virtual Earth, OpenSpace, OpenStreetMap, and MapQuest JavaScript APIs at similar zoom levels. No info bubble event handlers, just the plotted point with marker. Please excuse the pageload overhead for the 6x side-by-side frames.
Train stations are useful data points. Google and Yahoo don't seem to have any good building data. MapQuest shows the most private road data and notes the appropriate gates.
Niall Kennedy - 9th June 2008 12:03 - #
Is it because I'm in Ireland that both of Niall's OS demos are refusing to show me any map tiles?
[Not much frickin' use if so, is it?]
Yeah, I don't see any tiles either.
I guess Niall ran out of tiles: there's a limit to the number you can have per unit time with the free service.
Even ignoring the "paying twice" argument, this looks like a belated and arguably insufficient reaction by the Ordnance Survey to other services which arguably provide a more seamless experience: consider the zoom experience through the visually distinct maps at each level compared to the Google Maps stuff, even if Google Maps doesn't have much building data (but does have satellite and aerial imagery).
Paul Boddie - 9th June 2008 20:15 - #
Yep, it looks like my API key went over limit yesterday. Everything is once again working today as the clock moved past midnight GMT.
Note the OpenSpace API references block numbers, not lat/long, as its optimal input. Anyone developing on the platform should try to convert address or other data to a stored block number for fastest access.
Niall Kennedy - 10th June 2008 10:20 - #