Comments on: Like the map, can you make it less visible ?

By: davespod

davespod — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:35:13 +0000

Touché.

OTOH I don’t think I’ve ever heard Cloudmade imply it invented slippy maps.

By: Unintrusive Map | geopaint.net

Unintrusive Map | geopaint.net — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:12:54 +0000

[...] to @aemkei who made me aware of Ed Parsons’ article about a new feature of the Google Maps API v3: Altering the appearance of the [...]

By: Gregory Marler

Gregory Marler — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:50:24 +0000

“The map is important, but not as important as the data you are publishing on top of it”
Unless the map is rich enough data that you don’t need push-pins on top. Where you can not only change the colours but add newly built roads and have them instantly appear.

Talking of which, watch out for the OpenStreetMap buildings popping up in Hampton and heading towards Teddington. We never got together for some local OSM mapping after saying we would a few years ago, I suppose you don’t do that anymore?

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:41:17 +0000

@davespod, and there was me thinking Cloudmade was inspired by the google maps API

By: davespod

davespod — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:32:27 +0000

Ed, I assume SteveC is referring to the fact that Cloudmade has had the facility to allow anyone to created a styled map very easily from OpenStreetMap data for quite some time:

http://maps.cloudmade.com/editor

I think it is SteveC and Cloudmade who should take this as a compliment

By: Steven Romalewski

Steven Romalewski — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:05:01 +0000

@Richard and @MrGunn – I agree that this opens the door for lots of poorly designed map styles, as well as the potential for many more people outside the traditional GIS world to start thinking about cartography. People can do what they want, of course, and Google shouldn’t be expected to prohibit “bad” maps.

But, @Ed, what about Google partnering with Cynthia Brewer, who has probably done more than anyone in the last few years to promote good, effective cartographic styles in GIS applications. Though her books tend to be focused on ESRI software, her Designing Better Maps book and her ColorBrewer website are software-agnostic when it comes to symbology, typology, and color schemes – without being pedantic at all. I never make a map anymore without consulting at least one of her reference materials. Integrating ColorBrewer with Google’s Map Style Wizard would be an awfully powerful combination.

By: Richard Treves

Richard Treves — Tue, 25 May 2010 12:26:18 +0000

Good to see someone from Google make some cartographic points Ed but I’m with Mr Gunn, there should be a *lot* more noise from Google about map usability than we’re getting at the moment. See my post http://bit.ly/axj92K

By: Mr. Gunn

Mr. Gunn — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:18:14 +0000

I hope websites don’t take this as an invitation to start coloring water and trees and things non-standard colors in Google Maps. Usability #FAIL