All joking aside, this is great news for the project.

Nestoria is one of those companies that was told it would have to start paying real money for Google Maps. When Google couldn?t tell it exactly how much, Nestoria?kicked Mountain View to the curb and switched to OpenStreetMap, a free, collaborative effort to map the globe.

A couple of thoughts about this article and OSM/Google Maps. 1. Google has to tell people how much they are going to charge for their maps sooner rather than later. No one can run a company without a clear idea of costs (well at least run a company for longer than 6 months). While Nestoria could have done better due diligence before banking on Google, clearly it is easy enough to move platforms. Lock-in is something that online mapping APIs do not have. 2. Freyfogle is completely wrong:

… Freyfogle says, and they must render what Google wants them render a criticism Google did not address when we asked the company for clarification. You can make your maps look however you want. Rivers can be red instead of blue if you wanted. With Google you’re not getting any data. You just get a map on your page.

You can make the Google Maps look anyway you want dynamically. That’s pretty awesome because you don’t have to create your own tiles. He says Google didn’t respond to his questions, but I would assume someone using an API would know what it does (seriously, how can you not research an API that is critical to your app?). 1. Steve Coast is still alive. Hey Steve! 2. OpenStreetMap is growing and will continue grow if Google fails to address the customer service aspects of the Google Maps API. Leaflet is the key to gaining control over your applications (Nestoria uses it). Learn it, use it, love it.

One by one, the Gorillas are choosing OSM.