

Craigslist has started to use OpenStreetMap data for certain listings

Source: Craigslist

Classified advertising web site Craigslist has started using maps from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project for housing ads placed on the service. The use of OpenStreetMap data has begun quietly with ads in the San Francisco Bay and Portland, Oregon areas. So far, it is not clear if the company plans to expand their use of OSM to other listings as well, as Craigslist has not publicly talked about their intentions in this regard.

Craigslist is the latest in a growing list of technology companies that have switched from Google Maps to the crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap service. Earlier in the year, both Foursquare and Apple also switched to OSM as their mapping provider and Wikipedia's mobile application is also using the service.

OpenStreetMap, which recently completed its move to new licence for its content, is a crowd-sourced and crowd-curated mapping database. Contributors map areas with portable GPS devices and upload them to a wiki-style interface. Because of the way they are created, OpenStreetMap maps offer detailed, accurate maps for many areas and include details, such as footpaths, which other maps omit.

(fab)