Don't forget OpenStreetMap http://www.openstreetmap.org/ a Free wiki map of the world. It has a very unique style that I think is very nice. One of their statements is "We make beautiful maps"
Note that the OSM say "We make beautiful maps", that's maps plural, not "a beautiful map".
The project is primarily about the underlying data, not any particular end product. They have vector and bitmap outputs, 2D and 3D, digital and printed, up-to-date and historical maps, cycle, public transport and walking maps etc.
And many are both more beautiful and more useful than the alternatives, as well as being free. But not all of them.
Their featured image section of the Wiki gives a better overview, though again many of these images are intended to highlight the quality of the data or new technology:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Featured_images
Some picks based on visual beauty:
City of Murmur (width of street varies based on quantity news reports):
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:City_Murmur_Madrid.p...
A Heatmap of Public Transport in Chennai:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Chennai_Openstreetma...
Visualization of Flights diverted due to Volcano:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:ItoWorld_flightRadar...
Helsinki by Night, based on streetlighting info:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:OSM_By_Night_Helsink...
Demo of Hillshading in the Cycle map:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Cyclemap_hill_shadin...
8-bit NYC (New York mapped Zelda style):
Stamen Design's work:
http://www.stamen.com/clients/cloudmade
OpenOrienteering maps:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:OpenOrienteeringMap_...
Map of London showing color-coded updates:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:London_map_updates_2...
Isometric 3-D map of Czech Republic:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Iso3DMap.jpg
TopOSM, relief shaded maps of the US:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:TopOSM_example3.jpg
Printed maps:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Mappa-mercia-ed1-det...
Tactile map in copper:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Rnk-kupfer.jpg
Finally, some nice maps that Nike did based on OpenStreetMap without crediting the source:
Over at Yell Labs we're looking at producing tiles from OSM that might be more readable on specific devices and include layers that are hold data suited to the way the map is consumed.
An example of this being done already is http://www.opencyclemap.org/ which is generated from Open Street Map but they have reduced the importance of things like motorways, and increased the importance of national and regional cycle routes as well as contours and cycle shops.
Tiles that suit driving don't necessarily suit cycling or walking. When I'm walking I'm more likely to want to see where post boxes, ATM machines and phones are... when I'm cycling I want to see contours and bike routes, and when I'm driving gas station and alternate routes.
This is all possible because of open street map. I don't know how we'd be able to consider tuning the display of devices to device/utility without them. It's a pretty awesome project.
- Approximately the same zoom level, judged by distance between cities and size of land masses.
- 387x387 pixels (same as images in article)
- Map of approximately the same location
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/3999/screenshot20100501at...
Here is a second image, zoomed-in by one notch. The level of detail provided is more comparable, but arguably I shouldn't have to zoom in to get this. http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/5959/screenshot20100501at92...
Cloudmade's default rendering of New York looks pretty decent: http://maps.cloudmade.com/?lat=40.741014&lng=-74.009399&... but they also let you create your own style (e.g. http://maps.cloudmade.com/?lat=40.741014&lng=-74.009399&...)
Lars Ahlzen uses OSM data to make beautiful maps at http://toposm.com/
...the list goes on.
It's great that the data is made public, and they play an important role there. But if we're only comparing map styles (as the article did), OSM has a long way to go.
- It's highway markers look like gel capsules
- Many users put their hometowns so that they're visible when you zoom out really far (you see the suburbs of Salt Lake City & L.A. before you see SLC & L.A.)
- There seems to be 80 airports in every county (I've never heard of most of the ones around my area)
- It's incomplete in many places
- It doesn't even give you directions
I'm sorry, but I just don't trust OpenStreetMaps over Google Maps. I'm sure there aren't many inaccuracies, but it's not worth taking the chance when I'm traveling in an unfamiliar area.
There's a long-running bug in Mapnik (the rendering engine for the tiles) that, when completed, will allow for SVG highway markers.
> Many users put their hometowns so that they're visible when you zoom out really far
Can you give more examples of this? More than likely it's due to problems with the import of TIGER data a couple years ago. It should have been fixed.
> There seems to be 80 airports in every county
Yea ... I'll give you that one :).
> It's incomplete in many places
... and in many more places it is more complete than Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
> It doesn't even give you directions
http://openstreetmap.org/ doesn't (the website is for the data and the community around it), but there are several examples of websites that do offer directions using OSM data: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing/OnlineRouters
It doesn't really matter that they'll be fixed in the future... What matter's is that's how they look now
> Many users put their hometowns so that they're visible when you zoom out really far Can you give more examples of this? More than likely it's due to problems with the import of TIGER data a couple years ago. It should have been fixed
See: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=40.64&lon=-82.05&z...
New York: insignificant NYC suburbs are visible; NYC isn't (Huntington, Islip)
Michigan: no Detroit on the map; but Zeeland and Warren appear
Indiana: Angola, Auburn, Warsaw -- all cities <15,000 pop.
Ohio: Louisville and Willard
Illinois: Algonquin and Harrisburg
Pennsylvania: no Philadelphia on the map; Hazelton and Camden
> There seems to be 80 airports in every county Yea ... I'll give you that one :).
> It's incomplete in many places ... and in many more places it is more complete than Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
This is subjective.
> It doesn't even give you directions http://openstreetmap.org/ doesn't (the website is for the data and the community around it), but there are several examples of websites that do offer directions using OSM data: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing/OnlineRouters
Your solution is too complicated for normal people (read: non-tech people) to figure out.
However, rural locations in Scotland look very sparsely mapped.
The data for USA was imported from the US government, the TIGER data. One problem with rendering a map is the importance of cities. Both (say) San Francisco and San Jose are close to each other, and you only have room to show one. Which do you show? The largest population? Larger GDP? Larger cultural influence (how do you measure that?), etc. It's a 'hard problem'.
> - It's incomplete in many places Yes, it's a work in progress, made by voluneteers. However it has come so far in a few years.
> - It doesn't even give you directions There are other OSM-based services that give directions. One I used is CloudMade (http://maps.cloudmade.com/). Some of the people who started OSM founded CloudMade.
...the guy can write about whatever he wants.