CloudMade officially launched

Tonight a very interesting startup in the field of cartography CloudMade was launched in San Francisco. This project is based on OpenStreetMap data and expands them by providing additional services , including unique ones. Among these services:

• The ability to edit data display styles - now users can customize the way the map is displayed on their site, for this there is a set of styles. For those who want to create new styles, after the free registration an online editor is available;
• Finding routes on the map is currently the best-performing implementation of route search algorithms based on OpenStreetMap data. Car, bike and walking trails are supported;
• Geocoding - search for geo objects by name;
• JavaScript library - a lightweight library that allows you to easily embed cartographic information on other sites;
• Libraries for iPhone and J2ME - it is possible to develop cartographic applications for mobile devices;
• HTTP API and libraries for Java, Ruby, Python - it is possible to develop cartographic web and desktop applications with support for routing and geocoding.

It is worth noting that most of these features are already in Google and Yandex maps, the main attractiveness of CloudMade services is the use of open data by OpenStreetMap, which, together with weekly updates and the ability to edit maps for all, makes it possible for people to quickly create maps of any region. The quality of OpenStreetMap data for example in Germany and England is now much higher than that of competitors.

CloudMade was created by the people who stood at the origins of OpenStreetMap, CloudMade services were developed in London, San Francisco and Kiev, one of the developers is the author of this publication. I would like to hear in the comments constructive reviews and criticism, as well as attach the habread readers to the creation of detailed maps of their regions, now you are independent of Google and Yandex. All the information you add to the card will be available during the week through CloudMade services and in hundreds of other applications using OpenStreetMap data. For comparison, the geo-information of many regions of Yandex, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft has not been updated for years, or even decades, or even absent.