Their TileMill software is great. You don't have to sign up to have them serve your maps, you can use all of their tools to generate your tilesets and do what you like with them (obviously attributing your data set source). The MapBox iOS SDK is another stand out contribution from these guys.
I love MapBox -- I am a happy paying customer -- but the title seems a little misleading: what is open source about them? They source their data from OpenStreetMap, which is open-source, but MapBox themselves is not. Or am I missing something?
I wonder how much this is simply about startups not wanting to rely on Google. Even Apple felt uncomfortable relying on their maps product. So much smaller startups probably hate that dependency too.
If your app uses maps, it's time to get on board the MapBox rocket. Resistance is futile.
The mapbox team is fantastic, this is totally great news for all of them, the mapping community, and map users. Can't wait to see what they come up with next
That's going to seriously shake the mapping space. MapBox is quite an unstoppable force now.
What happened to OpenStreetMap?
Mapbox is awesome. Speaking of their tile maps, there are two things that make them less competitive compared to Google: geocoding and street view. While nominatim is fantastic, it is nearly not as good as google maps search, which has people employed full time to update company listings, etc. There are many companies that depend on search so much they are willing to stick to google maps.
I just hope they dont fall down as a option when Google come up with a buy offer..
For users, developers and the society in general, competition and options are a good thing..
I cant say i didnt feel sad when Waze was bought.. with more time and effort no product would bare to stand against it
MapBox is a ridiculous joke until they start supporting building numbers.
(Yes, they know of this limitation, but they deliberately cripple their product because of 'typographical clarity' or somesuch bullshit.)
Stupid title. Even MapBox might agree they don't compete with Google Maps. They are here to make OSM awesome, and hats off to MapBox for what they've done so far.