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by nickpatrick 1001 days ago
Radar CEO here. Welcome any questions or feedback!
6 comments

As an OpenStreetMap contributor I really appreciate the proper attribution you have in the bottom right, rather than hiding it behind a button like Mapbox and some others do - thanks!

https://github.com/matkoniecz/illegal-use-of-OpenStreetMap

There’s no attribution that I can see on the second embedded map on the page (on mobile). A honking great Radar logo, but no OSM attribution.

This trend of “our branding takes priority over the required attribution for the free map data we’re using, but hey, they’re a little nonprofit so can’t afford to sue us” really ticks me off. Mapbox started it as a calculated move, and since then others have followed claiming it’s “the standard”.

But in this case I’ll assume good faith for now and hope it’s fixed. A simple “© OSM” would be fine.

Should be showing a collapsible ⓘ button on very small screens. We'll take a look and fix.
The map isn't visible on my devices.

I have a pihole on my network and the "stock" block list contains api.radar.io

The list https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/h...

Their geofencing API seems to advertise tracking users. It seems to provide some kind of metadata storage alongside a geofencing API. My guess is that some websites are tracking their users though this API.

I haven't dug into it much further, but if their API is used for tracking, it should stay on the list.

Edit: looks like they provide a dashboard to follow the location history of any user using their API. Yeah, no, I'm adding this to my personal blacklist just in case.

That's a pretty aggressive list...
Hi! I maintain that list and its variants.

The list is for people who don't want to be tracked by third parties. That's who we serve, and that's why we do what we do.

Based on this...

https://radar.com/pricing

... note the "tracked users" feature, unless I'm missing something, this isn't going to change.

+1, didn't work for me either. There's dozens of us!
Here to say the same. Thought it was borked on mobile, but I'm guessing it's pihole.
why is radar blocked..
My guess: https://radar.com/product/geofencing

> Best-in-class accuracy down to 5 meters

> Open-source SDKs with smart presets and customizable tracking options to maximize battery efficiency, responsiveness, and accuracy.

> Add geofencing to your apps with confidence. Visualize and debug every location update and geofence event with Radar’s dashboard.

Looks like this is used to follow the location history of app/website users on a map in the backend.

Not familiar with this list, but I'm guessing overly aggressive blocking of location APIs. More on our approach here: https://radar.com/trust
No idea, api.radar.io is on the block list since January 2020.

The commit's comment is "major update from adaway.org"

https://github.com/stevenblack/hosts/commit/4fa0470

Would you consider an API for “style your own basemap” with your vector data?

I sometimes find myself caring about if the basemaps look good and fit my use case more than the API cost.

Potentially! We're still big fans of Mapbox for highly styled maps. We've just found that Mapbox and Google are overkill for many of our customers.
The maps are based on MapLibre (Mapbox fork) so any valid Mapbox style can also be applied.
The example map of New York on the linked page has rather odd labeled places and street names. At the default zoom, it’s marked up as if New York, Hoboken, Weehawken, etc are literal points marked by tiny circles. This is particularly silly in the New York area, which is a continuous gridded metropolitan area.

Then, when zooming in, you have to zoom very very far in before street names show up. This makes a map zoomed slightly less far in mostly useless, because you can’t tell where you are. I realize that people mostly don’t navigate by map any more, but if you are literally selling map tiles, presumably mostly not tied to the end user’s GPS, then whoever is looking at the map would like to know where they’re looking. For example, in Manhattan, the actual useful coordinates are the cross-streets, and the map is not very helpful without the street names.

Appreciate the feedback. We're working on showing the right level of detail at different zoom levels for the different map styles. cc @kocheez75
How does your POI database compare to Google's?
Google is the gold standard, but our coverage is quite good in the US. We incorporate a mix of open and commercial datasets both for POI and address data.
How would you say you measure up in Europe? How about compared to Apple?
Still pretty good in Europe, but more of a gap. International coverage will be a priority in 2024.
How much is this compared to Google maps?
More details in the post, but Google starts at $7 per 1K map loads and $5 per 1K geocoding API requests, whereas Radar starts at $0.50 per 1K for both. We've roughly been helping our enterprise customers cut their maps bill in half.
How can you afford to be 10x cheaper? Google being overkill?
Google raised prices by 10x or 20x a few years ago, if I remember correctly.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17570029

You can charge a lot when you're #1.
Hey that is a fantastic price. I'll check it out, thx