If you have been browsing websites with a map recently you may have noticed some maps giving an error message, even those that seem to be correctly attributing and using the OSM service:
In normal circumstances, according to osm.wiki/Blocked, this would be caused by a misuse of tiles, either not attributed correctly with a credit to OpenStreetMap, or overuse or misuse of the service. As of now there are more than 15 reports of wrongly blocked map usage, within the past 24 hours, on the OpenStreetMap Github issues – much more than usual.
A History of free maps
Before 2018, Google Maps was a go-to for free map integrations on websites. Then they ended the free embeddable use that many web developers had used, requiring a billing account for use of the maps. At that point, many people switched over to OpenStreetMap, Mapbox or another service to integrate mapping without a warning on the site.
Back in 2006, OpenLayers was published in Github. This is a well known library with many different examples of interactive uses of map layers. Its use of OpenStreetMap by default may end up being an issue for some users now however.
Possible solutions
OpenStreetMap is a great service, but it seems its usage online as the default tile set for many apps and website embeds may be overextending it. Large servers and many many images are required for a worldwide map system. For those experiencing issues with the current system, there are several solutions:
- You could build your own server for serving tile maps.
- You could switch out the map tile url for some other server or service that offers slippy map tile service. Mapbox for example, has a generous free tier that will allow you to create various maps and plug them in in place of OSM tiles. For Openlayers for example, you could try setting the sources: url: area as shown here: https://openlayers.org/en/latest/examples/overviewmap-custom.html
- Hire a developer for reworking or switching to another service using one of the above options. 🙂