Most of the examined route planners came off pretty badly. They are often inaccurate, hard to navigate and read, and are confusing to use, according to the study’s authors. Google Maps still delivered the best results of the services tested, however were only found to be ‘Satisfactory’.

In testing the online map services, the surprising result was that the wiki-worldmap site OpenStreetMaps proved to be the most convincing. In the opinion of the study’s organizers, the site offers the most up-to-date maps of Germany, although some streets are still missing in smaller towns and villages.

Aerial photographs were also inspected. The study concluded that there are several good providers such as Microsoft Live Search Maps, Map24 or Google Maps; however all providers display many out-of-date images, especially of non-urban regions.

All three tests are detailed on the Landkartenblog, where one can view the study’s parameters and the criteria that were used for the ratings and assessment delivered.