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Unblock OpenStreetMap without installing a map app

OpenStreetMap is the map to reach for when the one you normally open will not load. Type openstreetmap.org into the launch box, press Launch, and it comes up in the same browser tab through TrickyBird’s own address: search for a place, click a result, and the map draws around it.

The instruction you get almost everywhere is to install the app, and on a managed work laptop or a school Chromebook that is where it stops. There is no admin right to run an installer, and often no way to add a browser extension either. A map app wants exactly the permission the device is set up to withhold. A web proxy is a web page. Opening it takes what opening any other page takes.

OpenStreetMap is worth knowing on its own terms rather than only as a fallback. It is open data rather than one company’s product, mapped by volunteers, and its place names carry the local language, so a street in Jakarta reads the way it is written in Jakarta.

What to expect from OpenStreetMap

Search returns a real result list, a result opens into the place with its sidebar detail, and the map draws around it, all through TrickyBird’s address in a desktop browser. The zoom and position still write themselves into the address as you pan, on one of our own addresses rather than openstreetmap.org, so what you would copy out is a link to us.

Is openstreetmap.org blocked on your network?

The check asks openstreetmap.org for one small file directly from your connection, not through TrickyBird, so your network can see that request like any direct visit.

One of our addresses, with the site’s encoded into it

The site loads in the tab you are already in, and this address will not always look the same, since sometimes it is only numbers.

How does TrickyBird open OpenStreetMap?

A map is not one file. The page arrives first, and the map then fills itself in by pulling a grid of square image tiles from a host other than the one you asked for, which is the part a proxy has to get right. TrickyBird rewrites the page so those tile requests come back through the proxy instead of going out to that host, and without that rewrite the page arrives but the map does not: you get a grey rectangle where the map should be. The search box, the result list, and the links into a place are rewritten the same way, and a small script in the tab keeps whatever you click next on TrickyBird’s address.

The part you can check yourself is the address. Your browser does not connect to openstreetmap.org, and it does not connect to the tile host either: the requests go to one of our own addresses, which carries those addresses inside, encoded rather than spelled out. What OpenStreetMap sees connecting is TrickyBird’s server, not your IP address.

Why is OpenStreetMap blocked where you are?

On an office or campus network, rarely for anything to do with maps. A filter sorts the web into categories, switches whole categories off in one setting, and refuses what it cannot place; the reason a network does that is usually bandwidth or policy rather than the site in front of you.

Mainland China is the other case, and there the block covers the country rather than one network inside it. GreatFire, which measures from inside, rates openstreetmap.org as blocked.

What works on OpenStreetMap right now?

Searching and browsing. Type a place into the search box and a real result list comes back, each entry linking through to the place itself; open one and the sidebar fills with what OpenStreetMap holds about it, the name, the type, the tags underneath, with the map drawn alongside. That is what our own checks in a desktop browser confirm.

Sharing the exact view works, with one extra step. OpenStreetMap writes your zoom and position into the address as you pan, and that write comes through the proxy unchanged: the coordinates on the end keep updating while you move the map. What sits in front of them is one of our own addresses rather than openstreetmap.org, so copying the whole address hands somebody a link to us rather than to the view. The part from the # onwards is OpenStreetMap’s own, so openstreetmap.org/ followed by that is the link to hand over.

TrickyBird’s job here is small. It gets you onto a public site your network refuses to load, and it keeps your IP address away from OpenStreetMap while you are there. It is not a way past a paywall, an account wall, or a regional restriction, and the edge keeps a shortened form of your IP address and the hostname you reached for at most 48 hours, with no account for any of it to attach to.

Questions

Does the map itself draw, or only the page around it?

The map draws. Its tiles are separate image requests to a different host, and TrickyBird rewrites them so they come back through the proxy like the rest of the page. That is the piece most likely to break on a proxy, and on this site it does not: the tiles paint in and the search results sit beside them.

Can I search for a place, or only open a link somebody sent me?

Both. Type a place into OpenStreetMap’s search box and the list of matches comes back through the proxy, and each match links to the place page, which opens with what OpenStreetMap records about that place in the sidebar. Wikipedia opens through TrickyBird too, if you want to read up on the place itself.

Is OpenStreetMap blocked in mainland China?

Yes, and there is a public measurement behind that answer. GreatFire tests from inside mainland China, rates openstreetmap.org as blocked, and has recorded interference with the site since 24 May 2012; 100% of its last 2 conclusive tests failed. A reading like that describes the country, not one network in it, and the recent sample is thin, which is why the date range comes with it.

Can I share the exact view I am looking at?

Yes, with one extra step. OpenStreetMap writes your zoom and position into the address as you pan, and that still happens through TrickyBird: the coordinates keep updating as the map moves. They sit on one of our own addresses, though, so the whole thing is not a link somebody else can open. Copy the part from the # onwards and hand it over after openstreetmap.org/.

Will this work on a laptop where I cannot install anything?

That is the situation it was built for. There is nothing you have to put on the laptop and no admin password to go and ask for, because the whole thing is a page in the tab you already have open. A laptop that refuses every installer still opens web pages, and a page is all this needs.

Does OpenStreetMap see my IP address?

No. The request that reaches OpenStreetMap comes from TrickyBird’s server, so your IP address is not what it sees, and your network sees a connection to TrickyBird instead. To run the service and stop abuse, the edge keeps a shortened form of your IP address, the hostname of the site you connected to, and basic response details, kept for at most 48 hours, with no account attached.

Other sites people unblock

Open OpenStreetMap now

Press the button and the site opens in this tab. You do not need to install anything or create an account.