AlonealastalovedalongtheAug 29, 2019
Openstreetmap is reaching the point that it is just more information rich and beautiful than google maps and that is awesome
Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ❌​Aug 30, 2019

@Alonealastalovedalongthe My issue with #OpenStreetMap is that the search is so poor.

I can enter, say, Lat/Lon coords into Google Maps, and get a pindrop on that spot. OSM has NFC what I'm talking about.

Searching by location name is similarly disappointing. Google does get context and relevance in ways OSM doesn't.

And for the record: I'd vastly prefer to entirely replace Google Maps. Not entirely yet.

OSM's overlays are noice though.

Show threadStephen Hinton
@dredmorbius @Alonealastalovedalongthe
I have also noticed the search function on openstreetmap.org is not always the best. Are there any projects to improve the algorithm?
Aug 30, 2019 at 7:17pmWeb
Show threadRSep 2, 2019

@hinton @dredmorbius @Alonealastalovedalongthe The software behind the search box on OpenStreetMap.org uses software called Nominatim ( https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim ). “Searching addresses” is called “geocoding”, there aren't many tools that do that ( https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Search_engines ).

The search box on osm.org first goes through a few local processing, if there's a bug you can file issue there ( https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website )

Nominatim - OpenStreetMap Wiki

Show threadRSep 2, 2019
@hinton @dredmorbius @Alonealastalovedalongthe BTW I've never tried putting a geo coordinate into the search box on osm.org. You might be able to get inspiration on how to fix/improve it from a controversial suggestion add OLC to the search ( https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/pull/1818 ), it's the first thing that comes to my mind
Added PlusCode functionality to search by jguthrie100 · Pull Request #1818 · openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website

Implements #1807