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When I search for the street address of my house, it shows it at the wrong location on the street. How do I correct this?

I've searched to see if this had been asked already, and it was, but the answers were 'sign up and use the editor' which wasn't very helpful, and 'read the address section', which I did, but I did not find the information there either.

Edit with more explanation

I live on a dead-end street, there is a small wooded area at the beginning of the street, then I'm the third house on the left. When I enter my address, it points to the wooded area instead of to where my house is, so it's off by a few hundred yards (meters).

I've searched and found things about adding streets, correcting street locations and shapes, dealing with apartment buildings that have multiple addresses, etc., but I can't find anything about simply correcting where an address displays on the map.

I thought this was a pretty basic question, but no one seems to be able to provide an answer as to how to do this. What is Nominatim?

I was excited when I first heard of OpenStreetMap and was looking forward to making my small contribution, but so far it's just been really frustrating, trying to find out how to make a simple, basic change.

And why does every email I receive about an answer someone posts to this question end with "Don't forget to come over and cast your vote."?

asked 15 Mar '12, 13:37

gruhl28's gravatar image

gruhl28
39115
accept rate: 0%

edited 23 Mar '12, 18:53

4

About your question: As always if there is a specific problem on the map, include a link to the exact location. Otherwise no one can help you. To post a link, open http://www.openstreetmap.org/ , navigate to the problematic feature, then copy the link shown as "permalink" (bottom right). Edit that link into your question.

(22 Mar '12, 16:14) sleske
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Also, don't write stuff like "when I search for an address", and "it is shown incorrectly". Always tell us where you searched and saw results. Remember that many web sites and applications use data from OSM - if you don't tell us where you saw it (exact link or app name), again it's unlikely we can help.

(22 Mar '12, 16:16) sleske
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I am sorry you are frustrated, but without a link to the location of your problem we cannot help you. Please provide a map link which illustrates your problem (or give the exact address). Otherwise your question may be closed as being pointless.

(23 Mar '12, 20:16) sleske
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As to "What is Nominatim": It's the search software that OSM uses. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim . You can use it at http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/ (or on the main OSM page, where it powers the search).

(23 Mar '12, 20:17) sleske

As to "I thought this was a pretty basic question": Actually, it is not (not necessarily). The process by which an address is found in the OSM data is (sometimes) a bit complex, and there are various problems which might cause the result to be (slightly) wrong. That's why we need to see the problem to be able to help. Please tell us where you are seeing this.

(23 Mar '12, 20:21) sleske

I don't know if it will help Nominatim at all, but using Potlatch I dragged building icons from the left pane on top of some of the houses on my street, and filled in details, such as selecting "family house" for the type, and filling in the house numbers, postal code, etc. and then saving it. I did this for the two houses at one end of the street, one house at the other end (I'm not sure of the address on the east side at the south end), and my house in the middle. Hopefully Nominatim will extrapolate other house numbers if entered into the search. For my street, there are 48 houses, so it would be a LOT of work to label them ALL.

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answered 08 Jul '12, 23:18

Joe%20Philipps's gravatar image

Joe Philipps
4114
accept rate: 0%

edited 08 Jul '12, 23:26

1

worth a try Joe did it work?

(09 Jul '12, 09:10) andy mackey

Alas, I labelled all four corners on my street, but the location algorithm didn't seem to take the hints. Heck, I even labelled my house at 105, asked for my neighbor, 101, and it moved the pointer arrow further north than other queries, but not right next to me. :-( Next I will try labelling all "corners" of all the segments of my street, I think there are three, maybe four.

(01 Aug '12, 18:37) Joe Philipps
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You need to provide the information to Nominatim that those houses in between actually exist.

Therefore, you need to draw a way between the house number nodes, tagged with addr:nterpollation=even/odd/all. See this: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Addresses#Using_interpolation

(20 Aug '12, 12:35) Sanderd17

Well...I added some ways as suggested by the linked Wiki article. We'll see what happens. The thing is, I don't know if I have all the tags right. So far I have addr:street=Susan Lane and addr:interpolation=odd (and even on the other side). However, a test for 81 didn't point to the right place; but I seem to remember reading elsewhere there may be some time needed for all the data to propagate (meaning if I tested again tomorrow or Thursday it may work better). (As I write this, today is Tuesday.) I'm talking about here: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=42.93815&lon=-78.76737&zoom=17

(18 Sep '12, 21:01) Joe Philipps
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If you go to http://nominatim.osm.org/ you'll see some text at the top that says how old the data is - currently "Data: 2012/09/17"

(18 Sep '12, 22:00) SomeoneElse ♦

If you want to change something I highly recomend signing up and changing it yourself. OpenStreetMap works a lot like Wikipedia and if you want something fixed it is easier to fix it yourself.

The only other option is to contact a local mapper and ask him to change it for you. There are tools like OpenStreetBugs and MapDust that allowes you to mark errors on the map. However there is no guaranty that any local mappers will use these services and notice your bug, or that they make the change you are requesting.

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answered 15 Mar '12, 14:00

Gnonthgol's gravatar image

Gnonthgol ♦
13.8k16103198
accept rate: 16%

That is what I am asking how to do - I did sign up and try to fix it myself, but I don't know how. How do I fix it myself? I have not been able to find any information on how to do this.

(16 Mar '12, 16:01) gruhl28

Not sure if this apply here, but it might be that Nominatim returns the position as if the road was an area and points to the middle of that area.

This is a search for Skinner Street in London, as you can see it doesn't point exactly on the road, since the road is not straight. If the road was a circle Nominatim would point to the middle of it.

If this is not the case with your road then you might provide more details about it to let someone see exactly what's wrong with it :)

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answered 16 Mar '12, 16:54

TheOddOne2's gravatar image

TheOddOne2
6851621
accept rate: 3%

The arrow doesn't show on that link, but you can recreate the search.

(16 Mar '12, 17:28) TheOddOne2

If the problem is with Nominatim (the OSM component that performs searches), have a look at the answer to this question to help find out why it is saying what it is.

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answered 22 Mar '12, 20:56

SomeoneElse's gravatar image

SomeoneElse ♦
36.9k71370866
accept rate: 16%

edited 24 Mar '12, 11:49

I can understand that you do not wish to pin point your house to every one.Can you tell us if you house been mapped as a polygon and is it numbered? if not try that,the help videos are good . If you just want to give friends directions to your house then send them a link like in this Question How do I add a marker to a map? and this http://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/7170/videos-for-new-contributors and http://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/25/how-do-i-add-a-marker-to-a-map and inanswer to the vote question http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/OSMF_Members_Vote/Why_You_Should_Vote_No http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/OSMF_Members_Vote/Why_You_Should_Vote_Yes most things you will find in the wiki but you may need a map to do it!

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answered 09 Jul '12, 09:21

andy%20mackey's gravatar image

andy mackey
13.2k87143285
accept rate: 4%

edited 09 Jul '12, 09:37

gruhl28 Your idea that numbering a few houses will only work for numbered ones alone as the search needs a close match. You or I could make a guess at other number positions knowing some numbers but most pc searches would not be smart enough, as many streets have weird number layouts especially if part of a area as been redeveloped with dense development.To give nominatim a good chance draw your plot and /or your house and number or name it, and address details such as street. When it's correctly tagged it will work like these two. Try cutting and pasting them into the nominatim (search box) on map page.... 4 wattle close cambourne england .....and.. dial house godmanchester.. note dial house is rare it is easy to find ( only two when I tried ) Finally you may only need to number your house polygon in the street and it will work, it did for me

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answered 01 Aug '12, 23:42

andy%20mackey's gravatar image

andy mackey
13.2k87143285
accept rate: 4%

edited 02 Aug '12, 09:57

nomunatim found this "dial house" but not "dial house cambridge road* until I added address detail tagging to the house which seemed odd at first but logical later

(02 Aug '12, 10:19) andy mackey
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question asked: 15 Mar '12, 13:37

question was seen: 13,917 times

last updated: 18 Sep '12, 22:00

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum