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I have been adding lots of stuff to the map lately and for some reason none of them are findable.

For example, searching the search box on the main OSM page to search for:

"Tower B, 555 Legget Dr, Ottawa"

Returns no results.

Searching for "555 Legget Dr, Ottawa"

Returns

Why does Nominatim not see these Tower A/B buildings when I search for them?

What should I be doing to ensure that buildings/areas/features I add in the future are picked up by Nominatim?

asked 21 Jul '14, 22:42

mikewilliamson's gravatar image

mikewilliamson
81558
accept rate: 0%


This seems to be a Nominatim bug. It works if you omit the house number, i.e. searching for "Tower B, Legget Dr, Ottawa".

Other addresses have the same issue. Searching for the house number works, searching for the name works, but searching for the name and the house number doesn't. I created a ticket for this issue.

permanent link

answered 22 Jul '14, 10:13

scai's gravatar image

scai ♦
33.3k21309459
accept rate: 23%

edited 22 Jul '14, 10:22

Is there any advice for tagging or organizing these objects that help Nominatim do its job?

(23 Jul '14, 19:13) mikewilliamson
1

The tagging seems to be correct. Let's wait for the Nominatim maintainers to comment on the ticket.

(23 Jul '14, 19:56) scai ♦
1

Could you elaborate on what constitutes "correct" tagging? I have tried adding many other buildings/areas/etc and nominatim can't find any of them. I just happened to give you an example with a bug. I tried using the "is_in" tag on the Mindspace technology park in Hyderabad, but Nominatim can only find the bus stop across the street: http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/655159152#map=19/17.44100/78.37798

(07 Aug '14, 07:29) mikewilliamson
1

Can you a little bit more specific which objects Nominatim can't find and which search keywoards you are using? Searching for Building 9, Hitech Ciy works for example. If you open the search result you can also take a look at the address hierarchy calculated by Nominatim. Furthermore instead of the is_in tag(s) you should try to add proper administrative boundaries and Nominatim will be much more happy.

(11 Aug '14, 09:04) scai ♦

That's actually a good example. Building 9 is in a technology park named Mindspace. Mindspace is part of an area in the city of Hyderabad named "HITEC City" (but every possible variation of spelling is used). The proper name does not work: "Building 9, HITEC City" neither does "Building 9, Mindspace Technology Park" or "Building 9, Mindspace". "Hitech City" city is a single point of name="Hightech City" not to far away, while building 9 is surrounded by a landuse=commercial area with name="Mindspace Technology Park" and Nominatim can't find it at all. "Mindspace, Hyderabad" barely gets works.

(13 Aug '14, 22:01) mikewilliamson

I guess Nominatim ignores landuse for address lookups. This might be intentional because they are usually not part of the address or it is just a shortcoming at the moment. Searching for "Building 9, HITEC City" won't work because the proper name seems to be "HITECH City" (including the H) and Nominatim is currently not able to correct spelling mistakes. However you can try to add an alt_name to the suburb node. But only if this alternative name is really in use, alt_name should not be used to correct spelling mistakes. Everything else has to be answered by one of the Nominatim developers which sometimes show up on help but apparently didn't looked at this question so far.

(14 Aug '14, 08:06) scai ♦
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question asked: 21 Jul '14, 22:42

question was seen: 4,238 times

last updated: 14 Aug '14, 08:06

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