[OSM-dev] Name finder for the main OSM page?

[David Earl]

On 03/08/2007 12:04, Tom Hughes wrote:
> In message <46B30972.3080301 at web.de>
>         Ulf Lamping <ulf.lamping at web.de> wrote:
> 
>> The name finder at http://www.frankieandshadow.com/osm/ is doing a *much 
>> better* job to find stuff than what we currently have a the 
>> http://www.openstreetmap.org/index.html
>>
>> For example: When I enter Schuckertplatz at OSM I simply get nothing 
>> useful, but the name finder just points me to the place I was looking for.
>>
>> I would think having a good engine to find things is an *essential* part 
>> of an online map and make the OSM map much more useful - so IMHO this is 
>> really important.
>>
>> Is there any chance to replace the current "finding engine"?
> 
> One problem is that the OSM one will do a very good job for places
> that have been well mapped on OSM but a rubbish job for places that
> haven't been touched yet!
> 
> The fact that you were searching for a road name won't have helped
> you much either as I don't think any of the current sources goes to
> anything like that level of detail - they really only have names of
> towns and villages I think.
> 
> The solution therefore is probably just to add the OSM name finder
> to the list of sites which the search engine uses rather than
> replacing one with the other.

I could always make it that there is a fallback position whereby the 
search goes off to geonames if the name isn't found in OSM (if the name 
wasn't qualified as in "Chester" rather than "High Street, Chester"), 
then we could still have just one search box.

David