[OSM-dev] Bad result from name finder postcode search

David Earl david at frankieandshadow.com
Wed Feb 6 09:20:20 GMT 2008


On 06/02/2008 08:11, Chris Jones wrote:
> Robert (Jamie) Munro wrote:
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>> I realise that the name finder will never be totally correct, but I
>> noticed the following error:
> Beats searching for RG5 3DF (Reading) it gives you Manchester!
> 
> http://www.frankieandshadow.com/osm/?find=rg5+3df


:-)

I can tell you partly why: the first address Google pops up with for 
that postcode is "83, Beechwood Avenue, Woodley, Reading, Wokingham, RG5 
3DF"

The Wokingham confuses the search, and what the pattern matching ends up 
looking for is "Beechwood Avenue, Woodley" and there is indeed a 
Beechwood Avenue, Woodley only 12km from Manchester city centre.

However, I'm surprised it doesn't match the Reading Woodley. I suspect, 
though I haven't checked, that that suburb has been added since November 
when the name finder database was last updated.

As I said, it's only a first cut, and there is lots of room for 
improvement. Also, I think we have top level copyright free postcodes 
for most areas - certainly RG even if not RG5. I could reject results 
more than X km from that lat/lon.

David





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