[Geocoding] [OpenStreetMap] #4723: boundarybox property returning fixed size, small boundaries for places

[OpenStreetMap]

#4723: boundarybox property returning fixed size, small boundaries for places
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 Reporter:  craigloftus  |      Owner:  geocoding@…
     Type:  defect       |     Status:  new
 Priority:  major        |  Milestone:
Component:  nominatim    |    Version:
 Keywords:               |
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 When making a search request such as:

 http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?format=json&q=London&countrycodes=gb&limit=1

 The boundingbox returned does not correspond with any 'boundary' of
 London, but just describes a small box around the place node.

 boundingbox:
 ["51.5072746276855","51.5072784423828","-0.12765970826149","-0.127659693360329"]

 I noticed that this is different behaviour from the MapQuest Nominatim
 endpoint, which for the same query returns a much larger bounding box that
 neatly fits 'London':

 boundingbox:
 ["51.286190032959","51.6918830871582","-0.511035442352295","0.334359914064407"]

 Is this a bug or a configuration decision? The MapQuest behaviour is a lot
 more intuitive and it makes the MapQuest endpoint a lot more suitable for
 my particular use-case.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/4723>
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