[OSM-talk] Can't find a road (that does exist)

[David Earl]

On 07/09/2008 15:26, Douglas Furlong wrote:
>     Searching for just 'Hay Lane' would find it if you got more results
>     - there are dozens of 'Hay Lane's and variants around the world.
> 
> Possibly, however how come "Hay Ln" variants come above an exact match 
> of "Hay Lane", let alone "Anthony-Hay Ln", coming above an exact match.
> 
> I would have thought that these would be a less likely match that, erm, 
> an exact match? :)

Until last week it used to. However, the server was struggling under the 
load of queries, and the unqualified search actually required two 
searches - one for exact and the second for variations. So I removed the 
exact search, among a few other changes, in the quest of reducing load.

In fact, very few searches are for objects like 'Hay Lane' for obvious 
reasons. Very many searches are just place names.

So, what I am considering at the moment is to make the unqualified 
search do a place by default, and to offer exact or inexact matches as a 
second choice (on the OSM home page) or tick box(es) on the gazetteer
page.

David