[OSM-talk] can search engines index osm data?

[David Earl]

Lester Caine wrote:
> David Earl wrote:
>> Lester Caine wrote:
>>> maning sambale wrote:
>>>> For example, I search a POI in "G" and it points me to an OSM node.
>>> The simple answer has to be no. 
>> But the complicated answer is yes: in that I am working on the 
>> namefinder index to make it available through URLs (and a set of 
>> gazetteer pages). Though the first step is to get the index updated 
>> again, which is proving to be hard at the moment.
> 
> But that will only provide what you include in the namefinder? And given the 
> crap going on in most search engines, it's unlikely the results will be 
> displayed anywhere near the top with just a single text match?

Well (a) we have our own search engine just for OSM, (b) we have minimal 
presence in search engines at the moment - having millions of referenced 
indexed pages will help increase our presence, and that's a virtuous circle.

 > But that will only provide what you include in the namefinder?

i.e. everything with a name (or other identifier like ref), which is all 
the useful ones. (Of course we already have URLs by number for every 
node, way and relation in the system, though those aren't usually 
exposed to search engines, and they include vast duplication, e.g. for 
streets with the same name split into multiple ways. They are useful for 
data scrutiny but not really for search engines).

You can be defeatist if you like, but if we all took that view I don't 
think we'd be doing what we are doing in the first place.

David