[OSM-talk] Nominatim weakness

[Maarten Deen]

On 2015-12-14 01:02, Tom Hughes wrote:
> On 13/12/15 22:52, John Goodman wrote:
> 
>> For example, if my map is showing an area of the United States where I
>> happen to know a mapped Starbucks exists, and I search for "Starbucks"
>> in the search panel, the entire panel is filled with Starbucks in 
>> Japan.
>> Do the same on a "competitor's" map, and you get what you expect: the
>> Starbucks that are closest to the current map view are listed first.
> 
> That shouldn't happen as we we pass the current view to Nominatim and
> it is supposed to prioritise results in that area.

Then that logic is seriously flawed (if not broken).
I noticed this yesterday, and I did this again just now. I opened OSM 
and I get the map at [1]. I look for Thorn (which for me is a town in 
the Netherlands [2] )
The first results (now and yesterday) are (in that order)
- City Toruń, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland
- Administrative Boundary Toruń, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland
- County Boundary Toruń, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland
- Suburb Boundary Thorn, Maasgouw, Province of Limburg, Netherlands, The 
Netherlands

The first three are basically the same and have a name:de=Thorn.

Why are they shown first when a) they are nowhere near my location and 
b) only a translation (in a language that can nog be deduced from my 
settings) of the name is Thorn?

[1] <http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/53.2064/6.8183>
[2] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn,_Netherlands>

That nominatim returns results far, far away from where the map is is 
something I have noticed often. I just assumed the logic to search in 
the vicinity was not implemented. If you say it is, it is broken.

I did some testing, Thorn is located at 
<http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/51.1616/5.8207>. When I move to 
<http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/51.2547/5.8207> and search for 
Thorn, "Suburb Boundary Thorn, Maasgouw, Province of Limburg, 
Netherlands, The Netherlands" is returned as first result. When I move 
to <http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/51.2548/5.8207> and search for 
Thorn, "City Toruń, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland" is returned 
as first result.
So going a mere 10,5 km from where (IMHO) the first match is located, 
you get strange results.

Regards,
Maarten