[OSM-talk] Nominatim weakness

[Maarten Deen]

On 2015-12-14 09:34, Sarah Hoffmann wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 08:45:38AM +0100, Maarten Deen wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> This is the same problem of importance. Reordering according to
> your search query does happen but is weighted against importance.
> Torun is much more important than the suburb in the Netherlands,
> so it wins.

I fail to see how a town that has a translation in a language that is 
not my own could be so much more important than a town in the country I 
live in, that searches a mere 10,5 km away make that town not put first.
Let me stress the point of "translation in a language that is not my 
own" again. For me, that is a name that has close to 0 importance 
because I don't speak the language. Furthermore, as a user I am puzzled 
by why this other town is so much more important. The translated name is 
not shown, I see "Toruń" as first result and think "why is this a result 
when I search for Thorn?"

Regards,
Maarten