Why does CoMaps seem to not understand addresses?
There is a frustrating issue with the CoMaps work flow. If I copy an address from Google maps into the CoMaps search bar, the application cannot find it.
For example, if I copy the address listed for the Portland Art Museum into CoMaps search:
1219 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97205
The search result varies. Sometimes it is:
Southwest 18th Avenue, 1219
Sometimes it is for the entire road:
Southwest Park Avenue
Is there a syntax issue here? You would think this would be a very easy find.
32 replies
comaps uses openstreetmap data. you can help improve that data, including by filling in missing addresses. check this to start: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Addresses
The address info for my street is missing from OpenStreetMap too. I've considered fixing it multiple times, but every time I think about it my next thought is "there's got to be some way to import it in bulk instead of doing it lot-by-lot" and then I get stuck because (a) the complexity of the process goes way up and (b) I have no idea where to look for that data.
Imports also generally require proposals, an additional hurdle. For my unmapped area, over the course of a couple of years, I surveyed and used a 360 camera to map these. Most of my area now has address data :D
That's only possible i n areas with open data
And even then, you gotta look at licenses and attribution. You can't just add data to OSM that you got from somewhere else with an incompatible license, because OSM data is open source and needs proper attribution.
Yes, and there's also a process to follow to discuss imports beforehand so that any issues are caught https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines
Actually I think a lot data in OoenStreetMap is hand-written by individuals. Just put a bit at a time, starting with what is most useful to you or easiest to do.
that's the kind of approach that needs funding id guess
This should be the top reply. CoMaps is actually very good at interpreting addresses, but if the data isn't there it isn't there.
Some editors are beginning to label address blocks so that users can at least locate the correct street block instead of just the street. It's a lot of volunteer hours to do it.
If users want to improve it, CoMaps makes it extremely easy to add points or leave a note for editors. That's about the best you can ask for.
Interpreting addresses is a hard problem. For example what Google does is absolutely amazing.
Unfortunately CoMaps doesn't seem to be able to reach anything even similar. I don't know if it's about lack of resources, or lack of expertise ... well it all comes back to money anyway.
https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addresses/
Then give me the option for a form with "number, Street, City, State/province" as an option.
Comaps is great when you know your lat/lon. The search is terrible to the point of broken though.
Problem is not everywhere in the world they use that style of addresses. Japan famously doesn't use street names for the most part, for example.
No shit - but you don't use one form for all locales. You can localize it. The parsing it does now is broken to the point that I lookup places in Google Maps and copy coordinates to Comaps because even when it has the address it only works like 80% of the time.
Noone stops you from writing an issue or even implement what you say in code.
Addresses were the bane of my existence a few years back. I tried to migrate from google to another provider, and figured I would just take the lat-lngs, do math to determine apprx distance, and validate that way. Turns out sometimes the new provider was off by the mailbox while google used the building, and sometimes google just guesstimated while the new provider was spot on.
Jfc, reading this convinced me that getting wiped out by an asteroid is a mercy we collectively don't deserve.
When i put just "1219 SW Park Ave, Portland" it immediately finds the museum. Municipal code formats vary everywhere in the world and my best guess is that it gets confused by the extra numbers at the end. In general my experience with osm applications is that less verbosity is better for the search.
As I was repeating the above example, every once in a while it would find the museum correctly. It is just very inconsistent. It misinterprets what it thinks I am looking for.
You would think that a well formatted address copied from Google maps would be a slam dunk.
I’ve had the same issue and not being able to search and pull up a simple address is a big turn off
This is going to surprise you but I work in logistics software and can assert it's true
There's no correct way to parse an address, and no assumption that can generally be applied about it
You basically need some form of AI to parse an address with acceptable quality in an application designed for international audiences
If the search feature is for one province or area you might be able to get away with some hard coded format or heuristic but in the international space, even between countries that speak the same language, or within one country, there is no one technique for parsing an address
I think CoMaps only finds addresses that are within the coverage area of the downloaded maps. Quite annoying, but in my experience it works quite well within that area.
When I search, it often finds stuff on other continents first.
I have this map downloaded. It's my hometown.
Are the addresses correctly recorded on OpenStreetMap.org?
Yeah. When I search for the address on OpenStreetMap.org it seems to consistently find the museum.
So why is CoMaps different?
Bruh I don't even understand addresses
If you're putting in street numbers and only getting back streets, chances are that street number does not exist in openstreetmap yet and you'll need to add it
There is something more going on here. As I was running the above example, the results would vary. Every once in a while it would even find the museum correctly. So open street maps does have it in their database. It just was misinterpreting what it thought I was looking for.
Its why I don't use it. When I can put an address in it and I can actually navigate to that address, I will switch.
It does work if you have the GPS coordinates by the way. But unfortunately I can't recommend it until that issue is resolved. I think the main issue is its source data. Yes I'm aware I can add addresses, but that doesn't help me with actually using the app.
Can you let us know which address or city or province you're trying to search in? Many areas don't have the data in OpenStreetMap.
Try Southwest Park Avenue, 1219 Or the App GeoShare
Try just "1219 sw park ave" or "1219 southwest park avenue"
City, state, zip, is rarely tagged (correctly) in OSM.