Nominatim search in open street map

Question

I need help in nominatim search. i need to get nearest schools,banks,grocery stores, etc of a particular city. I found the keywords in http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim/Special_Phrases/EN, but i don't know how it can use , i tried to give like http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=grocery,bangalore&format=xml&polygon=1&addressdetails=1 , but for some keywords no results getting. Can any one help me please..?

Answer 1

Check their wiki entry

Why wasn't anything found for my search

There are a number of reasons why no result may have been found:

1. There is no data currently in OSM which matches your criteria. Data which you expect to match may be defective in some way. For example, if you search for "Springfield, Massachusetts", it may not be found if the state border has been damaged and no longer encloses Springfield.
2. The data has not yet been indexed, nominatim is normally a minimum of 2 days behind.
3. There are significant differences in the spaces (i.e. placestrasse & place strasse)
4. The search query is out of order (i.e. City, Street, Country) (Note: this seems to be a common German search query which currently doesn't work)
5. The search query does not use the correct encoding

The reason seems to be that there is no data that matches your criteria

UPDATE

Special phrases are used in the following manner.

For finding all the airports in India,

http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=airports%20in%20india&format=xml

The result is

<searchresults timestamp="Thu, 02 Aug 12 12:34:41 +0100" attribution="Data Copyright OpenStreetMap Contributors, Some Rights Reserved. CC-BY-SA 2.0." querystring="airports in india" polygon="false" exclude_place_ids="43175810,7784961,7751465,12009403,106962559,668626,49996185,7799105,12685353,107628126" more_url="http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?format=xml&exclude_place_ids=43175810,7784961,7751465,12009403,106962559,668626,49996185,7799105,12685353,107628126&accept-language=en-US,en;q=0.8&q=airports+in+india">
<place place_id="43175810" osm_type="way" osm_id="34863658" place_rank="30" boundingbox="26.3935852050781,26.4172687530518,80.3976287841797,80.4333038330078" lat="26.4057076136426" lon="80.4137093712447" display_name="Greter Kailash Ave, Kanpur Cantonment, Unnao, Kanpur Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="7784961" osm_type="node" osm_id="747215270" place_rank="30" boundingbox="20.502386322021,20.52238822937,83.436968078613,83.456975708008" lat="20.5123864" lon="83.4469754" display_name="Nuagaon Airstrip, NH201, Balangir, Balangir, Orissa, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="7751465" osm_type="node" osm_id="747078022" place_rank="30" boundingbox="24.421943893433,24.441945800781,74.859438171387,74.879445800781" lat="24.4319457" lon="74.8694404" display_name="Nimach, NH 79, Chittaurgarh, Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="12009403" osm_type="node" osm_id="1042045133" place_rank="30" boundingbox="18.217125167847,18.237127075195,74.578508605957,74.598516235352" lat="18.2271264" lon="74.5885098" display_name="Baramati Airport, Satara, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="106962559" osm_type="way" osm_id="119388136" place_rank="30" boundingbox="19.0674076080322,19.0793800354004,82.0245513916016,82.0459518432617" lat="19.0733705761589" lon="82.0349698897843" display_name="NH43, Jagdalpur, Bastar, Chhattisgarh, 494001, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="668626" osm_type="node" osm_id="245717090" place_rank="30" boundingbox="23.881885757446,23.901887664795,91.231897583008,91.251905212402" lat="23.8918874" lon="91.2419012" display_name="Agartala Singerbhil Airport, Agartala, West Tripura, Tripura, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="49996185" osm_type="way" osm_id="44280184" place_rank="30" boundingbox="22.7103366851807,22.7298049926758,75.7778625488281,75.8157043457031" lat="22.7203044430038" lon="75.8015038572736" display_name="NH59, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="7799105" osm_type="node" osm_id="747164669" place_rank="30" boundingbox="23.578140487671,23.59814239502,74.301943054199,74.321950683594" lat="23.5881413" lon="74.3119453" display_name="Banswara Airstrip, Talwara, Banswara, Banswara, Rajasthan, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="12685353" osm_type="node" osm_id="1126264804" place_rank="30" boundingbox="9.8254778289795,9.8454787826538,78.081613769531,78.101621398926" lat="9.8354784" lon="78.0916139" display_name="Madurai Airport, Madurai Ring Road, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="107628126" osm_type="way" osm_id="120223227" place_rank="30" boundingbox="25.4841022491455,25.4955101013184,78.5546188354492,78.5676498413086" lat="25.4899825689522" lon="78.5611975700734" display_name="NH75, Jhansi, Jhansi, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, 284001, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
</searchresults>

Similarly, If i want to know the airports near Delhi (there is no data for airports near bangalore),

http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=airports%20near%20delhi&format=xml

I get the required result

<searchresults timestamp="Thu, 02 Aug 12 12:39:36 +0100" attribution="Data Copyright OpenStreetMap Contributors, Some Rights Reserved. CC-BY-SA 2.0." querystring="airports near delhi" polygon="false" exclude_place_ids="49967570,34283281,7655222,4065575" more_url="http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?format=xml&exclude_place_ids=49967570,34283281,7655222,4065575&accept-language=en-US,en;q=0.8&q=airports+near+delhi">
<place place_id="49967570" osm_type="way" osm_id="44193643" place_rank="30" boundingbox="28.5804119110107,28.5891227722168,77.1994857788086,77.2125244140625" lat="28.5845082232308" lon="77.2063039751188" display_name="Brigadiar Hoshiar Singh Marg, Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi, South West Delhi, South Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, 110067, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="34283281" osm_type="way" osm_id="22826678" place_rank="30" boundingbox="28.5350399017334,28.577335357666,77.0600891113281,77.133056640625" lat="28.5566876998427" lon="77.0963262062259" display_name="Indira Gandhi International, Old Delhi Gurgaon Road, Mahipalpur, Rangpuri, South West Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, 110037, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="7655222" osm_type="node" osm_id="727371731" place_rank="30" boundingbox="28.542173614502,28.562175521851,77.085321655273,77.105329284668" lat="28.5521755" lon="77.0953223" display_name="Indira Gandhi International Airport, Old Delhi Gurgaon Road, Mahipalpur, Rangpuri, South West Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, 110037, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
<place place_id="4065575" osm_type="node" osm_id="410403385" place_rank="30" boundingbox="28.574936141968,28.594938049316,77.196535339355,77.21654296875" lat="28.5849375" lon="77.206542" display_name="Safdarjung Airport, Brigadiar Hoshiar Singh Marg, Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi, South West Delhi, South Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, 110067, India" class="aeroway" type="aerodrome"/>
</searchresults>

You can attach &polygon=1 to get the polygon points and &addressdetail=1 to get the address based xml for each of the above queries.