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OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

3/ But what many people donโ€™t realize is this same confusion often exists for small jurisdictions. An example is the ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช German city of Hamburg, which technically includes a few islands in the North Sea

#geoweirdness

11 comments
Mark Ingalls :pdx_badge:

@opencage Honolulu ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ and Tokyo ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต are also good examples of this.

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

4/ As an aside, Hamburg (which, confusingly for non-German speakers is abbreviated as "HH" for "Hansestadt Hamburg") is confusingly both a German city and a state (as are Berlin and Bremen).

This often leads to funny-looking address formatting when ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ American companies apply their formatting to ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช German addresses.

We call it the โ€œBerlin, Berlinโ€ bug.

See our guide: opencagedata.com/guides/format

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

5/ Another famous confusing place example is Tokyo, capital of Japan ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต, which includes some remote Pacific islands

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

6/ A common mistake with places like this is to return the true geographic center point, which doesnโ€™t match expectations at all.

OpenStreetMap solves this by setting tags like "admin_centre"

wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Re

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

7/ Probably the most confusing country is the United Kingdom ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง with "countries" like Scotland ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ and England ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ, but also places like Channel Islands ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ช ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฌ and the Isle of Man ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฒ that are technically not part of the UK, but many people think are.

So confusing that there are online tutorials: youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn1

We covered this a bit in our thread about British Overseas Territories

en.osm.town/@opencage/11028803

#geoweirdness

7/ Probably the most confusing country is the United Kingdom ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง with "countries" like Scotland ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ and England ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ, but also places like Channel Islands ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ช ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฌ and the Isle of Man ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฒ that are technically not part of the UK, but many people think are.

So confusing that there are online tutorials: youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn1

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

8/ Another point of confusion is placenames that everyone knows and uses, but that have no official basis.

For example, tell anyone in London ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง to meet you for dinner in Chinatown, and they know exactly where you mean. But it is not an "official" placename in any sense. But that's a topic for another thread

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

9/ All of this weirdness is the โ€œsalt in the soupโ€ (as we say in German) that makes geo interesting, though at times it can also make it very difficult for a geocoder to give the answer people expect (rather than the technically correct answer).

What's your favorite example?

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

10/ Thanks for reading (and sharing). Let us know your favorite examples of #geoweirdness.

We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some still on twitter, but week by week we are moving them to mastodon (and writing new threads)

Enjoy: blog.opencagedata.com/geothrea

#geoweirdness

Martin Hoffmann

@opencage Sadly, the Grand Dutchy/Free State of Oldenburg doesnโ€™t exist any more.

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