Announcing AnyFinder - now a free web app for everybody

General talk
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Hi everyone,

I want to share AnyFinder, a free web app for finding and exploring places in OpenStreetMap:

https://anyfinder.app

AnyFinder started in 2019 as a freemium app for iOS. Development stopped in 2021 because of health problems. Now the project is back as a free web app that works on phones, tablets, and desktop computers.

The idea is simple: make OSM place data easier for normal people to browse and use.

AnyFinder is basically a search and browsing interface for OpenStreetMap points of interest using Overpass. Instead of typing raw tags or writing Overpass queries by hand, you browse a category tree with things like toilets, cafes, pharmacies, viewpoints, bus stops, playgrounds, charging stations, and many more. After that, you can narrow the results with filters such as wheelchair access, wifi, diet options, fuel types, and other useful properties.

For the actual place search, AnyFinder uses the Overpass API directly. When you open a category or start a nearby search, the app turns that category and the selected filters into an Overpass query and sends it from the browser to Overpass. The returned results come directly from OSM data. So Overpass is the main search engine behind the app.

Right now the app includes 277 categories, 54 filters, and 460 mapped tag presentations.

Current features include:

  • browsing places through a category tree

  • nearby place search on the map

  • many filters for refining results

  • detailed place pages with practical OSM information

  • opening hours, contact details, websites, and other mapped tags when available

  • Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons links when they exist in OSM

  • shareable direct links to places

  • saved places stored locally on your device

  • distance and direction to a place, with a compass view on supported devices

  • street map and satellite map views

  • links to edit places directly in OpenStreetMap

  • anonymous aggregate statistics about the most searched categories

There is also a small AnyFinder backend, but the core place search still depends on OpenStreetMap + Overpass. The backend is used only as support: for place-name search, reverse geocoding, anonymous aggregate statistics, and POI density estimates by region that help optimize broad Overpass searches and reduce unnecessary load on the Overpass servers by capping the search area.

The app at this time is meant as a practical discovery tool, not a replacement for editing in OpenStreetMap itself, although this might be a feature in a future version. If you find something missing or wrong with a place, the best fix is still to improve it in OSM.

Feedback is very welcome. I’d be happy to hear what works well, what feels confusing, and which categories or filters would be useful to add next.

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Took a first glance, on PC. I like the tool, it looks suitable for end users. Coming days I’ll probably take it for a test drive outside, on my Android phone.

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That’s the whole point: to bring Overpass without its complexity to end users. I am looking forward to your experience in the field.

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Hi

Looks good, but a couple of questions, thanks.

The finding box, changes size & position every time I search for something new. Can you lock it to “this” size or over this location?

& a search for Emergency Services only finds Police & Fire, not Ambulance, Life Savers / Life Guards (as 2 separate groups) or Marine Rescue? Searching https://anyfinder.app/places/health-and-safety/emergency-services/all/@-28.11843,153.45361,12.01 compared to overpass turbo if that helps?

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Thanks for your feedback. I will look into the Emergency Service group.

Regarding the search box:

Single categories will always search the visible map area.

Combined categories (“All …”) have a capped search area. We use tag info counts to determine an average poi density and derive a max search area to not overload the overpass servers. If a search returns no results, we update our internal density database and expand the allowed search area for this category in this geographical area.

The only time the map moves is if you select a search result in the list. Then the map centers on that place, if the place is part of a cluster the map zooms in, and the place opens a popup.

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I may be missing it in the settings, but is there an option to change the Overpass server that is used?

Also useful would be support for e.g. Postpass, but that’d obviously be more work.

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I may be missing it in the settings, but is there an option to change the Overpass server that is used?

Not yet. I was trying out different public servers but none of the ones I found really worked reliably. What would be the use case? A private overpass server? No problem to add this though. Will be in the next update.

Also useful would be support for e.g. Postpass, but that’d obviously be more work.

I didn’t even know this existed. So thanks for the pointer! Sounds pretty cool at first glance. Do you know how it performs compared to Overpass - especially for my poi queries?

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There are public overpass servers that are restricted in some way (geographically, no attic data, no metadata, etc.) that would otherwise be useful for this.

“Currently more reliably than global overpass servers, but with some restrictions”, I think.

The query language is saner (regular SQL), too.

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Cool idea. Is there a plan for a native Android app, possibly FOSS and on F-droid?

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Cool idea. Is there a plan for a native Android app, possibly FOSS and on F-droid?

No need to. AnyFinder is already a Progressive Web App that you can install on your device’s Home Screen. Once there, you won’t see a difference to a native app. As AnyFinder needs internet anyways, there is really no point or real advantage in making it native.

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Both implemented in 0.16.

Postpass is super fast compared to Overpass for this use case, even though I run a query optimiser before sending it out. It would make a good default provider if this was allowed.

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When you say “free”, do you mean:

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At the moment it is free to use, but proprietary.

1 Like