Sometimes “these people from OSM keep amazing me” →
When there is an emergency, “time counts”, and when i search for d e f i b r i l l a t o r , instead of (simple/short) AED , that matters in time and typing(errors) … my 2 cents .
A search engine should, of course, give results no matter whether you search for “AED” or “defi” or any other variant of the name. But its ability to do so does not depend on the tag chosen, so I don’t really see any reason for concern.
Tags are optimized for mappers and data consumers, not something to be presented to end users as-is, so I think the current tagging a good choice. AED is simply not an internationally understood term, whereas some variant of “defibrillator” is known in several different languages. In a database with worldwide contributors, that’s an important consideration in my opinion.
type e.g. AED in the Wizard of OverPass Turbo, and it gets you the correct query
Synonyms, and translations are always the responsibility of the person making the map, e.g. if you deploy a map in Flanders, you should make it possible to search for “bakker”, even if the tag is bakery in OSM. This is not different for AED (e.g in Arabic you should be able to search for درهم إماراتي (if I used the correct translation tool)).
OpenStreetMap.org isn’t supposed to be a magic portal offering access to all the maps that anyone makes with OpenStreetMap. The focus of the site is clear - it’s targeted at mappers.
The real problem with AEDs is not the name but the opening hours. http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2881525246#map=15/51.0576/4.4862
is the perfect example.
Is it inside or outside ?
Is it 24/7 ?
How reliable is the information ? This node is created by an anonymous international muchmapper without comment.
I only do the 24/7 outside AEDs.
For the others, I have a public map on Flickr.