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You are confusing the map data with a website (probably openstreetmap.org).

That functionality is possible, check out some PoCs:

http://r2d2.stefanm.com/mapnik/demo.html

http://overpass.apis.dev.openstreetmap.org/

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Top_Ten_Tasks/Progress/Cl...

Completely agree.

I posted nearly the same reply to the other "you gotta use OSM!" thread a few weeks ago.

Completely unusable as a replacement to apple or google maps, for me. Might be OK for looking for roads, like, uh, a street map - but to replace gmaps functionality with the simple feature of "click on an icon and show me the details" it is not.

Not intuitive, but zoom in and hit the edit button. You should now see all the data as vectors. Click on anything and you will see all of the metadata.

Or zoom in and show the "Data" layer

There is also http://www.openlinkmap.org/ But nothing really usable I agree