I'm really hoping there's an existing service for something like this. I have a location (could be GPS coordinates or a street address, I can use geocoding or reverse geocoding services to switch between them) and I want to find a business that's listed as being approximately at that place.
If this service doesn't already exist, I'm thinking the best way to do what I want is to get a list of businesses close to a location, go through those and single out the closest one to the point I want, and say I'm "in" it if the distance is less than such and such.
If you have some pointers for which services I should look into (for either pinpointing one business or getting a list proximate to a location) or you think my methodology is stupid, please let me know!
edit: it's looking like the yahoo local search thing can pretty much do what I want. I'm going to start tinkering with that
Google Maps doesn't offer this yet. They do reverse geocoding from a lat/long to an address but not a business or interest.
I'm looking this up myself to see who offers this but the two I know of so far are GeoAPI (recently purchased by twitter) and SimpleGeo.
What you're looking for is Google Places which also allows you to specify the business type as well.
This is just a hunch, but have you checked out the Google Maps API?
Related
why doesn't geocoding allow me to create markings for more than 11 addresses? I have hundreds of addresses in a database, but no Long Lat information. I need to mark all these addresses on a map. Somehow it displays only the first 11 markings.
This question has been asked earlier i know and the solution is to set an interval between markers. I was able to display all by using a time interval between the markings. This solution is obviously too slow. Is there a better solution now?
Rgds
Your question isn't very clear to me, but I understand that you are trying to show address locations on a map without knowing their coordinates. Using Google Maps, for example, you don't actually need latitude/longitude. But do you know the addresses are correct? Or, if you aren't using Google Maps but have a different use case entirely, then perhaps you do need the coordinates.
I work for SmartyStreets where we perform both of these services (verifying addresses and geocoding them, meaning supplying lat/lon information).
Getting lat/lon can be tricky, especially considering that addresses are often so different and anything but "normalized" or standardized. Google and similar services approximate addresses but do not verify them, and their lat/lon is sometimes equally a best-guess.
Judging from your question, it seems like something like the LiveAddress API would suit you well -- and it's free for low volume use. It's quite accurate, but in cases where it's "really" far off (meaning, a city block usually; still not too bad), it does return the level of resolution for each query.
If you have further questions or clarifications, feel free to respond (I'll help you out).
Geocoding has some limitations on converting address into lat long. This is casued by OVER_QUERY_LIMIT.
Client side geocoding has some limitation of 20 queries per minute or sec. Server side geocoding also has limitations but after 2500 queries
I have worked on this issue and I used tips based on this solution via PHP/JavaScript and AJAX:
http://webstutorial.com/google-server-side-geocoding-php-infobox/website-tweaks/google#comment-429147758
I'm looking for a GeoCoding provider for two purposes:
Address parsing (convert a long String into address components)
Address validation (make sure the address really exists)
I need to support North America addresses first, but keep the door open for international addresses as well.
I won't be displaying this information on a map or in a webapp, which puts me in a bit of a bind because services like Google Maps and Yahoo Maps require you to display any information you look up on their services.
Wikipedia contains a nice list of available geocoding providers here. My question is:
Is there a reliable/easy way to parse an address into component? I'd prefer embedding this logic into my application instead of having to depend on a 3rd-party provider.
Eventually I'll need to add address validation (with a map but not in a webapp). At that point, what do you recommend I do?
Is there a reliable/easy way to parse an address into component? I'd
prefer embedding this logic into my application instead of having to
depend on a 3rd-party provider.
No. You can always try to do it, but it will eventually fail. There is no universal planetary standard for addresses and not every country uses English addresses which add to the complexity of the task. There are 311 millions peoples in the USA and nearly 7 billion people in the world, now think of the different addresses it can represent.
Eventually I'll need to add address validation (with a map but not in
a webapp). At that point, what do you recommend I do?
I would use Google Maps API V3 but since it's against the rules in your case, I would try one of the paid service available out there for address parsing/validation (there are even free ones but they are less reliable). I think it's the best you can do.
In your case the only way to be 100% sure if the address exists and is valid would be to check it manually and then go there physically ;)
Gili, good for you for heeding license restrictions and other important "fine print".
I know you would rather embed the logic/functionality into your application without using an external service, but if you can figure out how to do that without jumping through a bunch of USPS hoopla to do it, kudos.
I work for SmartyStreets where we do both of those things. There's a really easy API called LiveAddress which does what you need... and it performs such that it doesn't seem like you're using a third-party service. I might add also, that usually it is smart business practice to dissociate non-core operations from your internal system, leaving the "black box" aspect of other stuff up to experts in those fields.
Here's some more information about converting a string into address components using LiveAddress.
I am looking for a geocoding service where I can make a request with an address or intersection, not necessarily separated into separate fields (street, city, state, etc.) and get the latitude and longitude, along with suggestions and corrections for misspelled or ambiguous queries.
I really like the Google Geocoding API, but the terms of use say that I am not allowed to store the responses or use the service for any purpose other than showing the result on one of their maps. I am planning to use it for a lightweight, mobile-friendly website that may have the option of displaying results with text only, so this would not work, assuming I am interpreting their terms correctly.
The Yahoo PlaceFinder API looks nice but it comes with similar restrictions.
I am trying to decide what would be a good choice. The Bing API looks good. I don't see any sort of restriction in their terms but am I missing something?
Does anyone know what would be a good choice? I have very limited funding, so I would prefer something that is free or cheap, at least for the near future.
You could try Nominatim, it's a tool to search OpenStreetMap data by name and address.
MapQuest provide a free API as long as you give the appropriate credit
I'm not sure how well it handles misspellings or ambiguous queries though!
I'm currently building a web app for a UK company with many outlets in the UK. I want to implement a 'find my nearest' based on the following.
Postcode
Landmarks
So the user could enter either to get a list of their nearest. I've done this before using postcode data in a database and then using Pythagoras to figure out the nearest ones.
Ideally I would like to use a web service to do this but I cant seem to find any at all.
My question would be - What would be the best way to implement such a service ? 3rd party app or do it myself. ?
There are various options listed very sanely and even with UK specific notes here
You should externalize the reverse geocoding (from postcode to coordinates) and then intersect the stores location with the coordinates of the postcode or location to get the nearest one. There is another example here.
The reason to externalize the geocoding is to relieve you from the need to update such a database continuously which might not even be feasible given your constraints.
Take a look at the Geokit gem, for ideas if not for implementation.
Also, in the UK you can get quite markedly incorrect answers if you use Pythagoras. You really want Haversine, and someone else has almost certainly done the hard work no matter what platform you're on.
I've got a rather large database of location addresses (500k+) from around the world. Though lots of the address are duplicates or near duplicates.
Whenever a new address is entered, I check to see if it is in the database already, and if so, i take the already existing lat/long and apply it to the new entry.
The reason I don't link to a separate table is because the addresses are not used as a group to search on, and their are often enough differences in the address that i want to keep them distinct.
If I have a complete match on the address, I apply that lat/long. If not, I go to city level and apply that, if I can't get a match there, I have a separate process to run.
Now that you have the extensive background, the problem. Occasionally I end up with a lat/long that is far outside of the normal acceptable range of error. However, strangely, it is normally just one or two of these lat/longs that fall outside the range, while the rest of the data exists in the database with the correct city name.
How would you recommend cleaning up the data. I've got the geonames database, so theoretically i have the correct data. What i'm struggling with is what is the routine you would run to get this done.
If someone could point me in the direction of some (low level) data scrubbing direction, that would be great.
This is an old question, but true principles never die, right?
I work in the address verification industry for a company called SmartyStreets. When you have a large list of addresses and need them "cleaned up", polished to official standards, and then will rely on it for any aspect of your operations, you best look into CASS-Certified software (US only; countries vary widely, and many don't offer such a service officially).
The USPS licenses CASS-Certified vendors to "scrub" or "clean up" (meaning: standardize and verify) address data. I would suggest that you look into a service such as SmartyStreets' LiveAddress to verify addresses or process a list all at once. There are other options, but I think this is the most flexible and affordable for you. You can scrub your initial list then use the API to validate new addresses as you receive them.
Update: I see you're using JSON for various things (I love JSON, by the way, it's so easy to use). There aren't many providers of the services you need which offer it, but SmartyStreets does. Further, you'll be able to educate yourself on the topic of address validation by reading some of the resources/articles on that site.