Flutterby™! : Geocoding

Next unread comment / Catchup all unread comments User Account Info | Logout | XML/Pilot/etc versions | Long version (with comments) | Weblog archives | Site Map | | Browse Topics

Geocoding

2011-07-30 00:00:29.323714+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

Trying to geocode some data. Using http://geocoder.us/ and it's working okay, but not great. Of course part of the problem is that they're using the Tiger data set. I'm considering tossing them $50 for 20k lookups where I don't have to wait 15 seconds in between queries just because I've gotten some good use out of their free service, but I'm also wondering what other options are out there.

Suggestions?

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2011-07-30 00:31:23.254767+00 by: ebradway

Are you building a web service or are you just trying to geocode a bunch of addresses?

Did you try Google Fusion Tables? Upload your data as a spreadsheet. File->Geocode.

Another option is Geocommons. Again, upload your data, it'll ask how you want to geocode in the upload process. Then you can download KML, Shapefile, GeoJSON.

The GeoCommons geocoder is also available via API.

If those don't work, email me directly.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-07-30 18:40:33.703979+00 by: Dwayne [edit history]

$0 for < 10k calls / day: https://simplegeo.com/docs/api-endpoints/simplegeo-context

edit: seems to be a discrepancy between the overview which states the endpoint takes lat/long as the argument and the example URLs, which seem to indicate that it should accept an address as well.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-07-30 19:28:55.458857+00 by: ebradway

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe GeoCommons is using the SimpleGeo geocoder. I can't find a reference for what database SimpleGeo's instance is geocoding against but GeoCommons uses an FGDC database (probably Census TIGER).

#Comment Re: made: 2011-07-30 23:34:28.912326+00 by: mvandewettering

A few years ago, I geocoded several thousand addresses using Yahoo! services. Worked better than geocoder.us. Not sure what throttling is in place anymore/now.