What is Geocoding?
What is Geocoding?
"Geocoding is the process of assigning geographic coordinates
(e.g. latitude-longitude) to street addresses, as well as other
points and features. With geographic coordinates, the features
can then be mapped and entered into Geographic Information
Systems." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocoding)
How do I Geocode an Address?
There are a number of ways to geocode an address. The
complicated way is to download the US Census data (Tiger/Line),
write some programming code and database code to interact with
the database, and go from there. The much easier way is to use
an existing geocoding provider. There are many on the net today.
Many have programming interfaces in Java, .NET, or even Ruby,
ready for you to plug into your application.
What are some uses of Geocodes?
Many people ask why addresses should be geocoded. Let me ask you
this: Have you ever wanted to generate a list of customers that
lived within a certain distance from a point? Or have you wanted
to display on a map where your customers are from? Both of these
questions require you to geocode your data in order to find the
answer. When you have an address geocoded, you can then use the
latitude and longitude to perform searches and mappings with it.