5 ms·

Search up to 10K addresses with free holiday batch geocoding service

51 points by dianashk 11y ago

gkop 11y ago
How is MapZen's international geocoding? I couldn't find info on their website saying how good their coverage is of different countries and languages.
- randyme 11y ago
  Mapzen uses only open data, in particular OpenStreetMap and OpenAddresses (http://openaddresses.io/ http://openaddresses.io/). This means anyone can improve the results and always have access to the data if something's missing.
  - gkop 11y ago
    How is it different than a hosted Nominatim then? Edit: I see they're using https://github.com/pelias/pelias https://github.com/pelias/pelias .
    - randyme 11y ago
      Nominatim, which I worked with at MapQuest Open when it launched, is a great geocoder for purely OSM data. We built Pelias (https://github.com/pelias https://github.com/pelias) at Mapzen because Nominatim is not built to handle autocomplete. We also wanted to start with a fulltext search engine -- Elasticsearch in this case -- instead of Postgres with search logic on top of it. We also wanted to search other open datasets like the fast-growing OpenAddresses. We host Pelias at Mapzen and you can check out the autocomplete as well as fulltext search here: https://mapzen.com/projects/search https://mapzen.com/projects/search
      - gkop 11y ago
        Thanks for explaining!
      - voltagex_ 11y ago
        Offtopic, but what do you think about MapBox and CartoDB? Do you see them as competitors?
        randyme 11y ago
        They're great and we have many friends at both companies. Our main goal is to get map data and software into the open so others working toward that goal are not really competitors. If there's overlap, I don't see why that's a bad thing. The geo industry has had the problem of too few options for a while. More options are a good thing.
- dianashk 11y ago
  It's built on open data sets, including OpenStreetMap and OpenAddresses. In populated areas coverage is really good. Thanks to OpenAddresses, several countries have full address coverage. You can see the coverage map on openaddresses.io. New data gets added as these open data sources grow.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    Why does OpenAddress need to exist separately from OSM? Can address geocoding data not be properly represented in OSM?
    - randyme 11y ago
      OpenAddresses is a directory of publicly available address lists provided by government agencies at various levels. It's designed to be bulk imported by machine. Many addresses exist in OSM. But there's a preference from the OSM community that data be entered by users familiar with their areas, that they can verify on the ground. Imports have happened in OSM, such as the controversial TIGER import in the US years ago, and the NYC building dataset more recently. But these require a lot of effort and attention to manage well.
      - toomuchtodo 11y ago
        So could OpenAddresses be merged into OSM at some point? Would that make sense?
        dianashk 11y ago
        It's not out of the question, however there are many obstacles to overcome, such as licensing, validation, and the fact that the OSM community generally insists on manually entered data. I've heard many folks push for consolidation of various open data projects, so they aren't "competing" for contributions. However the reality is that they are currently very different and each serves to bridge a very specific gap. In the meantime, it makes a lot of sense for projects relying on open data to pull all of these sources in, as Mapzen Search is doing, to ensure the best possible coverage.
iask 11y ago
Never heard of mapzen until this post. Looks pretty cool. I am always skeptical of the lifetime of these service providers. I've seen quite a few come and go...and spent countless hours adopting replacement.
- dianashk 11y ago
  Great point! As developers, we've all been there. Mapzen's mission is to create services that outlive the brand/company. Everything we do is open source and easy to stand up on your own. Pelias, the project powering our Search service is written entirely in node.js + Elasticsearch, to make it accessible to the largest number of developers, because JavaScript. We also host an instance of Pelias to make the service accessible for those that can't/won't run their own. More details [here](https://mapzen.com/projects/search https://mapzen.com/projects/search).

51 points by dianashk 11y ago

gkop 11y ago

How is MapZen's international geocoding? I couldn't find info on their website saying how good their coverage is of different countries and languages.

randyme 11y ago
Mapzen uses only open data, in particular OpenStreetMap and OpenAddresses (http://openaddresses.io/ http://openaddresses.io/). This means anyone can improve the results and always have access to the data if something's missing.
- gkop 11y ago
  How is it different than a hosted Nominatim then? Edit: I see they're using https://github.com/pelias/pelias https://github.com/pelias/pelias .
  - randyme 11y ago
    Nominatim, which I worked with at MapQuest Open when it launched, is a great geocoder for purely OSM data. We built Pelias (https://github.com/pelias https://github.com/pelias) at Mapzen because Nominatim is not built to handle autocomplete. We also wanted to start with a fulltext search engine -- Elasticsearch in this case -- instead of Postgres with search logic on top of it. We also wanted to search other open datasets like the fast-growing OpenAddresses. We host Pelias at Mapzen and you can check out the autocomplete as well as fulltext search here: https://mapzen.com/projects/search https://mapzen.com/projects/search
    - gkop 11y ago
      Thanks for explaining!
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      Offtopic, but what do you think about MapBox and CartoDB? Do you see them as competitors?
      - randyme 11y ago
        They're great and we have many friends at both companies. Our main goal is to get map data and software into the open so others working toward that goal are not really competitors. If there's overlap, I don't see why that's a bad thing. The geo industry has had the problem of too few options for a while. More options are a good thing.
dianashk 11y ago
It's built on open data sets, including OpenStreetMap and OpenAddresses. In populated areas coverage is really good. Thanks to OpenAddresses, several countries have full address coverage. You can see the coverage map on openaddresses.io. New data gets added as these open data sources grow.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  Why does OpenAddress need to exist separately from OSM? Can address geocoding data not be properly represented in OSM?
  - randyme 11y ago
    OpenAddresses is a directory of publicly available address lists provided by government agencies at various levels. It's designed to be bulk imported by machine. Many addresses exist in OSM. But there's a preference from the OSM community that data be entered by users familiar with their areas, that they can verify on the ground. Imports have happened in OSM, such as the controversial TIGER import in the US years ago, and the NYC building dataset more recently. But these require a lot of effort and attention to manage well.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      So could OpenAddresses be merged into OSM at some point? Would that make sense?
      - dianashk 11y ago
        It's not out of the question, however there are many obstacles to overcome, such as licensing, validation, and the fact that the OSM community generally insists on manually entered data. I've heard many folks push for consolidation of various open data projects, so they aren't "competing" for contributions. However the reality is that they are currently very different and each serves to bridge a very specific gap. In the meantime, it makes a lot of sense for projects relying on open data to pull all of these sources in, as Mapzen Search is doing, to ensure the best possible coverage.

iask 11y ago

Never heard of mapzen until this post. Looks pretty cool. I am always skeptical of the lifetime of these service providers. I've seen quite a few come and go...and spent countless hours adopting replacement.

dianashk 11y ago
Great point! As developers, we've all been there. Mapzen's mission is to create services that outlive the brand/company. Everything we do is open source and easy to stand up on your own. Pelias, the project powering our Search service is written entirely in node.js + Elasticsearch, to make it accessible to the largest number of developers, because JavaScript. We also host an instance of Pelias to make the service accessible for those that can't/won't run their own. More details [here](https://mapzen.com/projects/search https://mapzen.com/projects/search).