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This is great but I really hope they get into the more popular uses like IP to location, autocomplete, etc APIs. There’s tons of small providers and some big on

by Zaheer 6y ago

This is great but I really hope they get into the more popular uses like IP to location, autocomplete, etc APIs. There’s tons of small providers and some big ones out there that do this but it seems like an easy add for Amazon to do.

evangow 6y ago
You can do IP to location if you deploy a Lamda@Edge and get the cloudfront headers https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2020/07/cloudfront-geolocation-headers/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2020/07/cloudfron...
- mediascreen 6y ago
  You don't even have to use Lamda@Edge, you can just forward them to your origin and use them there. A client used an IP to country service until we realized that we already had the information they needed in the Cloudfront headers.
juliansimioni 6y ago
Speaking as co-founder of Geocode Earth(https://geocode.earth https://geocode.earth) where we do provide autocomplete geocoding, it's a much, _much_ harder problem than regular geocoding (not that any geocoding is exactly...easy). For one, the latency requirements are much more strict. People type fast and if results don't come in within about 100ms or so, the interface doesn't feel responsive. We spend a ton of time ensuring our servers are as fast as possible. There's always more work to do here, since obviously network latency matters, so where your servers are matters too. Second, the queries themselves are much harder. If someone has typed "India", did they want the country? Or have they not yet finished typing Indiana? The answer probably depends on their location, which may not always be available. That's a simple example, obviously there are much more subtle queries that don't always have as clear an answer. Anyways, we enjoy the challenge of autocomplete and hope to continue to do a better and better job, even after Amazon inevitably releases their own :)

by Zaheer 6y ago

evangow 6y ago

You can do IP to location if you deploy a Lamda@Edge and get the cloudfront headers https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2020/07/cloudfront-geolocation-headers/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2020/07/cloudfron...

mediascreen 6y ago
You don't even have to use Lamda@Edge, you can just forward them to your origin and use them there. A client used an IP to country service until we realized that we already had the information they needed in the Cloudfront headers.

juliansimioni 6y ago

Speaking as co-founder of Geocode Earth(https://geocode.earth https://geocode.earth) where we do provide autocomplete geocoding, it's a much, _much_ harder problem than regular geocoding (not that any geocoding is exactly...easy). For one, the latency requirements are much more strict. People type fast and if results don't come in within about 100ms or so, the interface doesn't feel responsive. We spend a ton of time ensuring our servers are as fast as possible. There's always more work to do here, since obviously network latency matters, so where your servers are matters too. Second, the queries themselves are much harder. If someone has typed "India", did they want the country? Or have they not yet finished typing Indiana? The answer probably depends on their location, which may not always be available. That's a simple example, obviously there are much more subtle queries that don't always have as clear an answer. Anyways, we enjoy the challenge of autocomplete and hope to continue to do a better and better job, even after Amazon inevitably releases their own :)