[ale] OT: Coordinate services

[Robert Reese~]

> More Info:  I am working on a Service app where I am utilizing a
> route scheduler to prioritize and schedule the work of of some tech
> every day. The scheduling service requires the lat and long for the
> routing bit. The information provided to me is just the address.  I
> would like to convert the address into lat and long to give the
> scheduler something to chew on.
>
> Granularity does not have to be the driveway/parking lot.  Just
> something reasonable in order to prioritize the routing.  My
> initial thoughts are that a city block might be good enough.
>
> I will need to be able to pull coordinates for thousands of
> addresses daily so I would want to be careful about wrongly
> using/abusing a free service.


Hi Robert, 

Take a close look here for an open-source project that appears to have the functionality you are seeking:
http://gebweb.net/optimap/

If not, it sounds like a job for Google code project. ;c)  And obviously the geocoder is only half the story... you need then to trip optimization, which certainly falls into the realm of what Google would love to see as a project (I assume they don't already have the trip optimization).

You might want to start with a free Google Maps API key and check out the Google Code section.

Google Code: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/
<http://code.google.com/apis/maps/>

Google Maps API Key generator: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html
<http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html>

Google Maps for Enterprise: http://www.google.com/enterprise/maps/
<http://www.google.com/enterprise/maps/>

Cheers,
Robert Reese~