Geographical software - finding the closest amenity to your own address

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You know those websites where you can enter your postcode / zip code etc and find the nearest pizza place / swimming pool / church near you.
How is this done and how is the information updated ?

Thanks

Smon

Posted 5-Feb-11 6:47am

Smon the Vidd

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Henry Minute · Answer 1 · 2011-02-05T07:46:00

Many of them use Google Maps (I believe Bing/Microsoft have a similar offering). Show Your Data on Google Map using C# and JavaScript[^].

As you will see that article uses Lat./Long. so you need something to translate from a postal code to Lat/Long. This[^] article claims to have code that will do that (I haven't tried it).

Then all you need is an enormous database of restaurants/amenities filterable by country, postcode and category. I have no doubt that such services exist somewhere out there and I also have no doubt that most of them charge for use.

The first two links should get you started though and you'll probably get some hints about the last part as you research stuff for those.

DaveAuld · Answer 2 · 2011-02-05T07:48:00

There are specialist mapping companies that perform the database building and sell these on to other companies for use in their products.

The information is also taken from things like;
Phone Books
Yellow Pages
Companies Registers
etc.

You can also do it the old fashioned way, i.e. person on foot/in car and writing down the information manually.

All this data then gets mashed through specialist data mining tools to ensure validity and accuracy.

What you are then left with is the likes of your sat nav database.

Geographical software - finding the closest amenity to your own address

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