GeoNames Forum

Hello all.

I am fairly new to the geo-coding scene and am confused.

I am looking for a way to geo-code an address and retrieve a LatLon which I can store in a database for Free.

I can geo-code addresses with Google but they want $10,000 per year.

Can I achieve this with GeoNames??
Am I restricted somehow?

I found this link in the forum which works fine but it says it is using Google GeoCoder: http://www.geonames.org/maps/us-reverse-geocoder.html

Does this mean that GeoNames cannot do this?

The next part of the question is, even if I have a LatLon.. how can I display it on a Map which is in an application that requires Dues.
Again with Google wanting $10,000.

Any advice here appreciated.

Hi Andros

Geonames does not yet support address geocoding. For the US you could other solutions like geocoder.us.

Best

Marc

I cannot speak to the first part, but as for the timezoneId yes, it is in the same form as the Olson Timezone Database.

Just recently this service stopped working for my application, returning a 'Urgent: please contact: info@geonames.org' status. There may be something we have to clear with GeoNames before committing this to a release.

there is an issue with the json version of the timezone service. See the blog posting for details: http://geonames.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/ddos-part-ii/

you can add the parameter username=<your username> to overcome the blocking.

Marc