GeoNames Forum

I'm working with a client, using geonames free service for proof of concept, and they found an error in the data (which makes them justifiably question whether there might be more).

We are using reverse geocoding and extracting the state and county names.

This is correct:
39.93938969 -101.78646033
== ["Kansas" "Cheyenne"]

This is not:
39.93938969 -101.78646033
== ["Nebraska" "Dundy County"]

The second result should be St. Francis Kansas (according to them and Google Maps).

If Premium has more complete and accurate data, I think it will convince them to use it; otherwise, when we find suspected bad data, what is the best way to submit suggested changes?

The data for the premium service is normally the same.

The country subdivision services returns "Cheyenne County" for the second location:
http://api.geonames.org/countrySubdivision?lat=39.93938969&lng=-101.78646033%20&username=demo&style=full&level=2

I don't know which reverse geocoding service you are using. For US counties the countrySubdivision is the most appropriate service.

Best

Marc

Thanks Marc, I'm using extendedFindNearby, but will look into countrySubdivision.

Much appreciated.

The findNearby services return the closest record, this might be in a different admin division or even country then the lat/lng you have used. If you query for instance for nearby city in Canada near the US border the closest city might be in the US. This is not necessarily an 'incorrect data' problem.

Marc

Thanks for the excellent clarification, and forgiving my newbieness.

Is the 'level argument described anywhere, for reference purposes?

you are right, is was an undocumented feature.

I have put a list of the supported countries here:
http://www.geonames.org/export/subdiv-level.html
It lists the supported countries and the max level per country.

Marc

Thanks so much!