GeoNames Forum

I am having problems with the findNearestAddress API, many queries that ought to return results for populous areas instead return empty results.

For example:

http://ws.geonames.org/findNearestAddress?lat=39.059269&lng=-77.466728

Is this a known issue? Any workarounds or changes to the way I am doing things?

Hi Phil

The address API is using data from the US census. The US census is not as fast in collecting information as the commercial providers (NAVTEQ or Tele Atlas). I guess the residential neigbourhood is rather new and the US census has not yet added this street level information into their system.

The findNearbyPlaceName services that works on USGS (US Geological Survey) data does return results for this location :
http://ws.geonames.org/findNearbyPlaceName?lat=39.059269&lng=-77.466728&style=full

Marc

Thank you for your reply.

I am now receiving the following error message all of the time:

<geonames>
<status message="Cannot get a connection, pool exhausted" value="12"/>
</geonames>

Ignoring that for the moment, the empty results seem to be happening for a large number of established locations in densely populated areas.

For example:

http://ws.geonames.org/findNearestAddress?lat=39.0593&lng=-77.46643

(which maps as follows: http://atlas.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&formtype=address&latlongtype=decimal&latitude=39.0593&longitude=-77.46643)

And also:

http://ws.geonames.org/findNearestAddress?lat=41.369305&lng=-72.917975

Hi Phil

The connection pool problem is fixed. It was a configuration error.

For the second problem there is not much I can do. Unless it is for an enterprise application and you are ready to pay for a NAVTEQ data license.

Marc

Understood, thank you for your help.