GeoNames Forum

with reference to this post

http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/825.page

i would like to give the user, the option to search for any place.
The match() function works only on the supplied text and %* operators has no effects.

Do you think it would be appropriate if i build index on column and use %input% queries to display the result of search for user?

What functionality is being used inside geoname webservice?

Sure you can do this, tough you will have to see whether the performance is acceptable for your application.

GeoNames is not using the database for this kind of queries. GeoNames is using a full text search index because it is faster and more flexible.

Marc