Friday, September 15, 2006

Linking to local.live.com / google maps for geocoding

Hey look, it's my house on google maps and on local.live.com.

Neither link needs me to geocode it first. In our work application, whenever people want to look up an address, they click on the title and get sent to:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q= 36A+Dalkeith+Avenue%2C+DOVER+GARDENS+5048%2C+Australia&ie=UTF8&z=17&om=1&iwloc=A;

That's really simple - google does all of the geocoding, all our application has to do is use php's urlencode() to make the link. It opens in a new window, and people have an instantly searchable street directory.

Compare that with local.live.com:
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp= -34.941005~138.605179&style=r&lvl=15&sp=Point.958vgfwjhcnk_132%20Greenhill%20Rd%2c%20Unley%2c%20SA%205061%2c%20Australia___

Bleck!

So, I decided to ask Chandu:
Great feedback Daniel - actually you can do that
today. Try this:

http://local.live.com/?where1=1 microsoft way,
redmond, wa

That will geocode it properly. So you just have to
use "where1" param to send addresses/places :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

From the title - "live.local.com"? :P

That's nice. I've managed to simply my address down to [[street number]]+[[street name(no type)]],[[postcode]],[[ISO country code]] and it still knows where I mean!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=13+Nerigai,2287,AU
http://local.live.com/?where1=13+Nerigai,2287,AU

Amazing how little you need to say to provide such a roughly accurate location. :-)

Dan said...

Oh, bugger, well it's a stupid name anyway.