Geocoder.us Data Bureau

You have addresses. We have positions!

Updated 7 June, 2011

Summary for those in a hurry

  1. Send a text or Excel file to billing@geocoder.us.
  2. We will geocode that file and return the data to you
  3. You paypal $50 per 20,000 records, with a $50 minimum, to billing@geocoder.us
Frequently Asked Questions

The Geocoder.us Data Bureau will take your addresses in a convenient format for you and return geocoded data. We are also available on a consulting basis to develop or assist with geospatial analysis, calculating distances, help on integrating the geocoder with your applications, web services projects, and mapping.

Contact us at billing@geocoder.us.

How much does it cost?
We currently charge $50 to geocode up to 20,000 addresses, with a $50 minimum. After 20,000 records the cost is is 0.25 cents per record ($50 per 20,000). This is charged for each record sent, not for each record which is geocoded..

This assumes the data is in a reasonable format. Additional work, or complex projects, may be subject to additional fees that will be fully disclosed before the project begins.

This means you submit your data in a single file (in the case of Excel this assumes the data is in a single worksheet tab) and for $50 plus 0.25 cents per record after the first 20,000, we will do our best to geocode them all and a single file back to you containing your data with the addition of latitude and longitude.

In the case of Excel data the returned file will be a tab delimited text file (which Excel can read).

Obviously you get more value the more addresses you include. Again, this assumes the data is in a reasonable format. Additional work, or complex projects, may be subject to additional fees that will be fully disclosed before the project begins.

Alternately, if you use a script or custom program to interface with our web servers directly, rather than having us perform the geocoding manually, you can submit your addresses one at a time, they don't have to be sent all at once, and you can geocode a full 20,000 addresses for that same $50.

How and when do I pay?
We accept paypal sent to payment@geocoder.us. Normally we will send you the completed job and then ask you to pay us. If it is a large or complicated project we may ask for a deposit.
What format do you accept?
The easiest formats are Excel spreadsheets and plain text files (tab or comma delimited). We can deal with just about anything that exists, but there may be additional fees.

If there are additional fields, such as names, or unique identifiers, we will return those with the rest of the data.

How can I calculate distance?
Geocoder.us offers a web service to calculate distance. In addition, here is a Javascript function to calculate distance in miles. Change the multiplier to equal the number of your preferred units in one mile. For example, to get results in feet the multiplier would be 5280.

function calcDist(lon1,lat1,lon2,lat2) {
   var r = 3963.0;
   var multiplier = 1; 
   return multiplier * r * Math.acos(Math.sin(lat1/57.2958) *
           Math.sin(lat2/57.2958) +  Math.cos(lat1/57.2958) *
           Math.cos(lat2/57.2958) * Math.cos(lon2/57.2958 -
           lon1/57.2958));
}:
Who runs the Geocoder?
Geocoder.us is a project of Locative Technologies, a consultancy run by Rich Gibson. Rich cowrote the O'Reilly books Mapping Hacks and Google Maps Hacks.

Schuyler Erle originally developed Geocoder.us, and coauthored Mapping Hacks and Google Maps Hacks. To be complete, Jo Walsh was the other mega talented author of Mapping Hacks.

What else can you do for us?
I'm glad you asked :-)

Rich specialize in geospatial applications, geocoding, and mapping as well as general Perl and Ruby on Rails development. Contact billing@geocoder.us.

If it happened somewhere, we know what to do with it.