JF as noted by Pamela Fox in the Tutorial -'Using PHP/MySQL with Google Maps'
"Note: This tutorial uses location data that already have latitude and longitude information needed to plot corresponding markers. If you're trying to use your own data that don't yet have that information, use a batch geocoding service to convert the addresses into latitudes/ longitudes. Some sites make the mistake of geocoding addresses each time a page loads, but doing so will result in slower page loads and unnecessary repeat geocodes. It's always better to hardcode the latitude/longitude information when possible. This link contains a good list of geocoders: http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API/web/resources-non-google-geocoders " http://code.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=65622 so if you pre-geocode your 15,000 locations into a database then you will achieve your option 2. (but never trust a geocoder - Mike Williams) http://markmail.org/message/ryz24bm7n66ew6b5 Mapperz http://mapperz.blogspot.com/ On Oct 22, 4:17 pm, JF <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have the following problem. I am working on a web site backed by a > database containing around 15 000 locations. These locations can be > displayed on maps on the web site. On these maps, other surrounding > locations should also be displayed. In the end, around 50 locations > could be displayed on a single map with its main point of interest. So > before displaying the map, around 50 locations will need to be > geocoded in order to position them on the map. The geocoding requests > would be issued by the server, which seems to be a problem. Imagine > that 10 people are surfing the site and viewing maps at the same time, > it would mean that the server would need to geocode 500 locations in a > short amount of time. This is a problem, since Google's geocoding > servers stop answering when too many request are coming from the same > location all at once. > > I see two solutions: > > 1) The geocoding should be done on the client side. However, in most > Google Map examples, the latitudes and longitudes are provided by the > server. Is there somewhere a good example in which latitudes and > longitudes are fetched by the client just before displaying the map? > > I see a drawback with this technique though. It does not reduce the > load on Google's geocoding servers. > > 2) A better technique would be to cache the geocoding data (latitudes > and longitudes) for the 15 000 locations on the server beforehand. > This appears to me as being much cleaner, and it removes some burden > from Google's geocoding servers. What is the point of geocoding the > same locations multiple times anyway? > > However, there seem to be a legal issue with this second technique. > Onhttp://maps.google.com/help/terms_maps.html, one can read the > following: > > <blockquote>Also, you may not use Google Maps in a manner which gives > you or any other person access to mass downloads or bulk feeds of > numerical latitude and longitude coordinates.</blockquote> > > This appears to make the second solution illegal, which is really too > bad. I would like to get a confirmation of this though from Google > staff. > > Cheers! > > JF --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
