Take a look at:
1) MapQuest Business Solutions
The name of the feature is "proximity search"
http://company.mapquest.com/mqbs/3.html
2) Microsoft Virtual Earth proximity search
http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/product/
3) Multimap
http://www.multimap.com/business/locators/
Cheers,
Sean
On 10/26/07, Tauren Mills <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I apologize for this being off topic, but I have a feeling some of you
> might have some ideas for me.
>
> I'd like to implement a feature that will search for all physical
> locations in my database that are within a radius of a zip code. In
> other words, the user enters a zip code and selects a distance from a
> drop down list (5 mi, 10 mi, 25 mi, 50 mi, etc.) and a list of all
> locations within that distance of the zip code will be displayed. You
> can see something similar to this at:
> http://www.restaurant.com/
>
> Are there any web services out there that would simplify this task? I
> have been looking at the Google Geocoding API
> (http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/services.html), but am
> not sure how much it will help. I could geocode locations as they are
> added to my database and store the lat/long, but I get fuzzy on how to
> proceed from there. Somehow my SQL query (using hibernate) would need
> to do some computation to see if the lat/long stored in the DB is
> within the specified radius from the lat/long of the specified zip
> code.
>
> I guess I mostly want to hear from others if this would be the way
> they would do it, or if there is some other way that would work better
> or be simpler.
>
> Thanks!
> Tauren
>
