PA search gets Caches in Sweeden?

[+George1]

We have been doing a search for caches near Philipsburg PA 16866 Tonight. This is in the middle of PA. The results keep coming up with Caches for Sweeden. How strange is this.

[+PaRacers]

You're right George, I tried it too! That's pretty weird - there must be a crack in the space/time continuum in the 'ole lilly pad tonite!

[+fegan]

Cool!

 

Go find a few to add a new country to your stats!

[+Bundyrumandcoke]

Us cachers in Australia have been dealing with a similar issue for months and months. A postcode search for an australian postcode gets us random USA listings. We have 4 numbers in our postcodes, verses the US 5 numbers, so perhaps the system is randomly adding a number in just for the hell of it. Its been reported many times to Groundspeak, and as far as I know, still nothing has been done about it. I use a state abbreviation after the postcode, and this seems to work, most of the time.

Edited August 28, 2009 by Bundyrumandcoke

[+George1]

Us cachers in Australia have been dealing with a similar issue for months and months. A postcode search for an australian postcode gets us random USA listings. We have 4 numbers in our postcodes, verses the US 5 numbers, so perhaps the system is randomly adding a number in just for the hell of it. Its been reported many times to Groundspeak, and as far as I know, still nothing has been done about it. I use a state abbreviation after the postcode, and this seems to work, most of the time.

 

I'll be darned, that does work. I typed in 16866 PA and came up with the right Caches. I think it is a space/time continuum thing too.

[+Blue_Suede]

We have been doing a search for caches near Philipsburg PA 16866 Tonight. This is in the middle of PA. The results keep coming up with Caches for Sweeden. How strange is this.

Well, why not try to come over here (Sweden) and log a few caches. Might be an interesting experience

[+kayak-cowboy]

I'm bumping this back up. This is still an issue that TPTB needs to look into. I tried doing a search for 47150 zip code in Indiana and it came up with caches in France.??????

I started from the "Hide and Seek a cache page" Then entered the zip code in and hit search. I had the distance set to 100 miles from 47150. This repeats using Firefox and also Windows Internet Explorer. Windows XP operating system on my home computer.

[+George1]

I'm bumping this back up. This is still an issue that TPTB needs to look into. I tried doing a search for 47150 zip code in Indiana and it came up with caches in France.??????

I started from the "Hide and Seek a cache page" Then entered the zip code in and hit search. I had the distance set to 100 miles from 47150. This repeats using Firefox and also Windows Internet Explorer. Windows XP operating system on my home computer.

 

But if you put in 47150 IN the caches come up. Strange indeed.

[+kayak-cowboy]

I'm bumping this back up. This is still an issue that TPTB needs to look into. I tried doing a search for 47150 zip code in Indiana and it came up with caches in France.??????

I started from the "Hide and Seek a cache page" Then entered the zip code in and hit search. I had the distance set to 100 miles from 47150. This repeats using Firefox and also Windows Internet Explorer. Windows XP operating system on my home computer.

 

But if you put in 47150 IN the caches come up. Strange indeed.

 

I just tried that and it gave me the correct caches in the area........ STRANGE............

Using the Zip code search you shouldn't have to enter the IN to designate the state.

[+sTeamTraen]

Using the Zip code search you shouldn't have to enter the IN to designate the state.

Well, it depends if you're in Indiana or in France, I guess. The problem is that a 5-digit postal code is inadequate to properly describe a location in one country, never mind 200+ where pretty much all the national post offices had much the same idea 50 years ago.

 

In Europe, it's quite common to see a country letter in front of the code, such as "F-67100" or "D-77634". This doesn't solve the problem that a single postcode covers a town of 10,000 people, but at least it lets you get the right town. For this to be useful, you'd have to accept that you need to type "USA-47150". On the one hand, it's a bit more work to take into account other countries which you probably don't want to have to worry about; on the other, you get to be patriotic on every search.

 

Countries like the UK, Netherlands, and Canada have better postal codes, with the accuracy of the sadly-neglected US 9-digit ZIP codes. In those countries, you can write the postal code and the house number, and you're done. Indeed, that's often all anyone puts on the back of an envelope, so on a letter from the Netherlands it might say "NL-3584 HA 51" and the letter can find its way back to one of 6 million addresses in the country.

 

There is also the accuracy issue even when you are using a street-level code, as pointed out in other threads. Unless Groundspeak wanted to go to the extent of writing their own geocoding (they don't), they are reliant on Google, and Google's geocoding API, frankly, sucks.

 

Here is an example of the hoops one developer jumped through to get postcodes to work for the UK. (Maybe, if this fix works worldwide, Groundspeak could adopt it.)

Edited August 31, 2009 by sTeamTraen

[+kayak-cowboy]

Using the Zip code search you shouldn't have to enter the IN to designate the state.

Well, it depends if you're in Indiana or in France, I guess. The problem is that a 5-digit postal code is inadequate to properly describe a location in one country, never mind 200+ where pretty much all the national post offices had much the same idea 50 years ago.

 

In Europe, it's quite common to see a country letter in front of the code, such as "F-67100" or "D-77634". This doesn't solve the problem that a single postcode covers a town of 10,000 people, but at least it lets you get the right town. For this to be useful, you'd have to accept that you need to type "USA-47150". On the one hand, it's a bit more work to take into account other countries which you probably don't want to have to worry about; on the other, you get to be patriotic on every search.

 

Countries like the UK, Netherlands, and Canada have better postal codes, with the accuracy of the sadly-neglected US 9-digit ZIP codes. In those countries, you can write the postal code and the house number, and you're done. Indeed, that's often all anyone puts on the back of an envelope, so on a letter from the Netherlands it might say "NL-3584 HA 51" and the letter can find its way back to one of 6 million addresses in the country.

 

There is also the accuracy issue even when you are using a street-level code, as pointed out in other threads. Unless Groundspeak wanted to go to the extent of writing their own geocoding (they don't), they are reliant on Google, and Google's geocoding API, frankly, sucks.

 

Here is an example of the hoops one developer jumped through to get postcodes to work for the UK. (Maybe, if this fix works worldwide, Groundspeak could adopt it.)

 

If I am not mistaken (which I usually am), this is something recent. I use to be able to go to the search by Zip code page and it worked just fine. This is the first time I have used this search box for about a year, so I don't know when this change happened. You get the same type of result from the search box on the Geocaching main page.

Another thing to think about. I just ran a PQ using the Zip code only. Did not designate a state or country. It returned the 500 caches closest to my home Zip code. So I really don't see why it would give a different set of information from a totally different country if the PQ gives you the correct information. I think this is a bug.

Edited August 31, 2009 by kayak-cowboy