Search locations

[+baack40]

I used to be able to search several towns close by and now I get a message saying Sorry, cannot locate such and such address. What happened? Do I now have to look up the zip codes for those towns?

 

Going to be a pain when traveling and trying to locate different towns.

 

I know I read something about this subject a while ago in the UK but they were trying to put in a complete address I think, but cannot locate that thread to see if there was a solution.

 

Seems as tho the maps just keep getting less and less helpful for quick searches.

Edited December 19, 2013 by baack40

[+Walts Hunting]

I tried several towns and it worked for me. What towns and specific input were you using?

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Use as much info as you can for a named search area. Many folks simply enter a town or city name, but more and more, one needs to enter political subdivisions such as county, state, province and yes... even country.

[+baack40]

Use as much info as you can for a named search area. Many folks simply enter a town or city name, but more and more, one needs to enter political subdivisions such as county, state, province and yes... even country.

A couple of the towns around me. Crooksville, Ohio - Granville, Ohio

 

These I can do Somerset, Ohio - New Lexington, Ohio - Columbus, Ohio - so I don't think its the format.

 

I used to be able to search almost any area by typing town and state and now I can't. What happened?

Edited December 19, 2013 by baack40

[+baack40]

Use as much info as you can for a named search area. Many folks simply enter a town or city name, but more and more, one needs to enter political subdivisions such as county, state, province and yes... even country.

I am only searching towns to get the list of caches around that town. I am not trying to search a street or anything like that.

 

I used to be able to search this way and now it seems not to be working correctly.

[+baack40]

Another search I used to be able to do was by county. I could type Licking County, Ohio and it would take me to the center of that county. It won't do that anymore either. Sooo disappointed. I haven't tried to do it by state yet. That used to work too. By just typing Ohio it would take you to the center of the state. Will have to try that and see if that works. Probably not.

 

Hmmm I did try that and it did work. I just typed Ohio and it came up.

Edited December 19, 2013 by baack40

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Use as much info as you can for a named search area. Many folks simply enter a town or city name, but more and more, one needs to enter political subdivisions such as county, state, province and yes... even country.

A couple of the towns around me. Crooksville, Ohio - Granville, Ohio

 

These I can do Somerset, Ohio - New Lexington, Ohio - Columbus, Ohio - so I don't think its the format.

 

I used to be able to search almost any area by typing town and state and now I can't. What happened?

 

There was a similar thread which might give some insight into what is going on.

 

FIrst of all, the address search basically just takes what you enter in the form element and sends it to an external geocoding service. A geocoding service is basically a large "place name" database (the geonames database is over 10 GB) which will accept "place names" and return as set of lat/long coordinates. In other words, Groundspeak does not maintain a list of town/city names themselves.

 

There are several different geonames services available and most of them work off a model such that one can use it for free up to a certain amount of requests per day/month, *or* you can pay for the service and your daily/monthly quota for requests will increase significantly (in some cases even unlimited). In that other thread, one of the lackeys mentioned that they use several different geocoding services and when I asked why, I was told that they rotate services to avoid the quotas. Apparently, the service that they're currently using is not so good about recognizing addresses or city/town names.

 

Of course, the alternative would be for GS to pay for the "upgraded" service that works, but that cost might have to be passed along to users in the from of increased premium membership fees.

 

[+baack40]

Use as much info as you can for a named search area. Many folks simply enter a town or city name, but more and more, one needs to enter political subdivisions such as county, state, province and yes... even country.

A couple of the towns around me. Crooksville, Ohio - Granville, Ohio

 

These I can do Somerset, Ohio - New Lexington, Ohio - Columbus, Ohio - so I don't think its the format.

 

I used to be able to search almost any area by typing town and state and now I can't. What happened?

 

There was a similar thread which might give some insight into what is going on.

 

FIrst of all, the address search basically just takes what you enter in the form element and sends it to an external geocoding service. A geocoding service is basically a large "place name" database (the geonames database is over 10 GB) which will accept "place names" and return as set of lat/long coordinates. In other words, Groundspeak does not maintain a list of town/city names themselves.

 

There are several different geonames services available and most of them work off a model such that one can use it for free up to a certain amount of requests per day/month, *or* you can pay for the service and your daily/monthly quota for requests will increase significantly (in some cases even unlimited). In that other thread, one of the lackeys mentioned that they use several different geocoding services and when I asked why, I was told that they rotate services to avoid the quotas. Apparently, the service that they're currently using is not so good about recognizing addresses or city/town names.

 

Of course, the alternative would be for GS to pay for the "upgraded" service that works, but that cost might have to be passed along to users in the from of increased premium membership fees.

Thank you so much for the info. I knew I had seen a thread about this but tried to search for it and could not find it to find out the results. Was hoping there was a solution to the problem but I guess not. Wish they could go back to the other geoname provider to make the searches more useful. This is really unhandy. Oh well, have to swallow it I guess. Seems like the map system just keeps going backwards for me.

[+Don_J]

Use as much info as you can for a named search area. Many folks simply enter a town or city name, but more and more, one needs to enter political subdivisions such as county, state, province and yes... even country.

A couple of the towns around me. Crooksville, Ohio - Granville, Ohio

 

These I can do Somerset, Ohio - New Lexington, Ohio - Columbus, Ohio - so I don't think its the format.

 

I used to be able to search almost any area by typing town and state and now I can't. What happened?

 

Interesting. I put in Crooksville, ohio and get the message that it can't be found. If I put in the zip code for Crooksville, 43731, I get the expected list.

 

BTW, I had no idea what the zip code was for Crooksville so I simply put it into Google maps, then right clicked a random street and chose "What's Here", which gave me the address and zip code for that spot.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Use as much info as you can for a named search area. Many folks simply enter a town or city name, but more and more, one needs to enter political subdivisions such as county, state, province and yes... even country.

A couple of the towns around me. Crooksville, Ohio - Granville, Ohio

 

These I can do Somerset, Ohio - New Lexington, Ohio - Columbus, Ohio - so I don't think its the format.

 

I used to be able to search almost any area by typing town and state and now I can't. What happened?

 

Interesting. I put in Crooksville, ohio and get the message that it can't be found. If I put in the zip code for Crooksville, 43731, I get the expected list.

 

BTW, I had no idea what the zip code was for Crooksville so I simply put it into Google maps, then right clicked a random street and chose "What's Here", which gave me the address and zip code for that spot.

 

I used to use the "right click"/What's here trick quite a bit since it was also put the lat/long coordinates in the search form (as decimal degrees). Then I could cut and paste the coordinates in the geocaching search form. However, now I'm getting the "New Google Maps" and right click isn't bringing up the same dialog box. I found that I have to click on the little black question mark in the lower right of the screen and select "return to classic google maps" to get the right click feature to work.

 

 

[+SwineFlew]

Type in "Groundspeak"... See what will come up.

 

Back on the topic... I never had any problems with it. I had even use "Twin Cities" a few days ago and it comes up what I was looking for. I didnt think it would work but it did.

[+baack40]

Type in "Groundspeak"... See what will come up.

 

Back on the topic... I never had any problems with it. I had even use "Twin Cities" a few days ago and it comes up what I was looking for. I didnt think it would work but it did.

Guess you are lucky then. I have found several towns in Ohio that I can't search. I used to be able to search by a county name too which was very helpful but I can't do that anymore either. Not liking it one bit

[+Harry Dolphin]

There's no accounting for the accuracy of the Internet, and the sites that GS uses.

(Google streets has so many errors that I would be embarrassed to present that site!)

I have two caches in Guttenberg NJ. If I type in: Guttenberg NJ, I get 'Sorry. I was unable to unable to determine a location for Guttenberg NJ." Same for all variations (including zip code shared with WNY.) Except! If I type in Guttenberg, it locates it! If I want Guttenberg, Iowa, I can find it typing in 'Guttenberg, Ia.'

("I" was unable?? The computer program is a person?!?)

(Yes. We went to Guttenberg, Iowa on our Midwestern trip, to see what the 'other' Guttenberg looked like. All they share is a name... But it was fun!)

One should not expect much accuracy from Internet sites that glom useless information from other Internet sites. Accuracy is not relevant.

Our current laugh is at NJDOT, which rebuilt the bridge nearby. It is using outdated MapQuest maps which listed McFarlan Street in my town as McFarland Street. Ten years ago, they put up new signs on the highway. And had to replace them because they misspelt McFarlan. This time, they are refusing to replace the misspelt signs! "It was on the Internet ten years ago. It must be true."

Sorry. You cannot expect relevance, consistency, or accuracy on Internet sites. Groundspeak could not develop its own site for maps. It uses what is available on the Internet.

Don't ask me about the actual name of Rte 46 between Denville and Dover. It's name is "Route 46", not Bloomfield Avenue. Bloomfield Avenue ends six miles east of here. It's name is "Route 46"!!!

[jri]

Whatever has happened to Groundspeak's geocoding seems to be causing problems in the UK too. Searching by UK postcode also seems to have stopped working properly, as reported in this thread. However, it's inconsistent: some postcodes work, and others don't. Several postcodes I've often used for searching now fail, but when I tried some at random (to protect my privacy in this post!) I found that some others worked.

 

e.g. For me, entering a postcode like KT9 1AJ on the Hide & Seek page or the main Map page gives an error message, but KT9 1AA behaves as expected.

[+Tehuti]

I have the same problem as Scriptwright with UK locations.

 

My own home postcode works if I search on it.

However, when I try the locations of two meetings I will be attending, namely BS16 1NE and TA3 5JD (tried with and without the space), I get a "Sorry, I am unable to determine a location" message.

[+andyscorch]

I've been having the same problem over here in the UK since before Christmas too. It occasionally works but not 9 times out of ten! Whatever the probelm it needs to be solved permenantly or this option removed. In the end I've resorted to a quick google earth search and putting in a nearby cache!