+Captain Morgan Posted August 15, 2004 Share Posted August 15, 2004 In addition to states, I think it would be very useful if ZIP codes aka postal codes outside of the US/UK/Canada/Australia could be added to the system, so we can also make searches by ZIP codes. I know, they are much harder to find than state/region/county/province information, because they are usually in databases, not in simple listings. But I guess if we ask from postal organisations of each country, they may give us a simple list of numbers. I'll try that soon in Finland. Here is a begining with the postal codes of Åland Islands, I hope that people from other countries can provide their ZIP/postal codes too. 22100 MARIEHAMN 22120 MARIEHAMN (Västra Jomala) 22130 GOTTBY 22140 MARIEHAMN (Östra Jomala) 22150 JOMALA 22160 MARIEHAMN (Järsö) 22220 EMKARBY 22240 HAMMARLAND 22270 ECKERÖ 22310 PÅLSBÖLE 22320 ÖDKARBY 22330 TJUDÖ 22340 GETA 22410 GODBY 22430 SALTVIK 22520 KASTELHOLM 22530 SUND 22550 VÅRDÖ 22610 LEMLAND 22630 LUMPARLAND 22710 FÖGLÖ 22720 SOTTUNGA 22730 KÖKAR 22810 SEGLINGE 22820 KUMLINGE 22830 ENKLINGE 22840 LAPPO 22910 TORSHOLMA 22920 BRÄNDÖ 22930 FISKÖ 22940 ÅVA 22950 JURMO Link to comment
+Divine Posted August 15, 2004 Share Posted August 15, 2004 Zipcode lists are pretty much useless without having any coordinate information attached to them. Or is it really so that people hiding caches in US, UK, Canada and Australia type in the code themselves when writing the cache description? Eurobilltracker service does have a database of European postal codes with coordinates. That is, when you enter a eurobill there, you can see it's location also on a map. To my understanding they keep on updating the zipcode list with new coordinates all the time. If they'd give that database for GC.com to use, there would be lots of work already done. Link to comment
+Captain Morgan Posted August 16, 2004 Author Share Posted August 16, 2004 Excellent point Divine! Thank's! As a member of Eurobilltracker I should have thought that myself too... I'm quite positive that the Eurobilltracker guys will give an access to their database, because they are doing that as a hobby, not for business. Regards, Olli Link to comment
Digitale Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 But I guess if we ask from postal organisations of each country, they may give us a simple list of numbers. I'll try that soon in Finland. I wish you luck. If I remember correctly there has been issues that Finland Post Corporation doesn't give permission to use their postal code listing. On the other hand, I don't think that hard coded postal code listing is needed, postal code field in database is enough. Cachers then simply add this info to their cache data. In the Finland there are approximately 3600 postal codes. I feel that postal codes are bit abstract. I would like to see city or municipality name search implemented first. If I'm travelling I usally know the name of the place, but not postal code. because they are doing that as a hobby, not for business. We do have a new feature list about a mile long, and prioritize changes as a result of this forum and the community demands. I think that geocaching.com should be developed as open source. Since it seems that despite the business or cause of that, there are no enough resources to implement new features. By they way it would be nice to see geocaching.com project roadmap. Link to comment
+Divine Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 In the Finland there are approximately 3600 postal codes.I feel that postal codes are bit abstract. I would like to see city or municipality name search implemented first. If I'm travelling I usally know the name of the place, but not postal code. I feel the same about this matter. Alone in Tampere (the city I live in) there are tens of different postal codes. It would be quite absurd to do a cache finding query with 33230, since the result would be about the same as with 33240 (if the query included the nearest caches also in nearby postal areas). If there was a Finnish postal code search implemented in GC.com, it'd probably be most practical to use just the 'main' codes, ending with 100. Like 33100 for Tampere, 28100 for Pori, 45100 for Kouvola etc. Well, maybe the capital area would benefit for more accurate codes too. Link to comment
Jeremy Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 It also will be a challenge since the postal codes mirror the ones in the US, but we could get around that somewhat by requesting the country as well (or have a secondary page). Link to comment
+hedberg Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 This is also a request from Sweden. We have plans of doing an non-GC.com database with all zipcodes. The plan is to let users add new zipcodes with a coordinate somewhere within the zipcode. Next time someone seeks for all nearby caches, and enters the zipcode, will it retrieve the coordinates from the database and redirect the user to GC.com with the given coordinates. It would be better if GC.com had the option to seek for caches in Sweden with the help of zipcode. There are almost 3000 caches in Sweden, and a lot of new users and interested people that wants to know if there is any caches nearby. But since it is difficult to find any caches nearby (the typical search string is either coordinates or zipcode). And I think the most people do know their zipcode better than coordinates - at least in the beginning We can of course provide GC.com with coordinates for all the Swedish zipcodes (five digits) if necessary. Link to comment
+BalkanSabranje Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 We can of course provide GC.com with coordinates for all the Swedish zipcodes (five digits) if necessary. Is this one coordinate per ZIP code (easy) or is it a ZIP-code definition for every coordinate in Sweden? I doubt that the latter would be (precisely) possible for Austria, as the ZIP code areas are polygons with a lot of vertici (corners?). I feel that postal codes are bit abstract. [...] If I'm travelling I usally know thename of the place, but not postal code. Just my words. BS/2 Link to comment
+Hemlock Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 The U.S. lookup is one coordinate per zip code. Other threads here complain that it's sometimes a bit off from the "center" of the zip. I figure as long as it's within a mile it's good enough. How many people live right at their zip code's center anyways? Link to comment
+BalkanSabranje Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 The U.S. lookup is one coordinate per zip code. This would be quite useless over here, as there are multiple ZIP codes within a few hundred meters and within villages of 2-3000 inhabitants. BS/2 Link to comment
+Divine Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 I feel that postal codes are bit abstract. [...] If I'm travelling I usally know thename of the place, but not postal code. Just my words. But not mine. More like Digitale's. Link to comment
+FrkBrum Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 (edited) For Norway there already is a very fine page for finding nearby caches to both smaller and larger cities: http://www.starte.no/index.php?module=Cont...display&ceid=22 Edit: I'm in the wrong thread, but still, the webpage is good Edited August 16, 2004 by elimmen Link to comment
+BalkanSabranje Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 I feel that postal codes are bit abstract. [...] If I'm travelling I usally know thename of the place, but not postal code. Just my words. But not mine. More like Digitale's. Yo, but it's that sensible that it should be your quote. BS/2 Link to comment
+hedberg Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Jeremy, we have now gathered all Swedish zipcodes complete with coordinates for each zipcode. It is stored in a database. I assume that you are interested of getting your hands on this database? Link to comment
+Trekker68 Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Jeremy, we have now gathered all Swedish zipcodes complete with coordinates for each zipcode. It is stored in a database. I assume that you are interested of getting your hands on this database? Well not all yet, it´s still a work in progress... Link to comment
+hedberg Posted September 5, 2004 Share Posted September 5, 2004 (bump) Jeremy, we have a full list of all the zip codes in Sweden together with coordinates for each one. Are geocaching.com interested in these, so the Sweds (and others) can use it on the website? Link to comment
+habot Posted September 13, 2004 Share Posted September 13, 2004 ZIP codes for Belgium (COUNTRY,PCODE,NAME,LAT,LON - same as GSAK ;-) Link to comment
+ClydeE Posted September 13, 2004 Share Posted September 13, 2004 (bump) Jeremy, we have a full list of all the zip codes in Sweden together with coordinates for each one. Are geocaching.com interested in these, so the Sweds (and others) can use it on the website? I would be Interested to add this to the GSAK database. If I could get my hands on it that would be great. Thanks Clyde Link to comment
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