Add postal code auto-fill to a shipping form
Let a customer type just a postal code and have city and region fields fill in automatically, cutting a shipping form down by two fields.
My Geocode blog (page 2)
Notes on geocoding, IP data, and building on the My Geocode API.
Older posts
Data processing agreements: what changes when you switch vendors
Switching location data vendors is not only a technical decision. Here is what to review on the data processing and privacy side of the move.
Data licensing and why some sources can't be used commercially
Not every dataset with public-looking location information can legally be used inside a paid product. Licensing terms, not technical availability, often set the real boundary.
Adding a country flag and local time to user profiles
A collaboration tool wanted teammates to see, at a glance, where a colleague was and roughly what time it was for them, without anyone having to type it into their profile.
A grace period before an unverified key pauses
A new account's keys keep working for a grace period after signup, pausing only if the email address is never confirmed within that window.
What "real-time" location data actually requires
Real time gets used as a synonym for fast. What it should mean is that the answer reflects the current state of the world, not last quarter's snapshot.
Retiring old API keys safely after a migration
Turning off an old provider's API key too early or too late both carry risk. Here is how to retire credentials properly once a migration is complete.
Build a heatmap from raw IP address logs
Turn a plain access log full of IP addresses into a set of mapped coordinates ready to plot as a heatmap, by resolving unique addresses in bulk.
How we treat null and low-confidence results
When a query genuinely cannot be resolved reliably, returning nothing is a better answer than returning a guess dressed up as a fact. Here is the reasoning behind that choice.
Building a nonprofit volunteer matching tool by distance
A community nonprofit had hundreds of registered volunteers and dozens of ongoing needs, and no good way to match the two by anything other than a coordinator's memory of who lived where.
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