Testing location data with edge cases, not just happy paths
An address in a well mapped city center tells you almost nothing about how your system handles a rural route, a disputed border, or a query near the poles. Test the hard cases deliberately.
Tag
#methodology
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.
How elevation data sources get validated
Elevation figures are checked against fixed, independently surveyed benchmark points with known heights, and consistency across nearby samples is a further useful sanity check.
Measuring coverage with a fixed set of reference addresses
Coverage is not one number, it is the answer to thousands of individual questions: can this specific address be found. A fixed reference set is how you actually answer that at scale.
Data refresh cycles: how often location data should change
Location data is not static. New addresses get built, postal boundaries shift, and IP blocks get reassigned, all on different timescales that matter for accuracy.
How we measure geocoding accuracy against known points
Accuracy claims mean nothing without a method. Here is how reference addresses with known coordinates are used to check what a geocoder actually returns.