Blog posts of '2014' 'July'

What are the Benefits of Geolocation?

Geolocation is a word most people do not know what it means. It is actually a very simple concept. It is something like tracking or remote positioning. These positions are marked on a map either using the IP address of a computer or alternatively using a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). These are typically contained on smartphones. The function of the system closely resembles the operation of the GPS system which is used to navigate roads. This system has caught on due to its proficiency with the marketing industry.

Among the potential uses for this system include the ability to remotely transmit advertisements to the devices which people carry when they enter a certain location. Such services include Foursquare and Gowalla. They have a format which resembles the typical social networking platform. Through this medium, businesses exchange information and they communicate with each other and with their potential customers. This is an effective method of advertisement because an ad is transmitted whenever the recipient device has enter a particular geographical location. Hence it being known as the Gelocation system.

This has become successful due to the ability to target your consumer base directly. This is proportional to their geographical location, then you can have products in that location which would potentially interest them. Popular information  transmitted include offers or promotions designed to entice a person to buy the product. This system also caters for the convenience of the customer, as when they revive the advertisement, they know that they are within walking distance of the outlet. This makes purchasing swift and convenient for all.

The system also boasts the ability to search a database of businesses upon the user request. The user can just enter a name of a business or product and the information about the closest outlet in relation to them will be displayed.

These functions have the additional ability to fuse with popular social networks which include Facebook and Twitter. This allows the business information to be transmitted in the form of tweets or notifications which will be received by the user when they access the network. Geolocation is pretty cool, eh?

Online Zip Code Lookups

The country is a very big place. Sometimes it is very hard to know where to send something, say if you were applying for a job and you had to mail a resume to their headquarters. How would you know where it is? You don't. However, there is something that knows exactly to a pin point precision where they are. This is the ZIP system. This is a collection of codes which specifically point out individual delivery addresses in regards to their state, city and locality. The result is that you get you mail to your door and most importantly, not to anyone else's.

It is all fine and good that the ZIP service knows everything, but what about you? How can you used this database in order to find out an address which you do not know. Well, there is a solution thankfully and that magic remedy is an online ZIP code lookup. These are internet tools which allow you to search for ZIP codes completely for free. This system combine efficiency with affordable in order to quickly locate addresses for successful delivery of your mail.

Most of these systems use the entry of certain data into the system in order to produce a ZIP code. Usually they require a street address, a city and a state. The combination of these will allow the database to search for your desired ZIP code. Indeed, this system also works in its inverse form. Online ZIP code lookups also provide the option to enter a ZIP to generate an address. Either way works in this system.

Usually these functions will have options for you to simply enter a street address along with the ZIP code in order to create standardized form of an address which has various uses.
Some of the more advanced of these systems offer you the ability to search for companies. By searching for particular corporations you can view the database of the XIP codes for all of their premises.

There is also an option which allows you to view all of the XIP codes contained within one city area. This is presented in a form of a list and is useful to delivery companies.

So, if your are having trouble finding an address, you know to use online ZIP code lookups.

ZIP Code Download's Distance Wizard

Are you looking to calculate the distance between two points?  Anywhere?

ZIP Code Download's Distance Wizard provides functionality for calculating the distance between two points on Earth's surface. Combined with a database of ZIP code/postal code coordinates, The distance wizard can help perform many practical tasks, such as locating nearby storefronts or presenting geo-targeted ads to visitors.

Standard Edition is faster than competitors' products and easy to use.Professional Edition boasts ultra-high performance and is bundled with smart boundary technology to greatly enhance the speed of your database queries.

For example, to find all the postal codes in North America (US, Canada, Mexico) within 10 miles of 58271 (Pembina, North Dakota, USA, located a few miles from the Canadian border), your application would query over a million rows of data and process several calculations for each row to find maybe a dozen postal codes that are within 10 miles.

The Professional Edition calculates smart boundaries and exponentially reduces the number of rows involved from millions to just dozens, making it dramatically faster. View the complete examples to see how it works with some sample data.

These tools comprise a small code library of two main parts:

1. Distance Wizard - to calculate the distance between two coordinates.
2. Boundary Wizard - to find geolocational boundaries of a certain radius from a coordinate of origin.(Professional Edition only)

The ZIP Code Download Distance Wizard can be utilized in 16 different languages and platforms including:

• ASP
• C
• C#
• C++
• ColdFusion
• Java
• MS SQL 2000 (or later)
• MySQL 5 (or later)
• Oracle 9 (or later)
• Perl
• PHP
• Python
• Ruby
• VB.NET
• Visual Basic 6
• VBA (Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel)

This documentation explains how to use the language of your choice to work with the API. It also includes usable sample source code.

There is a language filter at the top to display content for your specific platform.