With the help of the geocoder web service available at worldkit, worldinpictures.org now understands UK postcodes.
The geocoder only gives accuracy down to the first part of the postcode but I allow searches on full ("SW1A 0AA") or partial codes ("SW1A").
Unfortunately the geocoder doesn't give results for all postcodes - "N1" for example doesn't get resolved. Not sure if this is due to the worldkit web service or the source data it uses (which comes from jibble.org).
Still this makes searching within the UK that bit easier - at least until the google geocoder supports it...
22 August 2006
worldinpictures gets UK postcodes
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3 comments:
Turns out the N1 postcode problem was down to a bug in the worldkit web service which has been promptly fixed so the two letter postcodes now work too. Thanks to Mikel at worldkit.
Comment from Barry Hunter:
Interesting looking little site ;)
If it helps I have a geocoder here:
http://www.nearby.org.uk/api/convert-help.php
this works to sector level postcodes, (which are missing the last two letters), which are are about accurate to about 2km, so might be more accurate. You can also download the CSV of said postcodes to do the geocoding locally.
Also possibly of interest is that using it would allow you to accept GB or Irish Grid References or even IARU Locator's and UTM (converting to lat/long) ;)
I still want to expand its use so can understand placenames (at least in the UK), but havent had the time yet, until/if the Google one will support the UK.
Thanks Barry, that's a very comprehensive site you've got there. More accurate postcode searches would be good so I may well have a look at your web service for this.
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